appear in the
World with this Addition to my Character, that my Countrymen may reap
the Fruits of my new-acquired Loquacity.

Those who have been present at public Disputes in the University, know
that it is usual to maintain Heresies for Argument's sake. I have heard
a Man a most impudent Socinian for Half an Hour, who has been an
Orthodox Divine all his Life after. I have taken the same Method to
accomplish my self in the Gift of Utterance, having talked above a
Twelve-month, not so much for the Benefit of my Hearers as of my self.
But since I have now gained the Faculty, I have been so long
endeavouring after, I intend to make a right Use of it, and shall think
my self obliged, for the future, to speak always in Truth and Sincerity
of Heart. While a Man is learning to fence, he practises both on Friend
and Foe; but when he is a Master in the Art, he never exerts it but on
what he thinks the right Side.

That this last Allusion may not give my Reader a wrong Idea of my Design
in this Paper, I must here inform him, that the Author of it is of no
Faction, that he is a Friend to no Interests but those of Truth and
Virtue, nor a Foe to any but those of Vice and Folly. Though I make more
Noise in the World than I used to do, I am still resolved to act in it
as an indifferent SPECTATOR. It is not my Ambition to encrease the
Number either of Whigs or Tories, but of wise and good Men, and I could
heartily wish there were not Faults common to both Parties which afford
me sufficient Matter to work upon, without descending to those which are
peculiar to either.

If in a Multitude of Counsellors there is Safety, we ought to think our
selves the securest Nation in the World. Most of our Garrets are
inhabited by Statesmen, who watch over the Liberties of their Country,
and make a Shift to keep themselves from starving by taking into their
Care the Properties of their Fellow-Subjects.

As these Politicians of both Sides have already worked the Nation into a
most unnatural Ferment, I shall be so far from endeavouring to raise it
to a greater Height, that on the contrary, it shall be the chief
Tendency of my Papers, to inspire my Countrymen with a mutual Good-will
and Benevolence. Whatever Faults either Party may be guilty of, they are
rather inflamed than cured by those Reproaches, which they cast upon one
another. The most likely Method of rectifying any Man's Conduct, is, by
recommending to him the Principles of Truth and Honou