Secondly, why should words repeated only to expose the vice, taint
the reader more than a sermon preached against lewdness should the
assembly?--for of necessity it leads the hearer to the thoughts of
the fact. But the morality of every action lies in the end; and if
the reader by ill-use renders himself guilty of the fact in reading,
which I designed to expose by writing, the fault is his, not mine.

I have endeavoured everywhere in this book to be as concise as
possible, except where calculations obliged me to be particular; and
having avoided impertinence in the book, I would avoid it too, in
the preface, and therefore shall break off with subscribing myself,

Sir,
Your most obliged, humble servant
D. F.



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION.



Necessity, which is allowed to be the mother of invention, has so
violently agitated the wits of men at this time that it seems not at
all improper, by way of distinction, to call it the Projecting Age.
For though in times of war and public confusions the like humour of
invention has seemed to stir, yet, without being partial to the
present, it is, I think, no injury to say the past ages have never
come up to the degree of projecting and inventing, as it refers to