hers who have likewise done me a very particular Honour,
though undesignedly. These are such who will needs have it, that I have
translated or borrowed many of my Thoughts out of Books which are
written in other Languages. I have heard of a Person, who is more famous
for his Library than his Learning, that has asserted this more than once
in his private Conversation. Were it true, I am sure he could not speak
it from his own Knowledge; but had he read the Books which he has
collected, he would find this Accusation to be wholly groundless. Those
who are truly learned will acquit me in this Point, in which I have been
so far from offending, that I have been scrupulous perhaps to a Fault in
quoting the Authors of several Passages which I might have made my own.
But as this Assertion is in reality an Encomium on what I have
published, I ought rather to glory in it, than endeavour to confute it.

Some are so very willing to alienate from me that small Reputation which
might accrue to me from any of these my Speculations, that they
attribute some of the best of them to those imaginary Manuscripts with
which I have introduced them. There are others, I must confess, whose
Objections have given me a greater Concern, as they seem to reflect,
under this Head, rather on my Morality than on my Invention. These are
they who say an Author is guilty of Falshood, when he talks to the
Publick of Manuscripts which he never saw, or describes Scenes of Action
or Discourse in which he was never engaged. But these Gentlemen would do
well to consider, there is not a Fable or Parable which ever was made
use of, that is not liable to this Exception; since nothing; according
to this Notion, can be related innocently, which was not once Matter of
Fact. Besides, I think the most ordinary Reader may be able to discover,
by my way of writing, what I deliver in these Occurrences as Truth, and
what as Fiction.

Since I am unawares engaged in answering the several Objections which
have been made against these my Works, I must take Notice that there are
some who affirm a Paper of this Nature should always turn upon diverting
Subjects, and others who find Fault with every one of them that hath not
an immediate Tendency to the Advancement of Religion or Learning. I
shall leave these Gentlemen to dispute it out among themselves; since I
see one half of my Conduct patronized by each side. Were I serious on an
improper Subject, or trifling in a serious one, I