Trajan (e-book) (used book) | Henry F Keenan | bookbook.eu

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Excerpt from Trajan: The History of a Sentimental Young Man, With Some Episodes in the Comedy of Many Lives Errors; A Novel
In the works of the Queen Anne writers, whom you adore, and whose convivial humanities you have done so much to rescue from forgetfulness, - the dedicatory epistle was not the least of the author's thought. 'Twas meant as the quintessence of the odor and color of the garden - kindly incense of amity and admiration, hinting to the world the originals of the virtues embalmed in the text. If I hint this identification in your case, with whatever may be found admirable in these pages, your own modesty may resent it, but your friends will applaud the indiscretion of embalming some of the traits which endear you to men of gentle mind. While I cannot hope to equal the exquisite wit of the works you have so felicitously commented, I can at least emulate their authors, in the hearty loyalty with which I dedicate this first fruit of literary leisure to you. I have long looked forward to the time when some work of my head and heart should bear your name on the frontispage. It is an amiable vanity, which I hope you will take in good part, and though the pundits you revere put more wit in the ingratiating epigraphs to their patrons, none subscribed their tribute with more hearty affection and admiration than is implied in this long cherished homage of the friend of your youth.