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THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR

JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL,

MAY, JUNE.

MDCCCX.

Efte procul lites, et amaræ prælia linguæ.

OVID

VOLUME XXXV.

London:

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON,
No. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD.

1810.

Printed by Law and Gilbert, St. Jolui's Square, Clerkenwel

же

АР 4

·B861

PREFACE.

TURNING OVW then was an amufement fuited URNING over the well-known pages of our friend Izaak Walton, to the feafon, while a brother of the quill was gone to realize his precepts on a neighbouring river, we could not but be ftruck with an analogy, if not a refemblance, between our critical occupation and that of the patient angler. Perpetually watching the great ftream of literature, we fometimes bring to land a noble fish, which affords us excellent fport, and supplies a pleafing narrative for our friends; while the fmaller fry, which for ever play at the furface, and feem to court the hook, are packed together in our bafket; and if they prove not fit to make a feparate difh, are employed as garnish for their nobler brethren; or, when they appear entirely worthlefs, are thrown to the cats and dogs, which continually fpit and growl beneath the Critic's table. Our Preface is a felect feast, made only from the nobler captures; a courfe of luxuries, to which we now once more invite our readers to fit down. Let us hope that our work may always prove, if not "a reft after tedious ftudy," as Sir H. Wotton faid of angling, yet a study not in itself tedious; and in general, according to the remainder of that character, "a chearer of fpirits, a diverter of fadnefs, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of [evil] paffions, and a procurer of contentednefs*."

*See Iz. Walton. Hawkins's Edit. 1775, P. 43.

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