XXll PREFACE. 



dut the whole work, for which an authentic proof 

 could be produced, but is backed with such tes- 

 timony ; which, though it may make the relation 

 appear something more tedious, yet it will help 

 considerably to take off the prejudice that men 

 commonly have against works of this kind, from 

 tlie supposition, that the writers of them are too 

 iautli biassed, either by affection or gratitude, 

 or both, and thereby tempted to amplify things 

 beyond their due measure and extent, in order 

 to make the person they would describe, appear 

 in the greatest form and figure, and most ad- 

 vantageous light that is possible. When an in- 

 timate friend or near relation takes such a work 

 in hand, although he knows, (as Bishop Burnet 

 observes, in his preface to his Life of Bishop 

 Bedell), that lives 7nust be written with the stiict- 

 ness of a severe historian, and 7iot helped up with 

 rhetoric and invention, which will incline men to 

 suspect his partiality, and make them look upon him 

 as an author, rather than a writer ; yet he may 

 find it a difficult matter to prevent his over- 

 straining some points, or tincturing others with 

 the colours in which they appear to his own eye ; 



