exhale noxious Vapours and Poisons, which infect the Air, breeding Contagion and Diseases in those that breathe in it. But the Fault is not in the Showers of refreshing Rain, or in the wholesome Beams of the Sun, but in the Salt, and in the Filth and Corruption of the Places where they fall. And thus it shall be here; Words modestly expressed can give no immodest Ideas, where the Minds of those that read are chaste and uncorrupted. But if a vicious Mind hears the Vice reproved, and forms pleasing Ideas of the Crime, without taking notice of the just Reproof, the fault is in the Depravity of the Mind, not in the needful and just Reprover. I shall therefore take no notice of that Suggestion, as what I think does not deserve the least Regard, but go on to a just Censure of the Crime, in such a manner, as, I hope, shall neither lessen the Reproof, or expose the Reprover.
In order to this, I may indeed lie under some Restraints, be confined to a narrow Compass of Words, and the Story may want in some Places the Illustration of apposite Similies, useful Arguments, and, above all, of flagrant Examples, to set off and set home the Arguments that are made use of; and this, to the great Loss of the Author, in taking away those Ornaments of his Discourse; but where it cannot be otherwise the Reader must be content to abate it.
However, I pretend to say, you will not find it a dry, a dull, or a barren Subject, for all that; and though something may be lost, and much left out, to preserve the Rules of Modesty, which I could not reprove the Breaches of with Justice, if the Work was Criminal it self, yet I doubt not to find you Subject of Diversionenough,
