Excerpt from Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, of Books and Men: Collected From the Conversation of Mr. Pope, and Other Eminent Persons of His Time It may be proper to state that this re-impression of Spence's Anecdotes has been printed verbatim from my former edition, without the slightest alteration. I embrace this opportunity of supplying a deficiency in the preface, which ought to have mentioned the source from which these Anecdotes were derived. On the decease of Spence the whole of his papers passed into the hands of Dr. Lowth (afterwards Bishop of London), one of his executors, by whom, at a period long subsequent, they were given to a gentleman of the name of Forster, who held some confidential post under the Bishop. At Mr. Forster's death they became the property of his nephew, from whom Mr. William Carpenter obtained them, and placed them in my hands with a view to this publication. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.