Page:The rape of the lock.djvu/9

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EPISTLE.

tance. Theſe Machines I determin'd to raiſe on a very new and odd Foundation, the Roʃicrucian Doctrine of Spirits.


I know how diſagreeable it is to make uſe of hard Words before a Lady; but 'tis ſo much the Concern of a Poet to have his Works underſtood, and particularly by your Sex, that You muſt give me leave to explain two or three difficult Terms.


The Roʃicrucians are a People I muſt bring You acquainted with. The beſt Account I know of them is in a French Book call'd Le Comte de Gabalis, which both in its Title and Size is ſo like a Novel, that many of the Fair Sex have read it for one by Miſtake. According

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