t; and
therefore to ask Men of Business, or that have any Thing else to do, to
read such an incoherent Rhapsody throughout, would be an unreasonable
Request; at least, the Author himself ought to be more modest than to
expect it: Yet I must beg Leave to say, that whoever has not done this,
ought not to be so magisterial in his Censures, as Some have been on
Passages the most justifiable in the World. It is impossible to say
every Thing at once; and yet Every body, who has a Book before him, has
the Liberty of opening and shutting it, when and where he pleases.
There are many Things, which we entirely approve of, Part of which we
disliked, before we were acquainted with the whole; and we ought always
to consider, that Authors often reserve some Places on Purpose to clear
up and explain others, that are difficult and obscure: Even when we
meet with a Thing really offensive and no ways to be maintain'd, unless
we read a Book through, we do not know but the Author has excepted
against that very Passage himself; perhaps he has retracted, or begg'd
Pardon for it.

It is hardly possible, that a Man of Candour and any tolerable
Judgment, who seriously considers the Book, can be offended at it. In
the First Place, he will find, that what I call Vices are the
Fashionable Ways of Living, the Manners of the Age, that are often
practis'd and preach'd against by the same People: Those Vices, that
the Persons who are guilty of them, are angry with me for calling them
so: The Decencies and Conveniencies, which my Adversaries are so fond
of, and which, rather than forsake and part with, they would take Pains
to justify. In the Second, That I address myself to the Voluptuous,
whose greatest Delight is in this World; and, that when I speak to
Others, that would be contented without Superfluities, and prefer
Virtue and Honesty to Pomp and Greatness, I lay down quite different
Maxims: That what I have said, Page 258, is true, _viz._ Tho' I have
shewn the Way to Worldly Greatness, I have, without Hesitation,
preferr'd the Road that leads to Virtue.

Should it be objected, that I was not in Earnest, when I recommended
those mortifying Maxims, I would answer, That those, who think so,
would have said the same to St. _Paul_, or JESUS CHRIST himself, if he
had bid them sell their Estates and give their Money to the Poor.
Poverty and Self-denial have no Allurements in Sight of my Enemies;
they hate the Aspect and the very Thoughts of them, as m