_Actuated by the finest feelings of gratitude, I embrace with peculiar
pleasure this opportunity of acknowledging and making, in some degree,
public, my many obligations to you, who, with parental care, directed
the gradual unfoldings of my mind through the morning of youth, and
kindly afforded those means of improvement, calculated to raise
industry to eminence, and crown it with success._
_Should this first effort evince an advancement in the knowledge of
the profession to which I devote my life. Accept its dedication as a
tribute of grateful respect, from_
_Your much obliged_,