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BR 45

.W 34 1791

MIJC

TO THE

QUE E N.

MADAM,

No original work of mine could poffibly have been

so deserving of Your Majesty's attention, as this Collection of other men's labours undoubtedly is. Our Infancy is indebted to that Sex of which Your Majesty is the highest Ornament, for the first principles of Religious Education; and as one of the main objects of VOL. I.

a

this

this publication is-the preferving Youth from Infidelity-I cannot do the Public a greater fervice than by requesting Your Majefty to give it your protection.

The interefts of civil Society require that we should pay deference to perfons of Rank, even though they happen not to be perfons of Merit. But this is a limited and conftrained deference; it is paid with reluctance; and is both in kind and extent wholly unlike that which all good Citizens are ambitious of fhewing to Your Majefty. My character has hitherto, I trust, never been esteemed that of a Flatterer; nor do I fear the imputation of it, in faying, That to Your Majesty's Rank alone I would not have given even this mark, worthless as it may feem, of my Veneration and Refpect.

I verily believe Your Majefty to be one of the best Wives, and one of the best Mothers, in England. The Time is approaching,-diftant may it be! when the recollection of the example which You have fhewn to Women of every Rank, in these great points of female Duty (the greatest on which Women of the highest Rank ought to build their worth of character), will give Your Majefty far more comfort than I can poffibly defcribe; but not more than I, in conjunction with

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Thousands in every part of the Kingdom, heartily wish and pray Your Majesty may at all times, and especially at that time, enjoy.

I am,

MADAM,

With the greatest and most fincere Respect,

Your MAJESTY's

Moft obedient Servant,

RICHARD LANDAFF.

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CONTENTS

FIRST VOL U M E.

This Book deferves to be generally known; it has been for fome
Years out of Print, and much fought after by the Clergy: I thought I
fhould do them an acceptable Service in making it a part of this Col-
lection.

Thefe two Volumes were published in French, the First in London,
and the Second at Amfterdam, much about the fame Time that they
made their Appearance in English. They were fpoken of with Refpect
in the Acta Eruditorum for 1688; were tranflated into German at Nu-
renberg in 1702: and have been always held in great Repute for the
Plainnefs and Erudition with which they are written. The Author was
a French Refugee of diftinguished Learning and Integrity; the Reader
will meet with a good Account of his Life and Writings in the Biogra
phia Britannica.

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