[from Jefferys A Descriptive Account of the Isle of Man, 1808]

DEDICATION TO THE KING.

SIR,

THIS humble attempt to describe the natural beauties of an Island, notinferior in picturesque scenery to anyspot of an equal extent in your Majesty's British dominions, and to afford a view of the society, manners, and customs of its inhabitants, I presume to lay before your Majesty, from a firm belief that no class of people, who have the happiness to b, your subjects, exhibit in their live. more forcibly, that well-regulate conduct, the result of genuine piety and morality (so conspicuous in every period of your Majesty's wellspent life) than the native inhabitants of the Isle of Man.

To the honor of the Isle of Man, its biography forbids me to assert, that in the practice of every moral virtue, your Majesty's exemplary conduct has never been equalled; but it is no flattery, Sir, to say, that it has never, in the life of any Monarch, been exceeded.

To your Majesty's Manks subjects, the mention of just praise due to such an illustrious example, will, I am confident, ever be considered as an acceptable service; and the dedication to your Majesty of this little record of their chime to the esteem of the world, will, I hope, be viewed with that factorable indulgence, with which your Majesty has ever been accustomed to regard the conduct of your subjects, when actuated by an honest zeal.

The natives of the Isle of Man have, in every period of their history, afforded ample proof of a firm and steady loyalty to their Sovereigns-And the grateful attachment to your Majesty, which they unanimously acknowledge for the advantages enjoyed under your paternal Government, cannot be expressed in terms more in unison with their feelings, than in the words of our immortal bard:

All Our senice

(In every point twice done, and then done double)
Were poor and single business to contend
Against the favors deep and broad, wherewith
Your Majesty loads our Isle,
The name and dignity of a King

your Majesty holds but in common with the long line of ancestors who have preceded you, to be resigned in your turn, when, in the course of Nature and the order of Providence, it shall be so ordained; and your Majesty, through the course of your life, happily influenced by the consideration of so important a truth, has laid your claim to the love of your subjects, and the esteem of posterity, in that which is the basis of all lasting reputation, MORAL WORTH.

Great rank and splendor may sparkle for a time in the public eye. The world looks up to them with wonder, as to an extraordinary comet or blazing meteor. Distinguished virtue and worth, in whatever rank they may be found, create less astonishment, but, like the fixed luminaries of Heaven, they shine with a more steady and permanent lustre.

I have the honor to be,

SIR,

Your Majesty's most obedient, most humble servant, and subject,

NATHANIEL JEFFERYS.