to destroy. Secondly, as on
several Accounts it might be dangerous to let the Multitude into the
Secret, that those Houses and the Trade that is drove in them are
conniv'd at, so, by this Means appearing unblameable, the wary
Magistrates preserve themselves in the good Opinion of the weaker Sort
of People, who imagine, that the Government is always endeavouring,
tho' unable, to suppress what it actually tolerates: Whereas if they
had a Mind to rout them out, their Power in the Administration of
Justice is so sovereign and extensive, and they know so well how to
have it executed, that one Week, nay one Night, might send them all a
packing._

I appeal to your self, Sir, whether this Relation is not more proper to
give Men (even the Voluptuous, of any Taste) a Disgust and Aversion to
the Women in those Houses, than it is to raise any criminal Desire. I
am sorry the Grand Jury should conceive, as they said, that I publish'd
this with a Design to debauch the Nation; without considering, in the
first Place, that there is not a Sentence nor a Syllable, that can
either offend the chastest Ear, or sully the Imagination of the most
vicious; or, in the Second, that the Matter complain'd of, is
manifestly address'd to Magistrates and Politicians, or at least the
most serious and thinking Part of Mankind; whereas a general Corruption
of Manners, as to Lewdness, to be produced by Reading, can only be
apprehended from Obscenities, easily purchased, and every Way adapted
to the Tastes and Capacities of the heedless Multitude, and
unexperienc'd Youth of both Sexes; but that the Performance so
outragiously exclaim'd against was never calculated for either of these
Classes of People, is self-evident from every Circumstance. The
Beginning of the Prose is altogether Philosophical, and hardly
intelligible to any, that have not been used to Matters of Speculation;
and the running Title of it is so far from being specious, or inviting,
that, without having read the Book it self, No body knows what to make
of it, whilst at the same Time the Price is Five Shillings. From all
which it is very plain, that if the Book contains any dangerous Tenets,
I have not been very sollicitous to scatter them among the People. I
have not said a Word to please or engage them, and the greatest
Compliment I have made them, has been, _Apage Vulgus_. _But as Nothing_
(I say p 257.) _would more clearly demonstrate the Falsity of my
Notions, than that the Generality