Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/16

them, the Book must Stand or Fall to it self: But this I shall Adventure to Pronounce upon the whole Matter, that the Text is English, and the Morals, in some sort, Accommodate to the Allegory; which could hardly be said of All the Translations, or Reflexions before-mention’d, which have serv’d, in truth (or at least some of them) rather to teach us what we should Not do, then what we should. So that in the Publishing of these Papers, I have done my Best to Obviate a Common Inconvenience, or, to speak Plainly, the Mortal Error of pretending to Erect a Building upon a False Foundation: Leaving the whole World to take the same Freedom with Me, that I have done with Others: Provided that they do not Impute the Faults, and the Mis-Pointings of the Press, to the Author, and that they Consult the Errata for other Mistakes.