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
