juſtify'd for publiſhing ſuch falſhoods, tho' I did it in the graveſt and moſt ſolemn ſtile.
In a work of this nature, it is very hard to pleaſe any, and impoſſible to pleaſe all. The different tempers and taſtes of men cannot reliſh the ſame ſtile or manner of writing, any more than the ſame diſh or the ſame deverſion: Fops love Romances; Pedants love jargon; the ſplenatick man delights in ſatire; and the gay Courtier in panegyrick; ſome are pleas'd with Poetry; others with Proſe; ſome are for plain truths, and ſome for diſguiſe and diſſimulation.
I was aware of this, when I began, and, in my ſecond paper, reſerv'd to my ſelf a liberty to be in what humour I pleas'd, and to vary my manner as well as my ſubject, hoping thereby to pleaſe moſt ſorts of readers; but I quickly found my ſelf diſappointed in my expectation, having often receiv'd, by the ſame poſt, complaints from ſome of my correſpondents, that I was too grave for the character of Terræ-Filius; and from others, that I affected levity too much for one, who ſil'd himſelf a Reformer.
In anſwer to both theſe objections, I ſhall only beg of my readers to conſider, that as, on one had, it ought not to be expected that a man ſhould keep his face upon the broad grin for half a year together; ſo, on the other, I cannot apprehend that it is at all neceſſary for a Reformer to be a Puritan, always in the
