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INTRODUCTION

To the REA de r.

N the Reign of Queen ANNE (which, notwith

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ftanding thofe happy Times which fucceeded,

every Englishman may remember) thou may'st poffibly, gentle Reader, have feen a certain venerable Person who frequented the outfide of the Palace of St. James's, and who, by the Gravity of his Deportment and Habit, was generally taken for a decay'd Gentleman of Spain. His ftature was tall, his visage long, his complexion olive, his brows were black and even, his eyes hollow yet piercing, his nofe inclined to aquiline, his beard neglected and mix'd with grey: All this contributed to spread a folemn Melancholy over his countenance. Pythagoras was not more filent, Pyrrho more motionless, nor Zeno more auftere. His Wig was as black and smooth as the plumes of a Raven, and hung as ftrait as the hair of a River God rifing from the water. His cloak fo compleatly covered his whole perfon, that whether or no he had any other cloaths (much less any linnen) under it, I fhall not fay; but his fword appeared a full yard

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behind him, and his manner of wearing it was fo ftiff, that it feemed grown to his Thigh. His whole figure was fo utterly unlike any thing of this world, that it was not natural for any man to ask him a queftion without bleffing himfelf firft. Thofe who never faw a fefuit, took him for one, and others believed him fome High Prieft of the Jervs.

But under this macerated form was conceal'd a Mind replete with Science, burning with a zeal of benefiting his fellow-creatures, and filled with am honeft confcious pride, mixt with a fcorn of doing, or fuffering the leaft thing beneath the dignity of a Philofopher. Acoordingly he had a foul that would not let him accept of any offers of Charity, at the fame time that his body seemed but too much to require it. His lodging was in a small chamber up four pair of stairs, where he regularly payed for what he had when he eat or drank; and he was often obferved wholly to abftain from both. He declined fpeaking to any one, except the Queen, or her first Minister, to whom he attempted to make fome applications; but his real bufinefs or intentions were utterly unknown to all men. Thus much is certain, that he was obnoxious to the Queen's Miniftry; who, either out of Jealoufy or Envy, had him spirited away, and carried abroad as a dangerous perfon, without any regard to the known Laws of the Kingdom.

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