TO 



SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 



DEAR SIB 



I CAN have no expectations, in an address of this kind, either to add to your reputation, or to establish my own. You can 

 gain nothing from my admiration, as I am ignorant of that art in which you are said to excel ; and I may lose much by tne 

 severity of your judgment, as few have a juster taste in poetry than you. Setting interest therefore aside, to which I never 

 paid much attention, I must be indulged at present in following my affections. The only dedication I ever made was to my 

 brother, because I loved him better than most other men. He is since dead. Permit me to inscribe this poem to you. 



How far you may be pleased with the versification and mere mechanical parts of this attempt, I do not pretend to inquire ; 

 but I know you will object (and indeed several of our best and wisest friends concur in the opinion) that the depopulation it 

 deplores is no where to be seen, and the disorders it laments are only to be found in the poet's own imagination. To this 

 I can scarce make any other answer, than that I sincerely believe what I have written ; that I have taken all possible pains, 

 in my country excursions, for these four or five years past, to be certain of what I allege, and that all my views and inquiries 

 have led me to believe those miseries real which I here attempt to display. But this is not the place to enter into an in- 

 quiry, whether the country be depopulating, or not ; the discussion would take up much room ; and I should prove myself, 

 at best, an indifferent politician, to tire the reader with a long preface, when I want his unfatigued attention to a long poem. 



In regretting the depopulation of the country, I inveigh against the increase of our luxuries ; and here also 1 expect the 

 shout of modern politicians against me. For twenty or thirty years past, it has been the fashion to consider luxury as one 

 of the greatest national advantages ; and all the wisdom of antiquity in that particular as erroneous. Still, however, I must 

 remain a professed ancient on that head, and continue to think those luxuries prejudicial to states, by which so many vices 

 are introduced, and so many kingdoms have been undone. Indeed, so much has been poured out of late on the other side of 

 the question, that, merely for the sake of novelty and variety, one would sometimes wish to be in the right. 



I am, dear sir, 



your sincere friend, 



and ardent admirer, 



OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 



