To the Reader.
ſold at ſuch a high rate) I thought I could doe them no better ſervice then to preſent them with ſuch a treatiſe of that ſubject, which ſhould contain in it the choiſeſt preparations of the ſelecteſt Authors both ancient, and which I have attained by my own long, and manuall experience, together with ſuch as I have by way of exchange purchaſed out of the hands of private men, which they had monopolized as great ſecrets. But on the other hand when I conſidered what a multitude of Artiſts there are in this Nation, from many of which more and better things might be expected then from my ſelf, I was at a nonplus in my reſolutions, fearing it might be accounted an unpardonable preſumption in me to undertake that which might be better performed by others. But for the avoiding of this aſperſion, be pleaſed to underſtand that I preſent not this to the world under any other notion then of a rough draught (which indeed is the worke of the more unskillfull, and therefore of my ſelfe, without exception) to be poliſhed by the
