Philadelphia.
[This work first appeared in 1750, and in its brief title is comprised
all that is known--all that the curiosity of an inquisitive age can
discover--of the history of the work, and name and lineage of the
author. It is entitled _The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a
Cornish Man_. Taken from his own Mouth, in his Passage to England, from
off Cape Horn in America, in the ship Hector. By R. S., a passenger in
the Hector; Lond. 1750, 2 vols. The dedication is signed R. P. "To
suppose the unknown author," remarks a writer in the _Retrospective
Review_, vol. vii. p. 121., "to have been insensible to, or careless
about, the fair fame to which a work, original in its conception, and
almost unique in purity, did justly entitle him, is to suppose him to
have been exempt from the influence of that universal feeling, which is
ever deepest in the noblest bosoms; the ardent desire of being long
remembered after death--of shining bright in the eyes of their
cotemporaries, and, when their sun is set, of leaving behind a train of
glory in the heavens, for posterity to contemplate with love and
veneration."]
_The Barmecides' Feast._--Can you tell me where the story of the Barmecides
and their famed banquets is to be found?