ON

LITERATURE,

TASTE,

AND

COMPOSITION,

ADDRESSED TO HIS SON,

BY GEORGE GREGORY, D. D.

LATE VICAR OF WEST-HAM, DOMESTIC CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF, &c. &c. &c,

PHILADELPHIA:

PRINTED FOR BRADFORD AND INSKEEP; INSKEEP AND BRADFORD, NEW-YORK; AND HASTINGS, ETHERIDGE, AND BLISS, BOSTON.

2

PREFACE.

THE following Work is presented to the public as the last literary composition which its well known Author lived to complete; and it contains the result of various observations, made by a vigorous and cultivated mind, upon different subjects of taste and literature. It was concluded a very short time previous to his decease; it assisted in cheering and engaging his mind, in soothing the languor of declining health, and in recalling the delightful remembrance of former associates, and of a long course of intellectual pursuits. To his friends these circumstances will render the Work additionally valuable. They will, from the natural and best feelings of the human heart, cherish the relic which reminds them of those hours of social conversation when subjects of literature were discussed; when they were illuminated by his scientific and enlightened mind, or exhilarated by his innocent and undissembled cheerfulness. The public, we trust, will receive the work as the last performance of an author whom they have long approved, of one whose life was uniformly devoted to their, and his own, best interests: those of science, and literature; of religion, and virtue.