GEORGE GROTE, ESQ.
M.P. FOR THE CITY OF LONDON.
Dear Grote,
I dedicate to you this edition of the Works of Hobbes; first, because I know you will be well pleased to see a complete collection of all the writings of an Author for whom you have so high an admiration. Secondly, because I am indebted to you for my first acquaintance with the speculations of one of the greatest and most original thinkers in the English language, whose works, I have often heard you regret, were so scarce, and so much less read and studied than they deserved to be. It now, therefore, gives me great satisfaction to be able to gratify a wish, you have frequently expressed, that some person, who had time and due reverence for that illustrious man, would undertake to edite his works, and bring his views again before his countrymen, who have so long and so unjustly neglected him. And likewise, I am desirous, in some way, to express the sincere regard and respect that I feel for you, and the gratitude that I owe you for the valuable instruction, that I have obtained from your society, and from the friendship with which you have honoured me, during the many years we have been companions in political life.
Yours, truly,
William Molesworth.
February 25th, 1839.
79, Eaton Square, London.