I found this an inſuperable difficulty, ſince they manage with ſuch vile Art, as to keep all Proofs of that ſort from our Knowledge, ſo I knew no better method to vilify their meaſures, and ſerve his Majeſty and my Country, then ſhewing the World, that notwithſtanding the popular Cry of the Proſperity of our Affairs, there will, ſome Ages hence, be much greater and more ſucceſsful Miniſters than they are, and who, by the by, may then remember to their Poſterity, the little reſpect theſe Gentlemen pay one of their Anceſtors now, whom (out of that Modeſty ſo natural to all great Spirits) I ſhall not mention here.
Another reaſon, which, I muſt own, induced me to preſent the World with this Work, was, that the buſy inquiſitive Sages and Politicians of theſe times, may have ſome more Employment given to their reſtleſs Tempers. For as Charles II. by publickly ſetting up new Syſtems of Philoſophy, diverted his unmanageable Subjects from diſturbing the ancient Forms of Government, and by amuſing them with ſearching into the Revolutions of the Heavens, kept them from contriving new ones upon Earth; or (not to grudge the Reader another inſtance of equalforce)
