( a ) 
miliar letters, it were unjuft, and perhaps 
improper, to require. The variety of fub- 
jecls on which I have indulged my fpecula- 
tions, may make the volume appear a maze, 
but, I truft, not without a plan ; a plan of 
which no judgement can be formed from 
the few pages contained in this volume. 
The fubjects are frequently varied, on pur- 
pofe to relieve the attention, and to avoid 
the formality of a fyftematic treatife. 
I have prefumed, in fome parts of thefe 
epiftles, to cenfure the prefent fyfrem of 
education in both Univerfitiesj but I have 
alfo acknowledged them, in their prefent 
ftatc of imperfection, equal to the produc*- 
tion of very learned men : neverthelefs, the 
entire fyflem is too obvioufly Gothic to ef- 
cape the ridicule of ftrangers, who vifit Ox- 
ford and Cambridge with the idea, that the 
Ecclefa Anglicana is a reformed Church, and 
that thefe formal feminaries are appropriat- 
ed to the education of nobility, of gentle- 
men, ftatefmen, lawyers, phyficians, and 
divines. 
In the botanical letters, I may be accufed 
of pedantry in too frequently larding the 
lean earth with Latin quotations 5 but the 
reader muft not forget the age and recent 
ftudies 
