and take a Glass, or any other Refreshment, as it pleases him. Nay, our
fine Readers will, perhaps, be scarce able to travel farther than through one of
them in a Day. As to those vacant Pages which are placed between our Books, they
are to be regarded as those Stages, where, in long Journeys, the Traveller stays
some time to repose himself, and consider of what he hath seen in the Parts he
hath already past through; a Consideration which I take the Liberty to recommend
a little to the Reader: for however swift his Capacity may be, I would not
advise him to travel through these Pages too fast: for if he doth, he may
probably miss the seeing some curious Productions of Nature which will be
observed by the slower and more accurate Reader. A Volume without any such
Places of Rest resembles the Opening of Wilds or Seas, which tires the Eye and
fatigues the Spirit when entered upon.
    Secondly, What are the Contents prefixed to every Chapter, but so many
Inscriptions over the Gates of Inns (to continue the same Metaphor,) informing
the Reader what Entertainment he is to expect, which if he likes not, he may
travel on to the next: for in Biography, as we are not tied down to an exact
Concatenation equally with other Historians; so a Chapter or two (for Instance
this I am now writing) may be often pass'd over without any Injury to the Whole.
And in these Inscriptions I have been as faithful as possible, not imitating the
celebrated Montagne, who promises you one thing and gives you another; nor some
Title-Page Authors, who promise a great deal, and produce nothing at all.
    There are, besides these more obvious Benefits, several others which our
Readers enjoy from this Art of dividing; tho' perhaps most of them too
mysterious to be presently understood, by any who are not initiated into the
Science of Authoring. To mention therefore but one which is most obvious, it
prevents spoiling the Beauty of a Book by turning down its Leaves, a Method
otherwise necessary to those Readers, who, (tho' they read with great
Improvement and Advantage) are apt, when they return to their Study, after half
an Hour's Absence, to forget where they left off.
    These Divisions have the Sanction of great Antiquity. Homer not only divided
his great Work into twenty-four Books, (in Compliment perhaps to the twenty-four
Letters to which he had very particular Obligations) but, according to the
Opinion of some very sagacious Critics, hawked them all