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Johnson was liberal enough in granting literary assistance to others, I think; and innumerable are the Prefaces, Sermons, Lectures, and Dedications which he used to make for people who begged of him.

He told me, a great many years ago, 'he believed he had dedicated to all the Royal Family round; and it was indifferent to him what was the subject of the work dedicated, provided it were innocent. He once dedicated some Musick for the German Flute to Edward, Duke of York. In writing Dedications for others, he considered himself as by no means speaking his own sentiments.

It is a common Notion, that gathers as it goes, and is almost become a vulgar Error, That Dedications in our Age, are only the effects of Flattery, a form of Complement, and no more; so that the Great, to whom they are only due, decline those Noble Patronages that were so generally allow'd the Ancient Poets; since the Awful Custom has been so scandaliz'd by mistaken Addresses, and many a worthy piece is lost for want of some Honourable Protection, and sometimes many indifferent ones traverse the World with that advantagious Pasport only.

Nobody in the world is free but he who feels himself to be a prisoner of Christ. The greatest champion of freedom in human history called himself: "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." As every hair on our head and every line on the palm of our hand has a certain significance, so these dedications of the Church have doubtless certain significance.

That evening, and the day that followed, were more delightful than Ivan had dared hope. The new works were gone over, and praise, with thanks for the dedications, given with a sincerity that was unmistakable.

"Good-by," said she, sweetly; and thank you kindly for your company. "Triplet, madam James Triplet, of 10, Hercules Buildings, Lambeth. Occasional verses, odes, epithalamia, elegies, dedications, squibs, impromptus and hymns executed with spirit, punctuality and secrecy. Portraits painted, and instruction in declamation, sacred, profane and dramatic. "Madam,

I destroyed it four years ago. Reading the dedications of poets cured me of the love for poetry. What a pity that the Divine Inspiration should have for its oracles such mean souls!" "Yes, and how industrious the good gentlemen are in debasing themselves!

He had been for a long time shedding complimentary verses, sonnets, dedications, about him after the manner of the time, serving out to everybody who was kind to him a little immortality in the shape of classic thanks or compliment: but in Bordeaux he began to produce works of more apparent importance, "four tragedies" intended primarily for the use of his college, where it was the custom to represent yearly a play, generally of an allegorical character one of the fantastical miracle plays which delighted the time, and which were often as profane in reality as they were religious in pretence.

This has the original title, with the real date, 1665, but without a printer's or publisher's name-from which it may be inferred that no one dared to patronize the labours of the poor prisoner-a circumstance tending to make the book more prized by the lovers of Christian liberty. The four dedications are singular, and truly Bunyanish.

A passage is cited from Bruno's high-flown panegyric on Henry III. as "a specimen of the language he was prepared to employ towards the great when there was anything to be got from them." Either this writer is ineffably ignorant, or his impudence is astounding. In the first place, that was an age of high-flown dedications.