_The Marquis_ D'ARGENS, _sensible of the Advantages accruing from
Works of this Kind, was not satisfied with barely copying the_
Accidents, _but has also united with them the real Names of_
Persons, _who have been remarkable in Life; conscious that we pay a
more strict Attention to the Occurrences that have befallen those
who enter within the Compass of our Acquaintance, or Knowledge, and
if a Moral ensues from the Relation, it is more firmly rooted in the
Mind, than when it is to be deduced from either Manners or Men, with
whom we are entirely unacquainted._

_The Marquis is easy in his Stile, delicate in his Sentiments, and
not at all tedious in his Narration. In the following Piece we find
Nothing heavy or insipid, he dwells not too long upon any Adventure,
nor does he burthen the Memory, or clog the Attention with
Reflections intended, too often more for the Bookseller's Emolument,
in swelling the Bulk of the Performance, than the Service of the
Reader, on whom he knew it to be otherwise an Imposition; since, by
long-winded wearisome Comments upon every Passage (a Fault too
frequent in many Writers) he takes from him an Opportunity of
exercising his reflective Abilities, seeming thereby to doubt
them_.

[Illustration]




PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY