IV PREFACE. 



I have been impelled by two of the moft pow- 

 erful incentives in nature. 



Thus much being premifed, the Reader will 

 not expect to find, in my book, that orna- 

 mented and polilhed ftyle, fo much the delight 

 and rage of the prefent period, a copious and 

 entertaining range of imagination, or the ca- 

 riofajelicitas of ex predion ; fuch are the pleaf- 

 ing attributes of happier writers: he. will no 

 doubt reft content, provided he meets with the 

 true and the ufeful only ; in which, I prefume 

 to flatter myfelf, he will not be totally difap- 

 pointed. However it may turn out, he may 

 be afTured, that what I have fet before him, 

 is the beft, in all refpects, in my power to 

 provide, under the aliedged circumftances. 



There will be found, in the courfe of the 

 work, certain allufions, and indeed open pro- 

 feftlons, which may, perhaps, be held by many 

 of too free a nature, or extraneous to the fub- 

 je£i ; but let it be good-naturedly remembered, 

 that minds of a certain caft are not at all times 

 in their own government ; that it is a little hard 

 that truth mould require an apology ; that an 

 eflential to the propagation of it, is to leave 



writers 



