ΤΟ JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM, SCHOOLMASTER, AND PARISH CLERK OF GANDERCLEUGH. MOST INGENIOUS SIR, FROM your having an nounced, that Tales of my Landlord' are at an end, I have been inclined to look with an eye of suspicion on the thirty or forty very particular friends to whom I confided, (with a caution to profound secrecy,) the meditated appearance of Nice Distinctions.' Candor compels me to acknowledge the vi prudence of your retirement, (doubtless induced by the recollection that two suns cannot shine in the same hemisphere,) and a generosity, for which I am somewhat celebrated, prompts me to assure you, that so much do I desire to encourage modest merit, and rescue genius from obscurity, that, should you intimate a wish once more to irradiate the literary world, and repair your golden flood,' I will submit even to a polar night and retreat; contented that, like Castor and Pollux, we shall enjoy elevation by turns. A strict adherence to this promise may, I hope, convince you of the fraternal sentiments with which you are regarded, make manifest |