PREFATORY NOTE. THE translations in this volume are chiefly my own; but I have also taken expressions and sentences freely from others and especially from Dr M'Crie, in his translation of the 'Provincial Letters'—when they seemed to convey well the sense of the original. It would be impossible to distinguish in all cases between what is my own and what I have borrowed. The Provincial Letters' have been translated at least four times into English. The translation of Dr M'Crie, published in 1846, is the most spirited. The Pensées' were translated by the Rev. Edward Craig, A.M. Oxon., in 1825, following the French edition of 1819, which again followed that of Bossut in 1779. A new translation, both of the Letters' and Pensées,' by George Pearce, Esq. -the latter after the restored text of M. Faugèreappeared in 1849 and 1850. J. T. |