ccount of the shift in attitude see Edward Miles
Hooker, "Humour in the Age of Pope," _Huntington Library Quarterly_,
XL (1948), 361-385.

6. "A Prefatory Discourse concerning Theophrastus," in _The
Characters, Or The Manners of the Age_, II, xxii.

* * * * *

The
Moral Characters
of

THEOPHRASTUS.

Translated from
The Greek, with Notes.
To which is prefix'd

A
CRITICAL ESSAY
on
Characteristic-Writings.

By Henry Gally, M.A. Lecturer of
St. Paul's Covent-Garden, and
Rector of Wanden in Buckinghamshire.

Respicere exemplar vitae morumque jubebo
Doctum imitatorem, & vivas hinc ducere voces.
Hor. in Art. Poet.

LONDON:
Printed for John Hooke, at the _Flower-
de-luce_ over-against St. _Dunstan's_ Church in
_Fleet-street_. MDCCXXV.

* * * * *

THE

PREFACE.

The following Papers, which I now commit to the Public, have lain by
me unregarded these many Years. They were first undertaken at the
Request of a Person, who at present shall be nameless. Since that
Time I have been wholly diverted from Studies of this Nature, and
my Thoughts have been employed about Subjects of a much greater
Consequence, and more agreeable to my Profession: Insomuch, that I had
nothing in my Mind less than the Publication of these Papers; but some
Friends, who had perus'd them, were of Opinion, that they deserv'd to
be publish'd, and that they might afford an agreeable Entertainment
not without some Profit to the Reader. _These_ Motives prevailed upon
me to give _them_ a second Care, and to bestow upon them so much
Pains, as was necessary to put them in that State, in which they now
appear.

The first Piece that the Reader will meet with is, _A Critical
ESSAY on Characteristic-Writings_: It treats of the Origin of those
Writings: It points out the general Laws to be observ'd in such
Compositions, and it contains some Reflexions on _Theophrastus's_ and
Mr. _de la Bruyere's_ Performances in this Way. The Design of this at
least is, I think, new. Mr. _Fabricius_ mentions a [A]Book, which, by
its Title, shou'd bear some Relation to this