Written for the Universal Improve Diu multumque defideratum, To which is added, BATTEL BETWEEN THE Antient and Modern BOOKS Bafima eacabafa eanaa irraurista, diarba da caeotaba -Juvatque novos decerpere flores, Infignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam, The Fourth Edition Corrected. LONDON: Printed for John Nutt, near Stationers ΤΟ The Right Honourable, JOHN Lord S O M MERS. My LORD, T HO' the Author has written a large Dedication, yet That being addrefs'd to a Prince, whom I am never likely to have the Honor of being known to; A Perfon, befides, as far as I can obferve, not at all regarded, or thought on by any of our prefent Writers; And, I being wholly free from that Slavery, which Bookfellers ufually lie under, to the Caprices of Authors I think it a wife piece of Prefumption, to infcribe these Papers to your Lord/hip, and to implore your Lordship's Protection of them. God and your Lordship know their Faults, and their Merits; for as to my own Particular, I am altogether a Stranger to the Matter; And, tho' every Body elfe fhould be equally ignorant, do not fear the Sale of the Book, at all the worse, upon that Score. your Lordfhip's A 3 fhip's Name on the Front, in Capital Letters, will at any time get off one Edition; Neither would I defire any other Help, to grow an Alderman, than a Patent for the fole Priviledge of Dedicating to your Lordfhip. I should now, in right of a Dedicator, give your Lordship a Lift of your own Virtues, and, at the fame time, be very unwilling to offend your Modefty; But, chiefly I should celebrate your Liberality towards Men of great Parts and small Fortunes, and give you broad Hints, that I mean myself. And I was just going on in the usual Method, to perufe a hundred or two of Dedications, and transcribe an Abstract, to bę applied to your Lordship; But, I was diverted by a certain Accident. For, upon the Covers of thefe Papers, I cafually obferved written in large Letters,the two following Words, DETUR DIGNISSIMO; which, for ought I knew, might contain fome important Meaning. But, it unluckily fell out, that none of the Authors I employ understood Latin (tho' I have them often in pay to translate out of that Language) I was therefore compelled to have recourse to the Curate of our Parish, who Englished it thus, Let it be given to the Worthieft; And his Comment was, that the Author meant, his his Work fhould be dedicated to the fublimest Genius of the Age, for Wit, Learning, Judgment, Eloquence and Wisdom. I call'd at a Poet's Chamber (who works for my Shop) in an Alley hard by, fhewed him the Tranflation, and defired his Opinion, who it was that the Author could mean; He told me,after fome Confideration, that Vanity was a Thing he abhorr'd; but by the Description, he thoughr himself to be the Perfon aimed at; And at the fame time, he very kindly offer'd his own Affistance gratis towards penning a Dedication to Himself. I defired him, however, to give a second Guess; Why then, faid he, it must be I, or my Lord Sommers. From thence I went to feveral otherWits of my Acquaintance, with no fmall Hazard and Weariness to my Perfou, from a prodigious Number of dark, winding Stairs; But found them all in the fame Story, both of your Lordship and themselves. Now your Lordship is to understand, that this Proceeding was not of my own Invention: For I have fomewhere heard, it is a Maxim, that thofe, to whom every Body allows the fecond Place, have an undoubted Title to the First. THIS infallibly convinced me, that your Lordship was the Perfon intended by the Author. But, being very unacquainted |