PR R E F A C E. THE following Effay's have already appeated at different times, and in different publications. The pamphlets in which they were inferted being generally unfuccefsful, thefe fhared the common fate, without affifting the bookfeller's aims, or extending the writer's reputation, The public was too ftrenuously employed with their own follies, to be affiduous in eftimating mine; fo that many of my best attempts in this way, have fallen victims to the tranfient topics of the times, the Ghost in Cock-lane, or the fiege of Ticonderago. But though they have paffed pretty filently in the world, I can by no means complain of their circulation. The magazines and papers of the day have, indeed, been liberal enough in this refpect. Most of thefe Effays have been regularly reprinted two or three times a year, and conveyed to the public through the channel of fome engaging compilation. If there be a pride in multiplied editions, I have seen fome of my labours fixteen times reprinted, and claimed by different parents as their own. I have feen them flourished at the beginning with praise, and figned at the end with the names of Philantos, Phi lalethes, Philaleutheros, and Philanthropos. The gentlemen have kindly ftood sponsors to my productions, and, to flatter me more, have always passed them as their own. It 7 PREFACE. vii It is time, however, at last, to vindicate my claims; and as thefe entertainers of the public, as they call themselves, have partly lived upon me for fome years, let me now try if I cannot live a little upon myself. I would defire, in this cafe, to imitate that fat man whom I have fomewhere heard of in a fhipwreck, who, when the failors, preft by famine, were taking flices from his pofteriors to fatisfy their hunger, infifted with great justice on having the first cut for himself. Yet, after all, I cannot be angry with any who take it into their heads to think that whatever I write is worth reprinting, particularly when I confider how great a majority will think it fcarce worth reading. Trifling and fuperficial, are terms of reproach that are eafily objected, and that carry an air of penetration in the observer. Thefe faults have been objected to the following Effays; and it must be owned, in fome meafure, that the charge is true. However, I could have made them more metaphyfical, had I thought fit; but I would ask, whether, in a fhort essay, it is not neceffary to be fuperficial? Before we have prepared to enter into the depths of a fubject, in the ufual forms, we have got to the bottom of our fcanty page, and thus lofe the honours of a victory by too tedious a preparation for the combat. There is another fault in this collection of trifles, which I fear will not be so easily pardoned. It will be alledged, that the humour of them (if any be found) is ftale and hackneyed. This may be true enough, as matters now ftand; but 1 may with great fert, that the humour was new when I wrote it. truth af Since |