I was, I confeſs, ſomewhat aſtoniſhed, when I firſt heard of your Prohibition, it being an honour which I little expected at your hands; for I concluded that you would not condeſcend to rank ſo mean a performance as mine amongſt thoſe noble and ſhining volumes, which have experienced the ſame and worſe ſeverity from your learned Predeceſſors; it would be needleſs to recollect inſtances of this in former ages, or to put you in mind of thoſe glorious doctrines of Liberty, which were, together with their authors, delivered over to Satan by your famous Decree.
But I cannot help obſerving to you, that Books of another kind have ſometimes found no better reception at Oxford; particularly the late famous Antony Wood's Athenæ, and the preſent laborious Mr. Hearne's edition of Camden's Elizabeth; the former of which (though it was profeſſedly written in honour of the Univerſity, which it will always effectually preſerve; yet) was ſuppreſſed or condemned for relating, in an impartial manner, ſome hiſtorical facts concerning the great Earl of Clarendon; and the latter was proſecuted (for it could not be prohibited, all the copies being ſubſcribed for) under pretence that the preface contained ſome-
