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II altered for the worse without taste and critical judgment. I submit them to the decision of able critics; and should think myself highly rewarded for many a laborious and toilsome hour, if by this new edition the unrivalled masterpiece of the British Bard should be more universally spread and acknowledged amongst my countrymen; and the favourite of the Muses, the inimitable painter of Nature be more studied in the original.

Murdoch's life of the author, and Aikins excellent Essay on the plan and character of the poem will I hope, meet with a favourable reception, they never having been printed in Germany. Notwithstanding my unremitted assiduity and strict accuracy a few errors of the press may have crept in, which, I flatter myself, the Reader will kindly excuse.

The Editor.

AN