PREFACE 



(TO THE FIRST EDITION). 



"DISHOP BURNET'S narrative of the remarkable 

 passages in the life of the very celebrated Earl 

 of Rochester has been greatly valued, not only as an. 

 elegant composition, but as a lesson of instruction! 

 to all mankind. The latter of these honours, to a 

 certain extent, I may venture to claim as the result, 

 of this sketch ; at all events, such is, in part, its- 

 design ; and as no subject is so interesting to man as- 

 man, I have a good theme for my pen, inasmuch as. 

 there is one present to my mind whose equal, as a. 

 private English gentleman, the world never before 

 saw ; neither is it, for some reasons, desirable the; 

 world should ever again see. My only fear is, that 

 I may be deficient in strength of pencil to draw the 

 picture to the life, and to represent the anomaly in 

 human nature which the character of John Myttoii 

 presents — at one time, an honour to his nature ; at 

 another, a satire on humanity. What more car> 

 be done than to strike the balance with an even 



