author and publisher were both in earneſt. I therefore took it into my hands with all the expectation, and read it through with all the attention due to a treatiſe that made such a noise at its coming abroad, and cannot but confess my ſelf mightily ſurpriſed, that in a book, which was to provide chains for all mankind, I ſhould find nothing but a rope of ſand, uſeful perhaps to ſuch, whole ſkill and buſineſs it is to raiſe a duſt, and would blind the people, the better to miſlead them; but in truth not of any force to draw thoſe into bondage, who have their eyes open, and ſo much ſenſe about them, as to conſider, that chains are but an ill wearing, how much care ſoever hath been taken to file and poliſh them.
§. 2. If any one think I take too much liberty in ſpeaking ſo freely of a man, who is the great champion of abſolute power, and the idol of thoſe who worſhip it; I beſeech him to make this ſmall allowance for once, to one, who, even after the reading of Sir Robert's book, cannot but think himſelf, as the laws allow him, a freeman: and I know no fault it is to do ſo, unleſs any one better ſkilled in the fate of it, than I, ſould have it revealed to him, that this treatiſe, which has lain dormant ſo long, was, when it appeared in the world, to carry, by ſtrength of its arguments, all liberty out of it; and that
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