696 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



making public my thanks for their 

 munificence. I will speak plainly 

 on this point; I do most heartily 

 wish they had flattered me with 

 some token, liowever small, of 

 which I might have said, 'this is 

 a tribute to my philanthropy,' 

 and delivered it down to my chil- 

 dren, as my beloved father did to 

 me his badge of favour from the 

 citizens of Dublin ; but not a word 

 from the lips, not a line did I ever 

 receive from the pen of any Jew, 

 though 1 iiave found myself in 

 company with many of their na- 

 tion ; and in this perhaps the 

 gentlemen are quite right, whilst 

 I had formed expectations that 

 were quite wrong; for if I have 

 said for them only what they de- 

 serve, why should I be thanked 

 for it ? But if I have said more, 

 much more, tiian they deserve, 

 can they do a wiser thing than 

 hold their tongues ? 



"I think it cannot be supposed 

 but that the composition of the 

 Observer must have been a work 

 of time and labour ; I trust there 

 is internal evidence of that, parti- 

 cularly in that portion of it which 

 professes to review the literary age 

 of Greece, and gives a history of 

 the Athenian stage. That series 

 of papers will, I hope, remain as 

 a monument of my industry in 

 collecting materials, and of my 

 correctness in disposing them ; 

 and when I lay to my heart the 

 consolation I derive from the ho- 

 nours now bestowed upon me at 

 the close of my career, by one 

 who is only in the first outset of 

 his, what have I not to augur for 

 myself, when he who starts with 

 such auspicious promise has been 

 pleased to take my fame in hand, 



and link it to his own ? If any o , 

 my readers are yet to seek for the 

 author to whom I allude, the Co- 

 micorum Grcecorum fragmenla 

 qiiccdam will lead them to his 

 name, and him to their respect. 



" If I cannot resist tiie gratifi- 

 cation of inserting the paragraph 

 (page?), which places my dim 

 lamp between those brilliant stars 

 of classic lustre, Richard Bentley 

 and Richard Person, am I to be 

 set down as a conceited vain old 

 man? Let it be so! I cannot help 

 it, and in truth I don't much care 

 about it. Though the following 

 extract may be the weakest thing 

 that Mr. Robert Walpole, of Tri- 

 nity College, Cambridge, ever has 

 written, or ever shall write, it will 

 outlive the strongest thing that 

 can be said against it, and I will 

 therefore arrest and incorporate it, 

 as follows : ' Aliunde quoque baud 

 exiguum ornamentum huic volu- 

 mini accepit, siquidem Cumber- 

 landius nostras amice benevol^que 

 permisit, ut versiones suas quo- 

 rundam fragmentorum, exquisitas 

 sane illas, miraque elegantia con- 

 ditas et commendatas hue trans- 

 ferrem.' " 



Forty numbers of the Observer 

 in an octavo volume, and printed 

 at Tunbridge Wells, were pub- 

 lished in London in 1785. This 

 collection being well received, 

 both by the public and the critics, 

 it was reprinted by Dilly, the suc- 

 ceeding year, in three volumes, 

 crown 8vo. with such numerous 

 additions as augmented the num- 

 bers to 93. In 1788, a fourth vo- 

 lume was given ; and in 1790, the 

 fifth and last. Of this arrange- 

 ment, in five volumes, a new im- 

 pression was published in 1791!, 



