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THE EDITOR _to the_ READER.


If it may be thought reasonable to criticise the Public Taste, in
what are generally supposed to be Works of mere Amusement; or modest
to direct its Judgment, in what is offered for its Entertainment; I
would beg leave to introduce the following Sheets with a few cursory
Remarks, that may lead the common Reader into some tolerable
conception of the nature of this Work, and the design of its Author.

The close connexion which every Individual has with all that relates
to MAN in general, strongly inclines us to turn our observation upon
human affairs, preferably to other attentions, and impatiently to
wait the progress and issue of them. But, as the course of human
actions is too slow to gratify our inquisitive curiosity, observant
men very easily contrived to satisfy its rapidity, by the invention
of _History_. Which, by recording the principal circumstances of
past facts, and laying them close together, in a continued
narration, kept the mind from languishing, and gave constant
exercise to its reflections.

But as it commonly happens, that in all indulgent refinements on our
satisfactions, the Procurers to our pleasures run into excess; so it
happened here. Strict matters of fact, how delicately soever dressed
up, soon grew too simple and insipid to a taste stimulated by the