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THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY,
TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
PRINCE POSTERITY.[1]
Sir,
I HERE present your highness with the fruits of a very few leisure hours, stolen from the short intervals of a world of business, and of an employment quite alien from such amusements as this: the poor production of that refuse of time, which has lain heavy upon my hands, during a long prorogation of parliament, a great dearth of foreign news, and a tedious fit of rainy weather: for which, and other reasons, it cannot choose extremely to deserve such a patronage as that of your highness, whose numberless virtues, in so few years, make the world look upon you as the future example to all princes: for al-
- ↑ THE citation out of Irenæus in the title-page, which seems to be all Gibberish, is a form of initiation used anciently by the Marcosian heretics. W. Wotton.
IT is the usual style of decried writers to appeal to Posterity, who is here represented as a prince in his nonage, and Time as his governor; and the author begins in a way very frequent with him, by personating other writers, who sometimes offer such reasons and excuses for publishing their works, as they ought chiefly to conceal and be ashamed of.
Vol. II
E
though
