DEDICATION TO THE PUBLIC
DEDICATION TO THE PUBLIC
Your candor is desired on the perusal of the following sheets, as
they are the product of a genius that has long been your delight
and entertainment. It must be acknowledged that a lamp almost
burnt out does not give so steady and uniform a light as when it
blazes in its full vigor; but yet it is well known that by its
wavering, as if struggling against its own dissolution, it
sometimes darts a ray as bright as ever. In like manner, a
strong and lively genius will, in its last struggles, sometimes
mount aloft, and throw forth the most striking marks of its
original luster.
Wherever these are to be found, do you, the genuine patrons of
extraordinary capacities, be as liberal in your applauses of him
who is now no more as you were of him whilst he was yet amongst
you. And, on the other hand, if in this little work there should
appear any traces of a weakened and decayed life, let your own
imaginations place before your eyes a true picture in that of a
hand trembling in almost its latest hour, of a body emaciated
with pains, yet struggling for your entertainment; and let this
affecting picture open each tender heart, and call forth a
melting tear, to blot out whatever failings may be found in a
work begun in pain, and finished almost at the same period with
life. It was thought proper by the friends of the deceased that
this little piece should come into your hands as it came from the
hands of the author, it being judged that you would be better
pleased to have an opportunity of observing the faintest traces
of a genius you have long admired, than have it patched by a
different hand, by which means the marks of its true author might
have been effaced. That the success of the last written, though
first published, volume of the author's posthumous pieces may be
attended with some convenience to those innocents he hath left
behind, will no doubt be a motive to encourage its circulation
through the kingdom, which will engage every future genius to
exert itself for your pleasure. The principles and spirit which
breathe in every line of the small fragment begun in answer to
Lord Bolingbroke will unquestionably be a sufficient apology for
its publication, although vital strength was wanting to finish a
work so happily begun and so well designed. PREFACE THERE would
not, perhaps, be a more pleasant or profitable study, among those
which have their principal end in amusement, than that of travels
or voyages, if they were wrote as they might be and ought to be,
with a joint view to the entertainment and information of
mankind. If the conversation of travelers be so eagerly sought
after as it is, we may believe their books will be still more
agreeable company, as they will in general be more instructive
and more entertaining. But when I say the conversation of
travelers is usually so welcome, I must be understood to mean
that only of such as have had good sense enough to apply their
peregrinations to a proper use, so as to acquire from them a real
and valuable knowledge of men and things, both which are best
known by comparison. If the customs and manners of men were
everywhere the same, there would be no office so dull as that of
a traveler, for the difference of hills, valleys, rivers, in
short, the various views of which we may see the face of the