 your
Opinion, had it been given in Favour of any other Man's Production. Negatively,
at least, I may be allowed to say, that had I been sensible of any great Demerit
in the Work, you are the last Person to whose Protection I would have ventured
to recommend it.
    From the Name of my Patron, indeed, I hope my Reader will be convinced, at
his very Entrance on this Work, that he will find in the whole Course of it
nothing prejudicial to the Cause of Religion and Virtue; nothing inconsistent
with the strictest Rules of Decency, nor which can offend even the chastest Eye
in the Perusal. On the contrary, I declare, that to recommend Goodness and
Innocence hath been my sincere Endeavour in this History. This honest Purpose
you have been pleased to think I have attained: And to say the Truth, it is
likeliest to be attained in Books of this Kind; for an Example is a Kind of
Picture, in which Virtue becomes as it were an Object of Sight, and strikes us
with an Idea of that Loveliness, which Plato asserts there is in her naked
Charms.
    Besides displaying that Beauty of Virtue which may attract the Admiration of
Mankind, I have attempted to engage a stronger Motive to Human Action in her
Favour, by convincing Men, that their true Interest directs them to a Pursuit of
her. For this Purpose I have shewn, that no Acquisitions of Guilt can compensate
the Loss of that solid inward Comfort of Mind, which is the sure Companion of
Innocence and Virtue; nor can in the least balance the Evil of that Horror and
Anxiety which, in their Room, Guilt introduces into our Bosoms. And again, that
as these Acquisitions are in themselves generally worthless, so are the Means to
attain them not only base and infamous, but at best incertain, and always full
of Danger. Lastly, I have endeavoured strongly to inculcate, that Virtue and
Innocence can scarce ever be injured but by Indiscretion; and that it is this
alone which often betrays them into the Snares that Deceit and Villainy spread
for them. A Moral which I have the more industriously laboured, as the teaching
it is, of all others, the likeliest to be attended with Success; since, I
believe, it is much easier to make good Men wise, than to make bad Men good.
    For these Purposes I have employed all the Wit and Humour of which I am
Master in the following History; wherein I have endeavoured to laugh Mankind out
of their favourite Follies and Vices. How far I have succeeded in this good
Attempt, I shall
