have gathered the scattered branches up, and by a charme, gotten
from Apollo, made them greene againe and set them up as
epitaphes to his memory. A sinne it were to suffer these rare
monuments of wit to lye covered in dust and a shame such
conceipted comedies should be acted by none but wormes. Oblivion
shall not so trample on a sonne of the Muses; and such a sonne
as they called their darling. Our nation are in his debt for a
new English which he taught them. "Euphues and his England"
began first that language: all our ladyes were then his
scollers; and that beautie in court, which could not parley
Eupheueisme was as little regarded as shee which now there
speakes not French.
BLOUNT
EVPHVES.
THE ANATOMY
_of Wit_.
Verie pleasant for all
_Gentlemen to reade_,
and most necessary to
remember.
_Wherein are contayned the_
delightes that wit followeth in
_his youth, by the pleasantnesse of loue_,
and the happinesse he reapeth
in age, by the perfectnes
of wisedome.
_By_ Iohn Lylie, _Maister of Art_.
Corrected and augmented.
_AT LONDON_
Printed for Gabriell Cawood,
dwelling in Paules Church-yard.
The noble and vertuous gentleman most worthy of all titles both
of learning and chevalrie M. Philip Sidney.
SPENSER
THE
COVNTESSE
OF PEMBROKES
ARCADIA,
WRITTEN BY SIR PHILIPPE
SIDNEI.
LONDON
Printed for William Ponsonbie.
_Anno Domini_, 1590.
Our sage and serious poet Spenser (whom I dare be known to think
a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas).
MILTON
THE FAERIE
QVEENE.
Disposed into twelue books,
_Fashioning_
XII. Morall vertues.
VBIQUE FLORET (in printer's mark)
LONDON
Printed for William Ponsonbie.
1590.
Who is there that upon hearing the name of Lord Bacon does not
instantly recognize everything of literature the most extensive,
everything of discovery the most penetrating, everything of
observation of human life the most distinguished and refined?
BURKE
Essaies.
Religious Meditations.
Places of perswasion
and disswasion.
Seene and allowed.
LONDON
Printed for Humfrey Hooper
and are to bee solde at the
blacke Beare in Chauncery
lane. 1598.
They contain the heroic tales of the exploits of the great men
in whom the new era was inaugurated; not mythic like the Iliads
and the Eddas, but plain, broad narratives of substantial facts,
which rival legend in interest and grandeur. What the old epics
were to the royally or nobly born, this modern epic is to the
common people. We have no longer kings or princes for chief
actors to whom the heroism, like the dominion of the world, had
in time past been confined. But, as it was in the days of the
Apostles, when a few poor fishermen from an obscure lake in
Palestine assumed, under the Divine Mission, the spiritual
authority over mankind, so, in the days of our own Elizabeth,
the seamen from the banks of the Thames and the Avon, the Plym
and the Dart, self-taught and self-directed, with no impulse but
what was beating in their own royal hearts, went out across the
unknown seas, fighting, discovering, colonizing, and graved out
the channels, paving them at last with their bones, through
which the commerce and enterprise of England has flowed out over
all the world.
FROUDE
THE
PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOIAGES, TRAFFIQVES AND DISCOUERIES
of the English Nation, made by Sea or ouer-land, to the
remote and farthest distant quarters of the Earth,
at any time within the compasse of these 1500.
yeeres: Deuided into three seuerall Volumes,
according to the positions of the
Regions, whereonto they were
directed.
This first Volume containing the woorthy Discoueries,
&c. of the English toward the North and Northeast by
Sea, as of _Lapland_, _Scriksinia_, _Corelia_, the
Baie of S. _Nicholas_, the Isles of _Colgoieue_,
_Vaigatz_, and _Noua Zembla_, toward the great
riuer _Ob_, with the mighty Empire of _Russia_,
the _Caspian_ sea, _Georgia_, _Armenia_,
_Media_, _Persia_, _Boghar_ in _Bactria_,
and diuers kingdoms of _Tartaria_:
Together with many notable monuments and testimonies
of the ancient forren trades, and of the warrelike
and other shipping of this realme of _England_
in former ages.
_Whereunto is annexed also a briefe Commentarie of
the true_ state of _Island_, and of the Northren
Seas and lands situate that way.
_And lastly, the memorable defeate of the
Spanish huge Armada, Anno_ 1588. and
the famous victorie atchieued
at the citie of _Cadiz_,
1596. are described.
_By_ RICHARD HACKLVYT _Master of_
Artes, and sometime Student of
Christ-Church in Oxford.
[Illustration]
Imprinted at London by GEORGE
BISHOP, RALPH NEWBERIE
and ROBERT BARKER.
1598.
Reduced Leaf in original, 7 × 10.87 inches.
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific--and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
KEATS
_Mulciber in Troiam, pro Troia stabat Apollo._
HOMER
THE
WHOLE WORKS
OF
HOMER;
PRINCE OF POETTS
In his Iliads, and
Odysses.
_Translated according to the Greeke,
By
Geo: Chapman._
De Ili: et Odiss:
_Omnia ab his: et in his sunt omnia: siue beati_
_Te decor eloquij, seu rer[=u] pondera tangunt. Angel Pol:_
* * * * *
_At London printed for Nathaniell Butter.
William Hole Sculp:_
Qui Nil molitur
Ineptè
ACHILLES HECTOR
Reduced Leaf in original, 7.06 x 10.93 inches.
Within that awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries!
Happiest they of human race,
To whom God has granted grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, and force the way;
And better had they ne'er been born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
SCOTT
THE
HOLY
BIBLE,
Conteyning the Old Testament,
and the New:
¶_Newly translated out of_
the Originall Tongues: and with
the former Translations diligently
compared and reuised by his
Maiesties speciall Commandement,
¶_Appointed to be read in Churches._
* * * * *
¶IMPRINTED
at London by _Robert
Barker_, Printer to the
Kings most excellent
Maiestie.
* * * * *
ANNO DOM. 1611.
Reduced Leaf in original 9.37 x 13.25 inches
O rare Ben Jonson
EPITAPH
THEATRVM
GVL LOCVM TENEANT S CEN
THE
WORKES
of
_Beniamin Jonson_
--_neque, me vt miretur turba
laboro:
Contentus paucis lectoribus._
_Imprinted at
London, by
Will Stansby_
PLAVSTRVM VISORIVM
_An. D._ 1616. Guhel _Hole fecit_
Reduced Leaf in original, 5 × 7.62 inches.
Scarce any book of philology in our
land hath in so short a time passed
so many impressions.
FULLER
_THE_
ANATOMY OF
MELANCHOLY,
_WHAT IT IS_.
WITH ALL THE KINDES,
CAVSES, SYMPTOMES, PROG_NOSTICKES,
AND SEVERALL
CVRES OF IT_.
IN THREE MAINE PARTITIONS
with their seuerall SECTIONS, MEMBERS,
and SVBSECTIONS.
_PHILOSOPHICALLY, MEDICINALLY,
HISTORICALLY, OPENED
AND CVT VP._
BY
DEMOCRITVS _Iunior_.
With a Satyricall PREFACE, conducing to
_the following Discourse_.
MACROB.
Omne meum, Nihil meum.
_AT OXFORD_,
Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD and IAMES
SHORT, for HENRY CRIPPS.
_Anno Dom._ 1621.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
JONSON
M^R. WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARES
COMEDIES,
HISTORIES, &
TRAGEDIES.
Published according to the True Originall Copies.
[Illustration]
_Martin Droahout sculpsit London_
LONDON
Printed by Isaac Jaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623.
Reduced Leaf in original 8.56 x 13.25 inches
This most tragic of all tragedies
save King Lear.
SWINBURNE
THE
TRAGEDY
OF THE DUTCHESSE
OF Malfy.
_As it was Presented priuatly, at the Black-Friers;
and publiquely at the Globe, By the_
Kings Maiesties Seruants.
The perfect and exact Coppy, with diuerse
_things Printed, that the length of the Play would_
not beare in the Presentment.
Written by _John Webster._
Hora.----_Si quid----
----Candidus Imperti si non bis vtere mecum._
* * * * *
_LONDON:_
Printed by NICHOLAS OKES, for IOHN
WATERSON, and are to be sold at the
signe of the Crowne, in _Paules_
Church-yard, 1623.
To me Massinger is one of the most
interesting as well as one of the most
delightful of the old dramatists, not so
much for his passion or power, though at
times he reaches both, as for the love
he shows for those things that are
lovely and of good report in human
nature, for his sympathy with what is
generous and high-minded and honorable
and for his equable flow of a good
every-day kind of poetry, with few
rapids or cataracts, but singularly
soothing and companionable.
LOWELL
A NEW WAY TO PAY
OLD DEBTS
A COMOEDIE
_As it hath beene often acted at the Phoenix
in Drury-Lane, by the Queenes
Maiesties seruants._
The Author.
PHILIP MASSINGER.
NOLI ALTVM SAPERE (in printer's mark)
LONDON,
Printed by _E. P._ for _Henry Seyle_, dwelling in _S.
Pauls_ Church-yard, at the signe of the
Tygers head. Anno. M. DC.
XXXIII.
Ford was of the first order of poets. He
sought for sublimity, not by parcels in
metaphors or visible images, but
directly where she has her full
residence in the heart of man; in the
actions and sufferings of the greatest
minds. There is a grandeur of the soul
above mountains, seas, and the elements.
Even in the poor perverted reason of
Giovanni and Annabella we discover
traces of that fiery particle, which in
the irregular starting from out of the
road of beaten action, discovers
something of a right line even in
obliquity, and shows hints of an
improvable greatness in the lowest
descents and degradation of our nature.
LAMB
THE
BROKEN
HEART.
A Tragedy.
_ACTED_
By the KINGS Majesties Seruants
at the priuate House in the
BLACK-FRIERS.
_Fide Honor._
[Illustration]
_LONDON:_
Printed by _I. B._ for HVGH BEESTON, and are to
be sold at his Shop, neere the _Castle_ in
_Corne-hill_. 1 6 3 3.
Next Marlow, bathed in the Thespian springs,
Had in him those brave sublunary things
That the first poets had; his raptures were
All air and fire which made his verses clear;
For that fine madness still he did retain,
Which rightly should possess a poet's brain.
DRAYTON
_The Famous_
TRAGEDY
OF
THE RICH JEW
OF _MALTA_.
AS IT WAS PLAYD
BEFORE THE KING AND
QVEENE, IN HIS MAJESTIES
Theatre at _White-Hall_, by her Majesties
Servants at the _Cock-pit_.
_Written by_ CHRISTOPHER MARLO.
[Illustration]
_LONDON_,
Printed by _I. B._ for _Nicholas Vavasour_, and are to be sold
at his Shop in the Inner-Temple, neere the
Church. 1 6 3 3.
Sir, I pray deliver this little book to
my dear brother Farrar, and tell him he
shall find in it a picture of the many
spiritual conflicts that have passed
betwixt God and my soul, before I would
subject mine to the will of Jesus, my
Master, in Whose service I have now
found perfect freedom. Desire him to
read it; and then, if he can think it
may turn to the advantage of any
dejected poor soul, let it be made
public; if not, let him burn it; for I
and it are less than the least of God's
mercies.
HERBERT
THE
TEMPLE.
SACRED POEMS
AND
PRIVATE EJACULATIONS.
By M^r. GEORGE HERBERT.
PSAL. 29.
_In his Temple doth every
man speak of his honour._
[Illustration]
CAMBRIDGE
Printed by _Thom._ _Buck_,
and _Roger Daniel_, printers
to the Universitie.
1 6 3 3.
Did his youth scatter poetry wherein
Lay Love's philosophy? Was every sin
Pictured in his sharp satires, made so foul,
That some have fear'd sin's shapes, and kept their soul
Safer by reading verse: did he give days,
Past marble monuments, to those whose praise
He would perpetuate? Did he--I fear
Envy will doubt--these at his twentieth year?
But, more matured, did his rich soul conceive
And in harmonious holy numbers weave
A crown of sacred sonnets, fit to adorn
A dying martyr's brow, or to be worn
On that blest head of Mary Magdalen,
After she wiped Christ's feet, but not till then;
Did he--fit for such penitents as she
And he to use--leave us a Litany
Which all devout men love, and doubtless shall,
As times grow better, grow more classical?
Did he write hymns, for piety and wit,
Equal to those great grave Prudentius writ?
WALTON
POEMS,
_by_ J. D.
WITH
ELEGIES
ON THE AUTHORS
DEATH.
LONDON.
Printed by _M. F._ for IOHN MARRIOT,
and are to be sold at his shop in S^t _Dunstans_
Church-yard in _Fleet-street_. 1633.
It is not on the praises of others, but
on his own writings that he is to depend
for the esteem of posterity; of which he
will not easily be deprived while
learning shall have any reverence among
men; for there is no science in which he
does not discover some skill; and scarce
any kind of knowledge, profane or
sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he
does not appear to have cultivated with
success.
JOHNSON
à coelo salus
Religio,
Medici.
_Printed for Andrew Crooke. 1642. Will Marshatt. scu._
Waller was smooth.
POPE
THE
WORKES
OF
EDMOND WALLER
Esquire,
Lately a Member of the Honourable
HOUSE of
COMMONS,
In this present Parliament.
_Imprimatur_
NA. BRENT. _Decem. 30. 1644._
LONDON,
Printed for _Thomas Walkley_.
1645.
O volume, worthy, leaf by leaf and cover,
To be with juice of cedar washed all over!
Here's words with lines, and lines with scenes consent
To raise an act to full astonishment;
Here melting numbers, words of power to move
Young men to swoon, and maids to die for love:
_Love lies a-bleeding_ here; Evadne there
Swells with brave rage, yet comely everywhere;
Here's _A Mad Lover_; there that high design
Of _King and No King_, and the rare plot thine.
So that where'er we circumvolve our eyes,
Such rich, such fresh, such sweet varieties
Ravish our spirits, that entranc'd we see,
None writes love's passion in the world like thee.
HERRICK
COMEDIES
AND
TRAGEDIES
{FRANCIS BEAVMONT}
Written by { AND } Gentlemen.
{IOHN FLETCHER }
Never printed before,
And now published by the Authours
Originall Copies.
* * * * *
_Si quid habent veri Vatum præsagia, vivam._
* * * * *
_LONDON_,
Printed for _Humphrey Robinson_, at the three _Pidgeons_, and for
_Humphrey Moseley_ at the _Princes Armes_ in _S^t Pauls
Church-yard_. 1647.
Reduced Leaf in original, 8.37 x 13.12 inches
What mighty epics have been wrecked by time
Since Herrick launched his cockle-shell of rhyme!
ALDRICH
_HESPERIDES_:
OR,
THE WORKS
BOTH
HUMANE & DIVINE
OF
ROBERT HERRICK _Esq._
* * * * *
OVID.
_Effugient avidos Carmina nostra Rogos._
* * * * *
[Illustration]
* * * * *
_LONDON_
Printed for _John Williams_, and _Francis Eglesfield_,
and are to be sold at the Crown and Marygold
in Saint _Pauls_ Church-yard. 1648.
Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines.
EMERSON
_THE
RULE AND
EXERCISES
OF HOLY
LIVING_
_By Jer. Taylor D:D._
_Non magna loquimur
sed vivimus_
_LONDON printed for R. Royston
in Ivye Lane. 1650._
_Ro: Vaughan sculp._
That is a book you should read: such
sweet religion in it, next to Woolman's,
though the subject be bait, and hooks,
and worms, and fishes.
LAMB
_The
Compleat Angler
or the
Contemplative man's
Recreation_
Being a Discourse of
FISH and FISHING,
Not unworthy the perusal of most _Anglers_.
* * * * *
Simon Peter said, _I go a_ fishing: _and they said, We
also wil go with thee_. John 21. 3.
* * * * *
_London_, Printed by _T. Maxey_ for RICH. MARRIOT, in
S. _Dunstans_ Church-yard Fleetstreet, 1653.
Yet he, consummate master, knew
When to recede and when pursue.
His noble negligences teach
What others' toils despair to reach.
He, perfect dancer, climbs the rope,
And balances your fear and hope;
If, after some distinguished leap,
He drops his pole, and seems to slip,
Straight gathering all his active strength,
He rises higher half his length.
With wonder you approve his slight,
And owe your pleasure to your fright.
PRIOR
HUDIBRAS
* * * * *
THE FIRST PART.
* * * * *
_Written in the time of the late Wars._
* * * * *
_LONDON._
Printed by _J. G._ for _Richard Marriot_, under Saint
_Dunstan_'s Church in _Fleetstreet_. 1663.
The third among the sons of light.
SHELLEY
Paradise lost.
A
POEM
Written in
TEN BOOKS
By _JOHN MILTON._
* * * * *
Licensed and Entred according
to Order.
* * * * *
_L O N D O N_
Printed, and are to be sold by _Peter Parker_
under _Creed_ Church neer _Aldgate_; And by
_Robert Boulter_ at the _Turks Head_ in _Bishopsgate-street_;
And _Matthias Walker_, under St. _Dunstons_ Church
in _Fleet-street_, 1667.
Ingenious dreamer! in whose well-told tale
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail;
Whose humorous vein, strong sense, and simple style,
May teach the gayest, make the gravest smile;
Witty and well-employed, and, like thy Lord,
Speaking in parables his slighted word:--
I name thee not, lest so despised a name
Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame.
COWPER
THE
Pilgrim's Progress
FROM
THIS WORLD,
TO
That which is to come:
Delivered under the Similitude of a
DREAM
Wherein is Discovered,
The manner of his setting out,
His Dangerous Journey; And safe
Arrival at the Desired Countrey.
* * * * *
_I have used Similitudes_, _Hos._ 12. 10.
* * * * *
By _John Bunyan._
* * * * *
Licensed and Entred according to Order.
* * * * *
L O N D O N,
Printed for _Nath. Ponder_ at the _Peacock_
in the _Poultrey_ near _Cornhil_, 1678.
Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car
Wide o'er the fields of glory bear
Two coursers of ethereal race,
With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace.
GRAY
ABSALOM
AND
ACHITOPHEL.
* * * * *
A
POEM.
* * * * *
----_Si Propiùs stes
Te Capiet Magis_----
* * * * *
L O N D O N,
Printed for _J. T._ and are to be Sold by _W. Davis_ in
_Amen-Corner_, 1681.
Reduced Leaf in original, 7.75 × 12.56 inches.
Few books in the literature of
philosophy have so widely represented
the spirit of the age and country in
which they appeared, or have so
influenced opinion afterwards as Locke's
_Essay concerning Human Understanding_.
The art of education, political thought,
theology and philosophy, especially in
Britain, France and America, long bore
the stamp of the _Essay_, or of reaction
against it.
FRASER
AN
E S S A Y
CONCERNING
=Humane Understanding=.
* * * * *
In Four BOOKS.
* * * * *
_Quam bellum est velle confiteri potius nescire quod nescias,
quam ista effutientem nauseare, atque ipsum sibi
displicere!_ =Cic. de Natur. Deor.= _l._ 1.
* * * * *
_L O N D O N:_
Printed by _Eliz. Holt_, for =Thomas Basset=, at the
_George_ in _Fleetstreet_, near St. _Dunstan_'s
Church. MDCXC.
Reduced Leaf in original, 7.18 × 12.62 inches
Oh! that your brows my laurel had sustained,
Well had I been deposed if you had reigned!
The father had descended for the son;
For only you are lineal to the throne.
* * * * *
Yet I this prophesy: thou shalt be seen,
(Though with some short parenthesis between,)
High on the throne of wit; and, seated there,
Not mine (that's little) but thy laurel wear.
Thy first attempt an early promise made,
That early promise this has more than paid;
So bold, yet so judiciously you dare,
That your least praise is to be regular.
* * * * *
Already I am worn with cares and age,
And just abandoning the ungrateful stage;
Unprofitably kept at heaven's expense,
I live a rent-charge on his providence.
But you, whom every Muse and Grace adorn,
Whom I foresee to better fortune born,
Be kind to my remains; and, oh defend,
Against your judgment, your departed friend!
Let not the insulting foe my fame pursue,
But shield those laurels which descend to you:
And take for tribute what these lines express:
You merit more, but could my love do less.
DRYDEN
THE
Way of the World,
A
COMEDY.
As it is ACTED
AT THE
Theatre in _Lincoln's-Inn-Fields_,
BY
His Majesty's Servants.
* * * * *
Written by Mr. _CONGREVE_.
* * * * *
_Audire est Operæ pretium, procedere recte
Qui mæchis non vultis----_ Hor. Sat. 2. l. 1.
_----Metuat doti deprensa.----_ Ibid.
* * * * *
L O N D O N:
Printed for _Jacob Tonson_, within _Gray's-Inn-Gate_ next
_Gray's-Inn-Lane_. 1700.
Reduced Leaf in original, 6.5 × 8.5 inches.
For an Englishman there is no single
historical work with which it can be so
necessary for him to be well and
thoroughly acquainted as with Clarendon.
SOUTHEY
THE
HISTORY
OF THE
REBELLION and CIVIL WARS
IN
ENGLAND,
Begun in the Year 1641.
With the precedent Passages, and Actions, that contributed
thereunto, and the happy End, and Conclusion thereof by
the KING's blessed RESTORATION, and RETURN upon the
29^{th} of _May_, in the Year 1660.
Written by the Right Honourable
EDWARD Earl of CLARENDON,
Late Lord High Chancellour of _England_, Privy Counsellour
in the Reigns of King CHARLES the First and the Second.
* * * * *
[Greek: Ktêma es aei.] Thucyd.
_Ne quid Falsi dicere audeat, ne quid Veri non audeat._ Cicero.
* * * * *
VOLUME THE FIRST.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
_O X F O R D_,
Printed at the THEATER, _An. Dom._ MDCCII.
Reduced Leaf in original, 11 × 17.5 inches.
It is incredible to conceive the effect his writings have had
upon the Town; how many thousand follies they have either quite
banished or given a very great check to! how much countenance
they have added to Virtue and Religion! how many people they
have rendered happy, by showing them it was their own fault if
they were not so! and lastly how entirely they have convinced
our young fops and young fellows of the value and advantages of
Learning! He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of pedants,
and fools, and discovered the true method of making it amiable
and lovely to all mankind. In the dress he gives it, it is a
most welcome guest at tea-tables and assemblies, and is relished
and caressed by the merchants on the Change. Accordingly, there
is not a Lady at Court, nor a Broker in Lombard Street, who is
not easily persuaded that Captain _Steele_ is the greatest
Scholar and Casuist of any man in England.
GAY
THE
LUCUBRATIONS
OF
Isaac Bickerstaff Esq;
* * * * *
VOL. I.
* * * * *
[Greek: ou chrê pannychion heudein boulêphoron andra.] Homer.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
* * * * *
_L O N D O N_,
Printed: And sold by _John Morphew_, near _Stationers-Hall_. MDCCX.
_Note_, The Bookbinder is desired to place the INDEX after
[_Tosler, N^o. 114_] which ends the _First Volume_ in Folio.
Reduced Leaf in original, 9.50 × 14.37 inches
Whoever wishes to attain an English
style, familiar but not coarse, and
elegant but not ostentatious, must give
his days and nights to the volumes of
Addison.
JOHNSON
NUMB. 1
The SPECTATOR.
* * * * *
_Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem
Cogitat; ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat._ Hor.
* * * * *
To be Continued every Day.
* * * * *
_Thursday, March 1. 1711._
I Have observed, that a Reader seldom peruses a Book with
Pleasure 'till he knows whether the Writer of it be a black or a
fair Man, of a mild or cholerick Disposition, Married or a
Batchelor, with other Particulars of the like nature, that
conduce very much to the right Understanding of an Author. To
gratify this Curiosity, which is so natural to a Reader, I
design this Paper, and my next, as Prefatory Discourses to my
following Writings, and shall give some Account in them of the
several Persons that are engaged in this Work. As the chief
Trouble of Compiling, Digesting and Correcting will fall to my
Share, I must do my self the Justice to open the Work with my
own History.
I was born to a small Hereditary Estate, which I find, by the
Writings of the Family, was bounded by the same Hedges and
Ditches in _William_ the Conqueror's Time that it is at present,
and has been delivered down from Father to Son whole and entire,
without the Loss or Acquisition of a single Field or Meadow,
during the Space of six hundred Years. There goes a Story in the
Family, that when my Mother was gone with Child of me about
three Months, she dreamt that she was brought to Bed of a Judge:
Whether this might proceed from a Law-Suit which was then
depending in the Family, or my Father's being a Justice of the
Peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to think it
presaged any Dignity that I should arrive at in my future Life,
though that was the Interpretation which the Neighbourhood put
upon it. The Gravity of my Behaviour at my very first Appearance
in the World, and all the Time that I sucked, seemed to favour
my Mother's Dream: For, as she has often told me, I threw away
my Rattle before I was two Months old, and would not make use of
my Coral 'till they had taken away the Bells from it.