--Si quis calumnietur levius esse quam decet theologum, aut mordacius quam deceat Christianum--non Ego, sed Democritus dixit. -- ERASMUS.
Si quis Clericus, aut Monachus, verba joculatoria, risum moventia, sciebat, anathema esto. -- SECOND COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
JOHN,
LORD VISCOUNT SPENCER
MY LORD,
I humbly beg leave to offer you these two Volumes;[D.1] they are the best my talents, with such bad health as I have, could produce: --had Providence granted me a larger stock of either, they had been a much more proper present to your Lordship.
I beg your Lordship will forgive me, if, at the same time I dedicate this work to you, I join Lady SPENCER, in the liberty I take of inscribing the story of _Le Fever_ to her name; for which I have no other motive, which my heart has informed me of, but that the story is a humane one.
