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A DISCOURSE, &c.
For T. H. Esquire[1], at his Chambers in the Academy of the Beaux Esprits in New-England.
Sir,
IT is now a good while, since I have had in my head something, not only very material, but absolutely necessary to my healthy, that the world should be informed in: for, to tell you a secret, I am able to contain it no longer. However I have been perplexed for some time to resolve, what would be the most proper form to send it abroad in. To which end, I have been three days coursing through Westminster-hall, and St. Paul's Church-yard, and Fleet-street, to peruse titles; and I do not find any, which holds so general a vogue, as that of a letter to a friend: nothing is more common than to meet with long epistles, addressed to persons and places, where, at first thinking, one would be apt
- ↑ Supposed to be Col. Hunter, author of the Letter of Enthusiasm, mentioned in the apology for the Tale of a Tub.
This discourse is not altogether equal to the former, the best parts of it being omitted; whether the bookseller's account be true, that he durst not print the rest, I know not; nor, indeed, is it easy to determine, whether he may be relied on, in any thing he says of this, or the former treatises, only as to the time they were writ in; which, however, appears more from the discourses themselves, than his relation.
