im that publisht them.

However, let such Statesmen as _de Cros_; or such _Criticks_ as our
_Advertiser_, or Malice and Detraction it self, say what they will of
the _Memoirs_; I dare answer for all Scholars and Lovers of Learning,
that they shall pay the Honour and Esteem which is, and will be ever
justly due to the _Miscellanea_; and shall not only find what is
pleasing and instructing, but also something that is new and surprizing
whenever they read them, let this Author's Stile be as _Luscious_ and
_Affected_ as it will; which is all I need say for the poor Bookseller's
sake.

The second Criticism the Advertiser mentions, is upon the Digressions,
tho he is so good to confess himself not of their Opinion who find fault
with them. But I wish he had made a fairer Quotation in a Line or two
out of one of them, by which he would seem to make Sir _W. T._ say, That
_Prince _Maurice_'s Parrot_ spoke, and askt, and answered common
Questions like a reasonable Creature: Tho indeed he only says, That his
_curiosity made _him_ enquire from the first hand about such a common
Story, Of a Parrot that spoke_, &c.

For my self, I must needs say, that that Digression gave me not only
some Entertainment when I read it, but a good deal of thought since; and
the more, because I remember one of the _Athenian Mercuries_, in Answer
to a Question sent them upon this very Story, seem'd to allow the thing
possible. But after all my rambling thoughts upon that Subject, I must
leave it to better Reasoners than my self to determine, whether Speech
and Reason are so individual, that whatever Creature has any share in
the one, must be allow'd to partake of the other. However it be, the
Letter I have been lately observing, has throughly convinc'd me, that
whether a Man may _Speak_ or no, at least he may _Write_ without
_Reason_. But this I am sure is a Digression in me, whatever it was in
the Author of the _Memoirs_.

* * * * *

The last _Criticism_ the _Advertiser_ mentions, is, That _in these
_Memoirs_ there are several Persons, Eminent both for their Station and
Quality, and some of them still alive, treated with so much Freedom, and
so little Ceremony_. This in my slender Judgment, appears a more
extraordinary Objection, than the other two. For I had ever imagined,
that the very _Ratio formalis_ of a good History, or Memoirs, had been
the _Truth_ of them, which it is impossible should ever appear without
_gre