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EPISTLE

то

Dr. ARBUTHNOT.

VOL. IV.

B

ADVERTISEMENT

то

The first publication of this Epifle.

T

HIS paper is a fort of bill of complaint, begun many years fince, and drawn up by fnatches, as the several occafions offered. I had no thoughts of publishing it, till it pleafed fome Perfons of Rank and Fortune [the Authors of Verfes to the Imitator of Horace, and of an Epistle to a Doctor of Divinity from a Nobleman at Hampton Court] to attack, in a very extraordinary manner, not only my Writings (of which, being public, the Public is judge) but my Perfon, Morals, and Family, whereof, to thofe who know me not, a truer information may be requifite. Being divided between the neceffity to fay fomething of myfelf, and my own laziness to undertake fo awkward a tafk, I thought it the fhortest way to put the laft hand to this Epiftle. If it have any thing pleafing, it will be that by which I am moft defirous to pleafe, the Truth and the Sentiment; and if any thing offenfive, it will be only to thofe I am leaft forry to offend, the vicious or the ungenerous.

Many will know their own pictures in it, there being not a circumftance but what is true; but I have,

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