The PREFACE.
nary, and by consequence ought to give no Body Offence.
The Description of the Battel is grounded upon a Feud that happen'd in the Dispensary, betwixt a Member of the College with his Retinue, and some of the Servants that attended there to dispense the Medicines; and is so far real: tho' the Poetical Relation be fictitious. I hope no Body will think the Author too undecently reflecting thro' the whole, who being too liable to Faults himself, ought to be less severe upon the Miscarriages of others.
There is a Character in this trivial Performance, which the Town, I find, applies to a particular Person: 'Tis a Reflection which I shou'd be sorry shou'd give Offence; being no more than what may be said of any Physician remarkable for much Practice. The killing of numbers of Patients is so trite a piece of Raillery, that it ought not to make the least Impression either upon the Reader, or the Person 'tis apply'd to; being one that I think in my Conscience a very able Physician, as well as a Gentleman of extraordinary Learning. If I am hard upon any one, 'tis my Reader: But some Worthy Gentlemen, as remarkable for their Humanity as their Extraordi-
