necessary.

Give me Leave, then, Sir, for your own Sake, to treat you, as if you
never had read _The Fable of the Bees_ and in Return I give you my
Word, that I shall make no use of it to your Disadvantage; on the
Contrary, I take it for granted, that from the bad Character you had
heard of the Book from every Quarter, you had sufficient Reason to
write against it, as you have done, without any further Enquiry. This
being settled, I shall attempt to shew you the Possibility, that a Book
might come into such a general Disrepute without deserving it. An
Author, who dares to expose Vice, and the Luxury of the Time he lives
in, pulls off the Disguises of artful Men, and examining in to the
false Pretences, which are made to Virtue, lays open the Lives of
those, _Qui Curios simulant & Bacchanalia vivunt_: An Author, I say,
who dares to do this in a great, and opulent, and flourishing Nation,
can never fail of drawing upon him a great Number of Enemies. Few Men
can bear with Patience, to see those Things detected, which it is their
Interest, and they take Pains to conceal. As to Grand Juries, what they
go upon is, the Testimony of others; they don't judge of Books from
their own Reading; and many have been presented by them, which none, or
at least the greatest Part of them had never seen before. Yet when ever
the Publisher of a Book is presented by a Grand Jury, it is counted a
publick Censure upon the Author, a Disgrace not easily wiped off.

The News-Writers, whose chief Business it is, to fill their Papers and
raise the Attention of their Readers, never forget any Scandal which
can be publish'd with Impunity. By this Means a Book, which once this
Indignity has been put upon, is in a few Days render'd odious, and in
less than a Fortnight comes to be infamous throughout the Kingdom
without any other Demerit; Those Polemick Authors among them, who are
Party-Men, and write either for or against Courts and Ministers, have a
greater Regard to what will serve their Purpose, than they have to
Truth or Sincerity. As they subsist by vulgar Errors, and are kept
alive by the Spirit of Strife and Contention, so it is not their
Business to rectify Mistakes in Opinion, but rather to encrease them
when it serves their Turn. They know, that whoever would ingratiate
themselves with Multitudes and gain Credit amongst them, must not
contradict them; which is the Reason that, how widely soever these
Party-Writers may differ from One another