Permit me to dedicate to you these primitiae or first fruits of the eloquence of a commonwealth which your fostering hand has happily conducted from childhood to maturity.

These debates afford a pleasing prospect that Pennsylvania will, in process of time, behold her senate adorned with orators not inferior, perhaps, to those boasts of antiquity—Demosthenes, Isocrates, Cicero, &c. &c.

Your celebrity as a philosopher—a statesman—and (a higher title than either) a citizen of the world, would receive no addition from the most elaborate eulogium I could write. I shall forbear, therefore, to tread the beaten track of dedicators; and shall rest content with uniting my sincere wishes with those of your admiring and grateful countrymen, that every felicity which heaven bestows upon the most favoured of the human race, may await you while you abide in this terrestrial habitation—and that your memory may be revered and cherished by the friends of science—of liberty—and benevolence, till time shall cease to be. I am, sir, with due esteem, Your most obedient humble servant,