D E D I C A T I 0 N. 
Englifh' Settlements, NEWENGLAND , 
of which his Father the Honourable John 
Winthrop, Efq; the Elder, was the firft Go- 
vernor. 
The Fatigues of this great Undertaking 
took up too much of his Time, to allow 
him all that Leifure that was wifh’d for by 
his learned Friends in Europe , for his pub- 
lilhing many curious Pieces which they 
had Reafon to expert from him. His 
diftant Abode from London , and his not 
putting his Name to his Writings, made him 
not fo univerfally known as the Boyle' s, the 
Wilkins' s, or the Oldenburg s of his Days,, 
nor his Name handed down to us with fuch 
general Applaufe. In Concert with thefe and 
other learned Friends, (as he often revilited 
England) he was one of thofe, who firft 
form’d the Plan of the Royal Society ; and 
had not the Civil Wars happily ended as 
they did, Mr. Boyle * and Dr. Wilkins , with 
feveral other learned Men, would have left Eng- 
land , and, out of Efteem for the moft excel- 
* As may apfear in Letters from Mr> Boyle/ Dr. 
Sir K. D.gby, <yV. to Winthrop. 
Wilkies, 
lent 
