MILITI DE BALNEO, BARONI DE BERKLEY, MOUBREY, SEGRAVE,

D. DE BRUSE,

DOMINO SUO MULTIS NOMINIBUS OBSERVANDO,

HANC SUAM

MELANCHOLIAE ANATOMEN,

JAM SEXTO REVISAM, D.D.

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE LAST LONDON EDITION.

The work now restored to public notice has had an extraordinary fate. At
the time of its original publication it obtained a great celebrity, which
continued more than half a century. During that period few books were more
read, or more deservedly applauded. It was the delight of the learned, the
solace of the indolent, and the refuge of the uninformed. It passed through
at least eight editions, by which the bookseller, as WOOD records, got an
estate; and, notwithstanding the objection sometimes opposed against it, of
a quaint style, and too great an accumulation of authorities, the
fascination of its wit, fancy, and sterling sense, have borne down all
censures, and extorted praise from the first Writers in the English
language. The grave JOHNSON has praised it in the warmest terms, and the
ludicrous STERNE has interwoven many parts of it into his own popular
performance. MILTON did not disdain to build two of his finest poems on it;