Excerpt from Essays of Elia and Eliana, Vol. 1 I am, I believe, nearly the only man now surviving Who knew much of the excellent Elia. Assuredly I knew him more intimately than any other existing person, during the last seventeen or eighteen years of his life. In this predicament, and because I am proud to associate my name with his, I shall endeavour to recall former times, and to bring my old friend before the eyes of a new generation. I request the courteous reader to accept, for what they are worth, these desultory labours of a lover of letters; and I hope that the advocate for modern times Will try to admit into the circle of his sympathy my recollections of a fine Genius departed. 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.