Front matter
Reading edition
COLLECTED FROM GOOD AUTHORITIES,
By JOHN ROBISON, A. M.
PROFESSOR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, AND SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.
Nam tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet.
The THIRD EDITION.
To which is added a Postscript.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED FOR T. DOBSON, No. 41, SOUTH SECOND STREET, AND W. COBBET, No. 25, NORTH SECOND STREET. 1798.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM WYNDHAM, SECRETARY AT WAR, &c. &c. &c.
S I R,
It was with great satisfaction that I learned from a Friend that you coincided with me in the opinion, that the information contained in this Performance would make a useful impression on the minds of my Countrymen.
I have presumed to inscribe it with your Name, that I may publicly express the pleasure which I felt, when I found that neither a separation for thirty years, nor the pressure of the most important business, had effaced your kind remembrance of a College Acquaintance, or abated that obliging and polite attention with which you favoured me in those early days of life.
The friendship of the accomplished and the worthy is the highest honour; and to him who is cut off, by want of health, from almost every other enjoyment, it is an inestimable blessing. Accept, therefore, I pray, of my grateful acknowledgments, and of my earnest wishes for your Health, Prosperity, and increasing Honour.
With sentiments of the greatest Esteem and Respect,
I am, SIR,
Your most obedient,
and most humble Servant,
JOHN ROBISON.
Edinburgh, September 5, 1797.
Quod si quis verâ vitam ratione gubernet, Divitiæ grandes homini sunt, vivere parcè Æquo animo: neque enim est unquam penuria parvi. At claros se homines voluêrunt atque potentes, Ut fundamento stabili fortuna maneret, Et placidam possent opulenti degere vitam: Nequicquam,—quoniam ad summum succedere honorem Certantes, iter infestum fecêre viaï, Et tamen è summo quasi fulmen dejicit ictos Invidia interdum contemptim in Tartara tetra. Ergo, Regibus occisis, subversa jacebat Pristina majestas soliorum, et sceptra superba; Et capitis summi præclarum insigne, cruentum, Sub pedibus volgi magnum lugebat honorum: Nam cupidè conculcatur nimis ante metutum. Res itaque ad summam fæcem, turbasque redibat, Imperium sibi cum ac summatum quisque petebat.
Lucretius, V. 1116.