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PRE

A

FA C E.

To the RIGHT REVEREND

. Dr. BURNET, Bishop of Sarum's

INTRODUCTION, &c.

HIS way of publishing introductions to books that are, God knows when, to come out, is either wholly new, or fo long unpractifed, that my fmall reading cannot trace it. However, we are to fuppofe, that a perfon of his lordship's great age and experience would hardly act such a piece of fingularity without fome extraordinary motives. I cannot but obferve, that his fellow labourer, the author of the paper cal'ed [t] The Englishman, seems, in fome of his late performances, to have almost tranfcribed the notions of the bifhop: thefe notions I take to have been dictated by the fame masters, leaving to each writer that peculiar manner of expreffing himself, which the poverty of our language forceth me to call their style. When the Guardian changed his title, and profeffed to engage in faction I was fure the word was given; that grand preparations were making against next feffion; that all advantages would be taken of the little diffenfions reported to be among those in power; and that the [t] Mr. Stelle.

Guardian

Guardian would foon be feconded by fome other piquers from the fame camp. But I will confefs my fufpicions did not carry me fo far as to conjecture, that this venerable champion would be in fuch a mighty hafte to come into the field, and ferve in the quality of an enfant [u] perdu armed only with a pocket-piftol, before his great blunderbufs could be got ready, his old rusty breaft-plate scoured, and his cracked head-piece mended."

I was debating with myfelf, whether this hint of producing a fmall pamphlet, to give notice of a large folio, was not borrowed from the ceremonial in Spanish romances, where a dwarf is fent out upon the battlements to fignify to all paffengers what a mighty giant there is in the castle; or whether the bishop copied this proceeding from the fanfaronnade [w] of monfieur Bouffleurs, when the earl of Portland and that general had an interview. Several men were appointed, at certain periods, to ride in great hafte towards the English camp, and cry out, Monfeigneur vient, Monseigneur vient [x]: then fmall parties advanced with the fame fpeed, and the fame cry; and this foppery held for many hours, until the marefchal himself arrived. So here the bishop (as we find by his dedication to Mr. Churchill the bookfeller) hath, for a long time,

[u] Enfant perdu, one of the forlorn hope; the forlorn hope is a number of men felected for any defperate enterprize, or appointed for the firft onfet in a battle.

[w] Fanfaronnade, vain oftentation.

[x] My lord is coming, my lord is coming.

fent

fent warning of his arrival by advertisements in gazettes; and now his introduction advanceth to tell us again, Monfeigneur vient: in the mean time we muft gape, and wait, and gaze, the lord knows how long, and keep our spirits in fome reasonable agitation, until his lordship's real felf fhall think fit to appear in the habit of a folio.

I have feen the fame fort of management at a puppet-show. Some puppets of little or no confe¬ quence appeared feveral times at a window to allure the boys and the rabble; the trumpeter founded often, and the door-keeper cried an hundred times, until he was hoarfe, that they were just going to begin; yet after all we were forced fometimes to wait an hour before punch himself in perfon made his entry.

But why this ceremony among old acquaintance? The world and he have long known one another: let him appoint his hour, and make his visit, without troubling us all day with a fucceffion of meffages from his lacquies and pages.

With fubmiffion, thefe little arts of getting off an edition do ill become any author above the fize of Marten the furgeon. My lord tells us, that many thousands of the two former parts of his history are in the kingdom; and now he perpetually advertifeth in the gazette, that he intends to publish the third. This is exactly in the method and ftyle of Marten: the feventh edition (many thousands of the former editions having been fold off in a small time) of Mr. Marten's book concerning fecret difeafes, &c.

Doth

Doth his lordship intend to publifh his great vo lume by fubfcription, and is this introduction only by way of fpecimen? I was inclined to think fo, becaufe in the prefixed letter to Mr. Churchill, which introduces this imroduction, there are fome dubious expreffions; he fays, the advertisements he published were in order to move people to furnish him with materials, which might help him to finish his work with great advantage. If he means half-a-guinea upon the subscription, and the other half at the delivery, why doth he not tell us fo in plain terms ?

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I am wondering how it came to pafs, that this diminutive letter to Mr. Churchill should understand the business of introducing better than the introduction itself; or why the bifhop did not take it into his head to fend the former into the world fome months before the latter, which would have been yet a greater improvement upon the folemnity of the proceffion?

Since I write thefe laft lines, I have perufed the whole pamphlet (which I had only dipt in before) and found I have been hunting upon a wrong fcent; for the author hath, in feveral parts of his piece, discovered the true motives, which put him upon fending it abroad at this juncture. I fhall therefore confider them as they come in my way.

My lord begins his introduction with an account of the reasons, why he was guilty of fo many miftakes in the first volume of his history of the refor mation: his excuses are just, rational, and extremely confiftent. He fays, he wrote in hafte, which he con

3

firms

firms by adding, that it lay a year after he wrote it before it was put into the prefs. At the fame time, he mentions a paffage extremely to the honour of that pious and excellent prelate, archbishop Sancroft, which demonftrates his grace to have been a perfon of great fagacity, and almoft a prophet. Doctor Burnet, then a private divine, defired admittance to the Cotton library, but was prevented [y] by the archbishop, who told Sir John Cotton, that the said doctor was no friend to the prerogative of the crown, or to the conftitution of the kingdom. This judgment was the more extraordinary, because the doctor had not long before published a book in Scotland with his name prefixed, which carries the

[y] It is fomewhat remarkable to fee the progress of this story. In the first edition of this introduction it should feem, "he was PRE

VENTED by the archbishop," &c. When the introduction was reprinted a year after with the bistory, it stands: “A GREAT PRELATE "had been before-hand, and poffeffed him (Sir John Cotton) against "me-That unless the archbishop of Canterbury would recommend

me-he defired to be excufed-The bishop of Worcester could "not prevail on the archbishop to INTERPOSE." This is fome"what less than PREVENTING; unless the archbishop be meant by the GREAT PRELATE; which is not very probable, 1. Because, in the preface to this very 3d volume, p. 4. he says, “It was by "archbishop Sancroft's order he had the free use of every thing

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that lay in the Lambeth library." 2. Because the author of Speculum Sarisburianum, p. 6. tells us, “His access to the library "was owing SOLELY to the recommendation of archbishop Sancroft, "as I have been informed (fays the author) by fome of the family." 3. Because bishop Burnet, in his Hiftory of his own times, vol. i. p. 396, fays it was "DOLBEN, bishop of Rochester, [at the inftiga *tion of the duke of Lauderdale,] that diverted Sir John Cotton "from suffering him to search his library.”

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