present, it is manifest how little reason we can have to rely upon a
hold so short, so weak, and so slippery; and that whoever desires to
catch mankind fast must have recourse to some other methods. Now he
that will examine human nature with circumspection enough may
discover several handles, whereof the six {152b} senses afford one
apiece, beside a great number that are screwed to the passions, and
some few riveted to the intellect. Among these last, curiosity is
one, and of all others affords the firmest grasp; curiosity, that
spur in the side, that bridle in the mouth, that ring in the nose of
a lazy, an impatient, and a grunting reader. By this handle it is
that an author should seize upon his readers; which as soon as he
hath once compassed, all resistance and struggling are in vain, and
they become his prisoners as close as he pleases, till weariness or
dulness force him to let go his grip.

And therefore I, the author of this miraculous treatise, having
hitherto, beyond expectation, maintained by the aforesaid handle a
firm hold upon my gentle readers, it is with great reluctance that I
am at length compelled to remit my grasp, leaving them in the
perusal of what remains to that natural oscitancy inherent in the
tribe. I can only assure thee, courteous reader, for both our
comforts, that my concern is altogether equal to thine, for my
unhappiness in losing or mislaying among my papers the remaining
part of these memoirs, which consisted of accidents, turns, and
adventures, both new, agreeable, and surprising, and therefore
calculated in all due points to the delicate taste of this our noble
age. But alas! with my utmost endeavours I have been able only to
retain a few of the heads. Under which there was a full account how
Peter got a protection out of the King's Bench, and of a
reconcilement between Jack and him, upon a design they had in a