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With this detail, I am ſenſible, the publick has very little concern; nor is it obtruded on them from any idle vanity, but merely as a neceſſary introduction to the following pages.
The ſubject on which I am now to trouble you, has one very unpleaſing circumſtance attending it; that I cannot diſcuſs it without introducing myſelf as a principal figure on the canvas. It is, I truſt, unneceſſary to aſſure you, who have known me ſo long, that it is the laſt ſubject which I ſhould have choſen; it has, as you will ſee, been forced upon me. However, though from the nature of the diſquiſition it is impoſſible for me to keep where I wiſh to remain, in the back ground, I will promiſe not to detain you long from much more important and intereſting topicks.
Almoſt all the copies of my edition having been ſold, an anonymous writer, at the end of fifteen months, finding it a ſubject of ſufficient notoriety to procure ſome attention to an invective againſt it in the form of a pamphlet, has lately thought fit to iſſue one from the preſs, fraught with the uſual materials of hypercriticiſm; that is, duly furniſhed with unbluſhing cavil, falſe argument, and falſe quotation;
