Page:The Last Days of Pompeii - Bulwer-Lytton - Volume 1.djvu/9



Dear Sir,

In publishing a work, of which Pompeii furnishes the subject, I can think of no one to whom it can so fitly be dedicated as yourself. Your charming volumes upon the Antiquities of that City have indissolubly connected your name with its earlier—(as your residence in the vicinity has identified you with its more recent)—associations.

I trust that these pages will find you in better health than when we parted at Naples ; and that, whatever example your friends may derive from your philosophy, will be drawn from an industry in intellectual acquisitions, never to be wearied, rather than from a patience under suffering, never to be excelled.

Ere you receive these volumes, I hope to be deep in the perusal of your forthcoming work upon "the Topography of Rome and its Vicinity."