Royal Society.
_It will not become me, to adde any Attributes to a Title, which has a
Fulness of Lustre from his _Majesties_ Denomination._
_In these Rude Collections, which are onely the Gleanings of my _private_
diversions in broken hours, it may appear, that many Minds and Hands are in
many places industriously employed, under Your Countenance, and by Your
Example, in the pursuit of those Excellent Ends, which belong to Your
Heroical Undertakings._
_Some of these are but the Intimations of large Compilements. And some
Eminent Members of Your _Society_, have obliged the Learned World with
Incomparable _Volumes_, which are not herein mention'd, because they were
finisht, and in great Reputation abroad, before I entred upon this Taske.
And no small Number are at present engaged for those weighty Productions,
which require _both_ Time and Assistance, for their due Maturity. So that
no man can from these Glimpses of Light take any just Measure of Your
Performances, or of Your Prosecutions; but every man may perhaps receive
some benefit from these Parcels, which I guessed to be somewhat conformable
to Your Design._
_This is my Solicitude, That, as I ought not to be unfaithful to those
Counsels you have committed to my Trust, so also that I may not altogether
waste any minutes of the leasure you afford me. And thus have I made the
best use of some of them, that I could devise; To spread abroad
Encouragements, Inquiries, Directions, and Patterns, that may animate, and
draw on_ Universal Assistances.
_The _Great God_ prosper You in the Noble Engagement of Dispersing the true
Lustre of his Glorious Works, and the Happy Inventions of obliging Men all
over the World, to the General Benefit of Mankind: So wishes with real
Affections,_