Preface.
The following Memoirs of this great man by ſome may be accounted trivial. imperfect they are own'd to be, & drawn up with a purpoſe only of aſsisting, toward a compleat life. The ſcituation I was then in, gave me no further opportunity of inquiry, than what I have here done. & by cooler minds it is thought not wholly unworthy of being communicated to the publick.
whoever writes a life, never fails to give what they can learn of the partys family, education, and the junior part of it. Such is chiefly the preſent work. but in that especially of so great a man, every reader burns with a deſire of knowing somewhat of the primordia, the preparation and preſages of his extraordinary abilitys; of the height to which he carryed; and the foundation on which he built, a new philosophy.
I ſucceeded so far as to gather theſe materials in the critical time when they were only to be had. the candid reader will accept of this testimony
