WHILE I ask your protection for these essays, I cannot deny having myself some esteem for them. Yet permit me to say, that did I not trust to your candour and sensibility, and hope they will plead for the error your judgment must discover, I should never have availed myself of the liberty I have obtained that of dedicating these simple effusions to the greatest modern Master of that charming talent, in which I can never be more than a distant copyist.