appellations; and as it is a _real_, not _fictitious_ character I am
about to present, I think myself obliged, for the reasons I have
already given, as well as to gratify my own inclinations, to draw him
such as he was, not such as some sanguine imaginations might with him
to have been.

I flatter myself, however, that _truth_ will appear not altogether
void of charms, and the adventures I take upon me to relate, not be
less pleasing for being within the reach of probability, and such as
might have happened to any other as well as the person they did.--Few
there are, I am pretty certain, who will not find some resemblance of
himself in one part or other of his life, among the many various and
surprizing turns of fortune, which the subject of this little history
experienced, as also be reminded in what manner the passions operate
in every stage of life, and how far the constitution of the _outward
frame_ is concerned in the emotions of the _internal faculties_.

These are things surely very necessary to be considered, and when they
are so, will, in a great measure, abate that unbecoming vehemence,
with which people are apt to testify their admiration, or abhorrence
of actions, which it very often happens would lose much of their
_eclat_ either way, were the secret springs that give them motion,
seen into with the eyes of philosophy and reflection.

But this will be more clearly understood by a perusal of the facts
herein contained, from which I will no longer detain in the attention
of my reader.