Letters of affaires love and courtship. Written to several persons of honour and quality; / by the exquisite pen of Monsieur de Voiture, a member of the famous French Academy established at Paris by Cardinall de Richelieu. English'd by J.D.

TO THE Worthily Honoured GEORGE BOSWELL Esquire.

SIR,

WEre I to make this Addresse to a person unacquainted with my Authour, and the Work I now publish, it were, haply, pardonable in me, to give it and him, the greatest Elogies a piece and person of so much worth might justly claime. Nor were it hard to imagine, what I might, did

I make it my businesse, say of one of the most eminent members of the FRECNH ACADEMY (an Asso∣ciation of VVits, such as no age till this ever saw) a man so rarified by Tra∣vell and experience into the noblest heights of an elaborate Eloquence, and one so versed in Criticisme, that hee could raise beauty and lustre out of the ruines and rubbish of the m••st ancient Authours. But, Sir, since my application is to you, whose correspondence with Learning is so universall, the trouble is spar'd, and if there be any thing remarkable by way of account of him, it is but fit it were done (pro more) in another place. Nor is there, in this, any more neces∣sity, I should (though I might easily take the occasion) celebrate this kinde of wri∣ting as the most advantageous of any. It is in a manner the Cement of all

society, the foundation and superstru∣cture of all Friendship and conversa∣tion, the remedy of absence, the In∣telligentiall part of all Loves, which which layes the plots and carries on the designes of united hearts at the grea∣test distance; in a word, it is the ge∣nerall Agent of all inclinations and passions, and what, out of the rough∣nesse of Barbarisme, hath raised man to the highest Gentilesses, court∣ships, and civilities. My designe therefore is, not to make, but, renew your acquaintance with the exquisite de VOITƲRE, yet farre from a pre∣sumption, that your entertainment of him in this language will be proportio∣nable to your esteem of him in his owne. But, if I may measure it by the infi∣nite affection, and consequently, the generall indulgence and patronage you have for all Learning, that you will af∣ford

it such as it may in some sort de∣serve, is, I must confesse, a confidence I know not how to avoid, but presses so much upon me, that it contributes not a little to that it is in me, thus pub∣lickly, though with t••e greatest submis∣sions and respects, to expresse my self,

SIR,

Your most humble
Servant,
J. DAVIES.