EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 29 



forth those Argos and Trojan horses, about this 

 happy island, we are to fear nothing from without 

 . it ; and whilst we remain obedient to your just com- 

 mands, nothing from within it. 



It is now some years past, that your Majesty was 

 pleased to declare your favourable acceptance of a 

 Treatise of Architecture, which I then presented to 

 you, with many gracious expressions, and that it 

 was a most useful piece. Sir, that encouragement 

 (together with the success of the book itself, and of 

 the former editions of this) has animated me still to 

 continue my oblation to your Majesty of these im- 

 provements : nor was it certainly without some pro- 

 vident conduct, that we have been thus solicitous to 

 begin, as it were, with materials for building, and 

 Directions to Builders, if due reflection be made 

 on that deplorable calamity, the conflagration of 

 your imperial city ; which, nevertheless by the bless- 

 ing of God, and your Majesty's gracious influence, 

 we have seen rise again a new and much more glo- 

 rious Phoenix. 



E 



