PREFACE. Xllt 



said to him by others on the like occasions. But 

 these things seem rather to have sHpped acci- 

 dentally into his diary, than to have been de- 

 signed for any particular use ; for, they occur 

 but seldom, and w^hen they do, it is hard to say 

 for what reasons. 



Thus it is compounded of as great a variety 

 of materials as that of the different sorts of bu- 

 siness or actions in which he was engaged ; and 

 they lie intermixed and blended together in all 

 that irregularity and seeming incoherence, which 

 must be expected in an account of things, in 

 dependent of each other, and yet immediately 

 succeeding each other in order of time. 



From this general description of it, it is ob- 

 vious to collect what was his intention in be- 

 ginning and continuing it. One thing, at least, 

 is manifest, that it was solely calculated for his 

 own private and particular use : and, therefore, 

 in selecting passages from thence in subserviency 

 to another design, and that of a public nature 

 too, some care and discretion was to be used. 



To readers no ways interested in the subject, 

 and absolute strangers both to him and his affairs, 



