
                                 Henry Fielding

                     The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

 To the Honourable George Lyttleton, Esq; One of the Lords Commissioners of the
                                    Treasury

Sir,
    Notwithstanding your constant Refusal, when I have asked Leave to prefix
your Name to this Dedication, I must still insist on my Right to desire your
Protection of this Work.
    To you, Sir, it is owing that this History was ever begun. It was by your
Desire that I first thought of such a Composition. So many Years have since
past, that you may have, perhaps, forgotten this Circumstance: But your Desires
are to me in the Nature of Commands; and the Impression of them is never to be
erased from my Memory.
    Again, Sir, without your Assistance this History had never been completed.
Be not startled at the Assertion. I do not intend to draw on you the Suspicion
of being a Romance Writer. I mean no more than that I partly owe to you my
Existence during great Part of the Time which I have employed in composing it:
another Matter which it may be necessary to remind you of; since there are
certain Actions of which you are apt to be extremely forgetful; but of these I
hope I shall always have a better Memory than yourself.
    Lastly, it is owing to you that the History appears what it now is. If there
be in this Work, as some have been pleased to say, a stronger Picture of a truly
benevolent Mind than is to be found in any other, who that knows you, and a
particular Acquaintance of yours, will doubt whence that Benevolence hath been
copied? The World will not, I believe, make me the Compliment of thinking I took
it from myself. I care not: This they shall own, that the two Persons from whom
I have taken it, that is to say, two of the best and worthiest Men in the World,
are strongly and zealously my Friends. I might be contented with this, and yet
my Vanity will add a third to the Number; and him one of the greatest and
noblest, not only in his Rank, but in every public and private Virtue. But here
whilst my Gratitude for the princely Benefactions of the Duke of Bedford bursts
from my Heart, you must forgive my reminding you, that it was you who first
recommended me to the Notice of my Benefactor.
    And what are your Objections to the Allowance of the Honour which I have
sollicited? Why, you have commended the Book so warmly, that you should be
ashamed of reading your Name before the Dedication. Indeed, Sir, if the
