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FLOWERS OF LITERATURE;

CONSISTING OF

SELECTIONS

FROM

History, Biography, Poetry, and Romance;

JEUX D'ESPRIT,

TRADITIONARY RELICS, AND ESSAYS,

WITH

TRANSLATIONS FROM APPROVED AUTHORS.

SECOND EDITION,

REVISED AND CORRECTED FROM THE WORK OF THE LATE

WILLIAM OXBERRY, COMEDIAN.

"An Olio

Compiled from quarto and from folio;
From pamphlet, newspaper, and book.”

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, CHEAPSIDE.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

THOUGH the present edition of the Flowers of Literature retains, in the title-page, the name of the original editor, it varies considerably from the first edition, and may, indeed, almost be regarded as a new selection. The work has, in fact, been treated something in the manner of the notorious Sir John Cutler's stockings; but, it is hoped, with a very different result from that which took place with respect to the miser's hose. His stockings, as the reader doubtless remembers, were originally of silk; they were, however, so repeatedly mended with worsted, that they at length became wholly of that humble commodity. Now we, on the contrary, flatter ourselves that from Mr. Oxberry's roughly-woven web we have drawn out much that was of an exceedingly coarse and homely kind, and have replaced it by threads of a richer material, and of a finer texture. In plain English, we have excluded from these volumes many trivial or mean pieces, and have substituted in their place a variety of compositions in prose and verse, by the most

celebrated authors. Our wish has been to render the book worthy of being perused by persons of taste. How far we have succeeded, it becomes not us to decide. If the pleasure of the reader be increased by the change which we have made, we shall not think that we have laboured in vain.

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