ON DEATH. BY WILLIAM DODD, L.L. D. PREBENDARY OF BRECON. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the HEB. ix. 27. THE ELEVENTH EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, By T. Miller, 5, Noble-street, Cheapside. 1815. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF BUTE, FIRST LORD OF HIS MAJESTY'S TREASURY, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, &c. &c. &c. MY LORD, WHATEVER may be the execution of the little performance which I have the honour to present to your lordship, it will derive some merit, I am persuaded, in your lordship's sight, from the good meaning wherewith it was written, from its suitableness to my profession, and from the importance of its subject. Perhaps too, its author's undissembled respect for your lordship may give it some additional value; for true respect, we are assured, can give value to the smallest offerings from the hands of the poorest.. But, indeed, I did not know to whom I could, with greater propriety, inscribe a work of this nature, than to a nobleman whose regular life, and punctual discharge of all the social duties, must render Reflections on Death not unpleasing; whose regard to works of literature hath always been eminent and consistent; and who, though continually employed in affairs of the highest moment, hath testified that regard by the most favourable attention to men of science and learning. From hence, my lord, we are encouraged to promise the fairest days to good letters and good manners:―They cannot but flourish under your discerning eye, and the fostering patronage of our beloved MONARCH; in whose unsullied virtues, while his people felicitate themselves, no grateful man can be insensible of the honour which redounds to the illustrious person who had so considerable a share in forming the royal mind to virtue; and inspiring it with those great, just, and patriot sentiments, which have obtained to our sovereign, from his subjects, that most honourable of all appellations,-the Good. Happy in your PRINCE's favour, my lord, and happy in the consciousness of your own mtegrity, you will go on to deserve and to obtain the esteem and affection of all men of science, of virtue, and religion. So will your name be placed high in that temple of true glory, where the whispers of malevolence, and the clamours of faction, shall never be heard: where envy, the unfailing shadow of merit, shall never be permitted to enter; and where-when that melancholy hour is come, which no might nor greatness in mortality can delay-that hour in which you, my lord, shall be lost to your friends, to your country, to your king, your monument shall proclaim the glorious truth, that "You were a "principal instrument in putting an end to a war, uncommonly wide and extensive; and "of restoring peace to an exhausted and de"populated world." I am, my lord, with the most respectful acknowledgments for this indulgence, your lordship's most obliged and devoted humble servant, West Ham, Jan. 1, 1763. WILLIAM DODD. |