Persians, Tartars, and Indians, are here distinguished, and
appear such as they are, from the sovereign to the meanest
subject; so that, without the fatigue of going to see those
people in their respective countries, the reader has here the
pleasure to see them act, and hear them speak. Care has been
taken to preserve their characters, and to keep their sense; nor
have we varied from the text, but when modesty obliged us to it.
The translator flatters himself, that those who understand
Arabic, and will be at the pains to compare the original with the
translation, must agree that he has showed the Arabians to the
French with all the circumspection that the niceness of the
French tongue and of the times require; and if those who read
these stories have any inclination to profit by the example of
virtue and vice which they will here find exhibited, they may
reap an advantage by it that is not to be reaped in other
stories, which are more fit to corrupt than to reform our
manners.





Approbation.



I have read, by order of my Lord Chancellor, this manuscript, and
find nothing in it that should hinder its being printed.

(Signed)