APPENDIX. "The necessity of complying with the times, and of sparing persons, is the great impediment of biography." This just observation of Dr. Samuel Johnson applies with double force to the biographer, whose materials consist of letters-for infinite are the considerations due to the dead, as well as the living, who have delivered their opinions under the seal of confidence or of familiarity. Both in the selection of the letters of Dr. Parr and of his correspondents, I hope I have adhered to delicacy as strictly as truth; and the usefulness of making history speak by example would permit. In the compilation of the Memoirs prefixed o the Works now published, I have carefully selected such only of the Correspondence as threw a particular light on the passing subjects. Sometimes these documents have been freely granted, and sometimes I have been forbidden to use what was in my own possession; having generally endeavoured to obtain the consent of the writer before I printed any one letter. The only exceptions I have made to this rule, are those cases in which there had been a previous attack, or those where Dr. Parr's own letters to his correspondents |