Discourse, to the profound Readers and Judges of these Times, who have the Glory and Advantage of being Witnesses to the birth of this admirable Production.
For, alas! People are so capricious, that as they often take good or ill Impressions of others at first sight, so they will frequently reject the most excellent Piece without looking into it, if the Preface be disagreeable to them. If therefore, I should stumble in the Threshold, and introduce this Work as injudiciously as Ovid is said to have done most of his, the consequences may be very untoward; and as I write this poor Prologue, without the least Assistance from that superior Nature, from whom I receiv'd the Volumes it ushers into the World, I am much perplext lest I should not appear equal to the task.
I will not say with the Spaniard, that I would willingly write it with the Quill of a Peacock, because it has Eyes in it, but I would rather express my Zeal and Concern for what I am here undertaking, in the words an Author, (who will appear before the Year 1739) paints the behaviour of a distress'd Suppliant in, that addresses to a severe and cruel Judge,
her
