the real Difficulties of the Text. Consider’d barely as a Translator,
I lay under no immediate Necessity of writing _Notes_, but then as
I was highly concern’d, even in that Capacity, to lay before the
_English_ Reader, what I took to be the true Sense of the _Greek_,
and as I farther propos’d to preserve that particular _Humour_ of the
Original, which depends on those Manners and Customs which are alluded
to, I found, my self necessitated to add some _Notes_; but yet I have
endeavoured to shun that Fault, which I have already censur’d, by
saying no more, but what was immediately necessary, to illustrate
the Text, to vindicate a received Sense, or to propose a new one.

I am not conscious of having made any great Excursions beyond the
Bounds which these Rules prescrib’d to me, unless it is in the Chapter
concerning _Superstition_. And even here, unless the Commentary had
been somewhat copious, the Text it self wou’d have appear’d like a
motly Piece of mysterious Nonsense. Thus much I thought my self
oblig’d to do in Justice to _Theophrastus_; and as for the
Enlargements which I have made, over and above what wou’d have
satisfy’d this Demand, they will not, ’tis hop’d, be unacceptable to
the curious Reader. They are Digressions I own; but I shall not here
offer to make one Digression to execute another, or, according to the
Custom and Practice of modern Authors, beg a thousand Pardons of the
Reader, before I am certain of having committed one Offence. Such a
Procedure seems preposterous. For when an Author happens to digress,
and take a Trip ὑπὲρ τὰ ἐσκαμμένα, beyond the Bounds prescrib’d;
the best, the only consistent thing he can do, is to take his Chance
for the Event. If what he has said does not immediately relate to the
Matter in Hand, it may nevertheless be _a propos_, and good in its
Kind; and then instead of Censure, he will probably meet with Thanks;
but if it be not good, no prefatory Excuses will make it so: And