TRANSLATOR’s PREFACE.
The Author of the following Discourses was a Spaniard, and a dignified
clergyman of the Church of Rome, high in rank, and much respected
as an ecclesiastic; but was not less esteemed for his candour and
liberality of sentiment, than admired for his almost universal learning
and extensive knowledge. The Translator has it not in his power to
give so particular and satisfactory an account of this eminent man as
he could wish; but the Reader will find in the Fourth Essay of the
Second Volume, a summary one given of himself, in which he tells
us where he was born, how he was educated, and where he passed the
greatest part of his life; how he passed it, is pretty clear from his
Writings, which manifest, that he must have employed a very large
portion of it in study. When I first entered upon this undertaking,
I had no thoughts of translating so many of the Author’s Essays as I
was afterwards tempted to do; the subject matter of them, in which I
found great pleasure, exciting me to proceed; and indeed, I was also
flattered and encouraged to go on, by the expectation, that my labours
in this respect, would afford agreeable amusement, and furnish useful
instruction to many of my countrymen. After I had translated as many
Essays, as I conjectured would make Four Volumes in Octavo, I thought
it would be necessary to prefix to them, a more enlarged Preface, than
that which appeared at the head of the first four; and as I have taken
the liberty to omit some parts of those Essays which I have translated,
I thought it would be right to say something, by way of assigning my
reasons and motives for so doing; which are briefly these: That the
parts left out, appeared to me, to be either confined, or applicable
only to the affairs and prejudices of Spain; or else, that they were
points of speculation, which the world at large, might not consider
as matters of importance. I have also ventured to omit such things,
as were relative only to religious controversy, as in this species of
disputation, men are apt to lose that candour and temper, which they
have been remarkable for preserving in all other cases, and upon all
other occasions. A strong example of the truth of this remark, would
have been manifested in father Feyjoo, had I translated that part of
the First Essay, where he speaks of the Protestant Writers; whom he
mentions in such language, and with a degree of warmth and acrimony,
which he afterwards in many places of his Works, reprehends as
improper, and illiberal. I have likewise taken the liberty to curtail
here and there a description which appeared to me rather superfluous,
or too redundant; and in the Apology for Persons who have been famous
in History, I have omitted the characters, of the queens Brunequilda
and Fredegunda, of both whom, I imagined the Reader would find as
much said as he would be desirous of knowing, in some of the other
Essays of these Volumes. Nor have I translated from this Discourse,
what is said of the empress Maria of Arragon, the marquis of Villena,
and William le Croix de Gevres. The accusation which had been brought
against the first of these three, appearing to me, only interesting to
the subjects of Spain: those of Magic against the second, to savour
of spite and bigotry; and those against the last, to be the effect
of pique and resentment, on account that he, although not a native
of Spain, had been promoted to the archbishopric of Toledo. In the
Translation of the Physical Paradoxes, I have likewise omitted some
articles; for instance, such, as whether heavy bodies, if they could be
forced in a perpendicular direction to a great distance from the earth,
would ever revert back to it again; and also that, of whether gold
is produced by the sun; and another, which treats of the possibility
of restoring by natural means, sight to a blind person; as all these
appeared to me, things rather speculative than interesting. In the
Translation of the Moral and Political Paradoxes, I have also omitted
the following articles: that which charges the Spanish laws with being
too favourable to persons of tender years; that which censures the
great number of holidays which are observed in Spain; that which treats
of whether the offspring of a human father and a brute mother, should
be baptized under certain conditions and restrictions; and that, which
questions whether Christian burial should be allowed to a person who is
guilty of suicide. The first of these appeared to me applicable to the
Spanish laws only; and the second, calculated to correct the abuse that
is made of the numbers of festivals in most Roman Catholic countries,
and particularly in Spain, and which seems intended to point out the
great loss they occasion to a state. The other two I considered as
rather abstruse points, and such as would afford very little amusement
or instruction to those who may peruse this work. Thus much for the
omissions; but if the reader, who understands Spanish, was to turn to
the Essays in their original language, he would find something added
to them; I therefore thought it would be proper to mention, that all
those additions, except the one that is made to the comparison between
ancient and modern music, are taken from the ninth, or supplemental
volume to the Teatro Critico, and are added in such places as the
author there directs. The addition to the comparison between antient
and modern music, is taken from the Essay on the Resurrection of the
Arts; and all that is said on music in that Essay, is interwoven into
this discourse, it having appeared to me to be very apposite to, and
indeed, what one might not improperly call a part of the subject of
it. There is nothing more that occurs to me as necessary to add to
this preface, except it is, that I have selected these Essays from
nearly all the volumes of the author’s works, and that, to the best of
my judgment, those I have chosen are some of the most interesting of
them; and such, as I thought would be the most entertaining, and the
most instructive to the generality of mankind. How judiciously I have
made this choice, and how well I have executed the translation, must
be left to others to determine; and shall only observe further, that I
have done both the one and the other, to the best of my discernment and
abilities; and although the translation is by no means a literal one, I
will venture to declare, that it contains the true sense and sentiment
of the author, which, as well as my learning and talents would enable
me to imitate so eminent a man as Feyjoo, I have endeavoured to express
in nearly the same language, I imagine he would have made use of, if he
had been a native of this country, and had written his works originally
in English. For the rest, the nature, scope, and design of the author’s
writings, will be best explained by his own prologue, which follows
next in order.