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round and perplex the writers of the prefent day, from which their 

 predeceffors were, in great meafure, exempt. The intercoufe of fo- 

 ciety is not, perhaps, as free, as eafy, and as general, as in former 

 times ; the difcriminating fpace and interval between the different 

 ranks is much widened ; not by over-weening pride, but by ex- 

 ceffive luxury, and a non-eledive, an unaflbciating, and unaflb- 

 ciable difference of manners. There may exift alfo fome caufes, 

 peculiar to the times, which it is not necefTary to particularize 

 here, but which reprefs and narrow the converfation of man with 

 man. The circulation of ideas, by writing and printing, has of 

 late been confiderably cramped, and confined, by laws impofing 

 reltraints on the freedom of the prefs, and by the great advance 

 which has taken place in the price of books and paper ; not to 

 fpeak of a foolifh and defpicable luxury, which demands in every 

 new publication fuch a voluminous and expenfive pomp of typo- 

 graphical decoration, as precludes the middle clafs of readers, from 

 their perufal. Thus, the communication of fentim.ents is abridged, 

 and the means, and facilities, are retrenched, by which the khow- 

 ledge of mankind is difFufed, and the different ranks and orders of 

 fociety are enabled, to contemplate each other, as they really are. 

 It is eafy to conceive, what difadvantages muif redound from 

 hence, to writers, whofe fubjed matter fhould lead them, to de- 

 lineate the nice features of charader, to anatomize the human 

 heart, and reprefent the thoughts and adions of men. It is natu- 

 ral, that, perceiving all the impediments in their way, they fliould 



K 2 abandon 



