ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following letters were committed to the press, exactly in their native simplicity. This, perhaps, has occasioned a few repetitions, and a recital of particulars, which may appear uninteresting to some readers. The author, however, on Submitting them to public view, did not chufe to malce any alteration in their drefs; this would have too much the appearance of art; and letters to a friend, such as these, should discover none. They are the effusions of a heart warmed with sentiments of affecion. The taste of readers is various; and what appears minute and trifling to many, is to others, at least, a matter of entertainment. The author's design in going abroad, was to improve his History of Vandalia, by investigating things at the fountain-head. This has induced him carefully to study the various scenes of life, and the humours and characters of men, from the prince to the cotager; agreeably to the words of a very ingenious female traveller *, Pour connoitre au vrai les moeurs des pais, nous examinons les cabanes. If we view things in a philosophic light, are not the occupations of the farmer, the gardener, and the artificer, as instructive and interesting a subject, as plays, operas, and other fashionable entertainments? These the author, however, has not omitted, when they came in his way, merely in compliance with the prevailing taste. A traveller generally makes himself the hero of his piece, by reciting his hardships and sufferings, ?? ???? ????? ???????: the author has followed the example of his predecessors; and if this has sometimes rendered him too personal, he humbly hopes for the reader's indulgence. Though no poet, he is an admirer of the Muses, and has been naturally led to intersperse these Letters with feveral passages from our best writers, which helped to sooth some toilsome scenes, and perhaps, will contribute to enliven the narration. This is all he thinks proper to mention by way of apologysss, the necessity of any farther preface is superseded by the beginning of the first letter.

P. S. Since the author's departure from Strelitz, he has received the melancholy news, that Madam de Dewitz and Mademoiselle de Rauchbar are no more. The latter was ripe for her dissolution; but the incomparable Madam de Dewitz was snatched away in the bloom of youth, to the inexpressible grief of all who had the happiness of knowing her. Among the rest the author pays his sincere tribute of tears to her revered and much lamented manes.

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*) Madam de Boccage.