It is true as a mere Publiſher, (which I only ſet up for) it may ſeem too arrogant, to rank my ſelf with ſuch illuſtrious Company; but if it is conſider'd, that without my generous Benevolence to Mankind, theſe mighty Treaſures and Diſcoveries I beſtow on them, had never ſeen the Light, and that I have here convey'd to them the great Secrets of Futurity, in ſo plain and open a manner, that this Age may ſay, (tho' contrary to the receiv'd Axiom of the Schools) de futuro contingenti eſt quoad nos determinata veritas, I hope, I ſhall not appear too aſſuming. Nay, I have yet the merit of infinite Toil to plead, ſince I can fairly aver, that the tranſlating this Work, from the Engliſh it was writ in, (viz. the Engliſh that will be ſpoke in the XXth Century) was a task ſo painful and difficult, that no unenlighten'd Mind could have perform'd, and which even I my ſelf had miſcarried in, without the ſuperior aſſiſtance that my good Angel afforded me.
A Task ſo laborious! that beſides this being the ſecond Time of my Writing to the Publick,[1] which according to Cardinal Be-
- ↑ See my Works, three Volumes in Quarto, Printed for Mr. Lintot, 1720. N. B. There are ſome ſets in Royal Paper for the Curious.
rule's
