peruse it as carefully, and make as confiderable Improvements, as other young Princes have already done by the many Volumes of late Years written for a Help to their Studies.

THAT Tour Highness may advance in Wisdom and Virtue, as well as Years, and at last out-fhine all Your Royal Ancestors, shall be the daily Prayer of,

SIR,

Decemb. 1697.

Tour Highness's

Moft devoted, &c.

THE

THE

13

PREFACE.

T

HE Wits of the prefent Age being fo very numerous and penetrating, it seems, the Grandees of Church and State begin to fall under horrible Apprehenfions, left these Gentlemen during the Intervals of a long Peace, fhould find leifure to pick Holes in the weak fides of Religion and Government. To prevent which, there has been much Thought employ'd of late upon cer tain Projects for taking off the Force, and Edge of those formidable Enquirers, from canvafing and reasoning upon fuch delicate Points. They have at length fixed upon one, which will require fome Time as well as Coft, to perfect. Mean while, the Danger hourly increafing, by new Levies of Wits all appointed (as there is Reafon to fear) with Pen, Ink, and Paper, which may at an hour's Warning be drawn out into Pamphlets, and other Offenfive Weapons, ready for immediate Execution:

It

It was judged of abfolute necefiity, that fome present Expedient be thought on, till the main Design can be brought to Maturity. To this End, at a Grand Conmittee, fome Days ago, this important Dif covery was made by a certain curious and refined Obferver; That Sea-men have a Custom when they meet a Whale, to fling him out an empty Tub, by way of Amusement, to divert him from laying violent Hands upon the Ship. This Parable was immediately mythologiz'd: The Whale was interpreted to be Hobs's Leviathan, which toffes and plays with all other Schemes of Religion and Government, whereof a great many are hollow, and dry, and empty, and noify, and wooden, and given to Rotation, This is the Leviathan from whence the terrible Wits of our Age are faid to borrow their Weapons. The Ship in danger, is cafily understood to be its old Antitype the Commonwealth. But, how to analyze the Tub, was a Matter of Difficulty; when after long Enquiry and Debate, the literal Meaning was preferved: And it was decreed, that in order to prevent thefe Leviathans from toffing and fporting with the Commonwealth, (which of it felf is too apt to fluctuate)

they

they fhould be diverted from that Game by a Tale of a Tub. And my Genius being conceived to lye not unhappily that way, I had the Honor done me to be engaged in the Performance.

THIS is the fole Design in publishing the following Treatife, which I hope will serve for an Interim of fome Months to employ thofe unquiet Spirits, till the perfecting of that great Work: into the Secret of which, it is reasonable the courteous Reader should have fome little Light.

IT is intended that a large Academy be erected, capable of containing nine thou fand feven hundred forty and three Perfons; which by modeft Computation is reckoned to be pretty near the current Number of Wits in this ffland. These are to be difpofed into the feveral Schools of this Academy, and there pursue thofe Studies to which their Genius most inclines them. The Undertaker himself will publish his Proposals with all convenient speed, to which I fhall refer the curious Reader for a more particular Account, mentioning at present only a few of the principal Schools. There is, first, a large Pedera

ftick