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ADVERTISEMENT. 



Th E reader is fufficiently apprifed, by 

 the title-page, of the general nature of the 

 prefent publication. The pieces of which it 

 is made up are chiefly the produ6tion of cele- 

 brated pens abroad. It was undertaken in the 

 idea that it would prove an acceptable method 

 of putting the public in poffeffion of the ft ate 

 and progrefs of literature on the continent ; 

 of which fo much of late years has been fa id ; 

 and at the fame time furniih our countrymen 

 with an agreeable literary collection of a fupe- 

 rior order. \ 



The advantages accruing from this mode of 

 diffe in mating knowledge, by rendering it more 

 familiar and amufing. have been often dift 

 played. All perfons cannot afford fufficient 

 leifure for perilling with profit elaborate trea- 

 ties and fcientific difquifitions. They require 

 too great a ftretch of attention for men of 

 pleafure or bufinefs, and appear under too for- 

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