With the Author's APOLOGY, And explanatory Notes, by W. W-tt--n, B. D. Bafima eacabafa eanaa irraurista, diarba da cacotaba Juvatque novos decerpere flores, Infignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam, Lucret. EDINBURGH: Printed for G. HAMILTON & J. BALFOUR, and L. HUN- M, DCC, LII. A N 66 OGY A POL O I For the, &c. F good and ill Nature equally operated upon Mankind, I might have faved myself the Trouble of this Apology; for it is manifeft, "by the Reception the following Discourse hath met with, that thofe who approve it, are a great Majority among the Men of Tafte: Yet there have been two or three Treatifes written exprefsly against "it, befides many others that have flirted at it occa"fionally, without one Syllable having been ever "published in its Defence, or even Quotation to its "Advantage that I can remember, except by the polite Author of a late Difcourfe between a Deift "and a Socinian. “THEREFORE, fince the Book feems calculated "to live at least as long as our Language and our "Taste admits no great Alterations, I am content to "convey fome Apology along with it. "THE greatest Part of that Book was finished a"bove thirteen Years fince, 1696; which is eight "Years before it was published. The Author was "then young, his Invention at the Height, and his Reading fresh in his Head. By the Affiftance of "fome Thinking, and much. Converfation, he had "endeavoured to ftrip himself of as many real Pre"judices as he could: I fay, real ones; because, un"der the Notion of Prejudices, he knew to what "dangerous a 2 |