ADVERTISEMENT. THE taste for elegant Typography, which was first excited in England by the classical publications of BASKERVILLE, and revived by Messrs. BOYDELLS' splendid edition of SHAKESPEARE, has since diffused itself very generally over the Island. As an elegant species of luxury, Fine Printing may plead the same title to indulgence, which is seldom refused to other modes of harmless enjoyment. But it may carry its claims still farther; for, the care with which it has been lately cultivated, by attracting a greater degree of attention to the art, has rendered printing more accurate, as well as more beautiful; and has secured to Posterity editions of the best English Writers, not inferior in correctness to the most celebrated of the Greek and Roman Classics. The late Dr. BEATTIE has been long and justly esteemed one of the most pleasing Poets in the English language. It occurred to the Editors, that no edition of his Poetical Works had hitherto been executed in a style of elegance suited to their intrinsic merits, or to the high reputation which they had acquired with every reader of taste and sensibility; and, while they conceived that a new edition, more worthy of the Author, would be an acceptable present to the Public, they gladly availed themselves of the opportunity which such a publication would afford them, of exhibiting the high degree of perfection which the Art of Printing had attained in Scotland. The execution of the following Work, it is hoped, will be found to unite accuracy and elegance in such a degree, as perhaps to bear a comparison with the first productions of the London Press. Should its reception be such as the Editors are led to anticipate from the taste and liberality of their Countrymen, they will be encouraged to bring forward editions of the British Poets, equal, in point of typographical accuracy, to that which is now respectfully submitted to them, and, they trust, yet superior in elegance of execution. EDINBURGH, May 1, 1804. |