I Was Amongst The Virtues Like The

[allegory] Is A Flight By Which The Human Wit Attempts At One And The Same Time To Investigate Two Objects, And Consequently Is Fitted Only To The Most Exalted Geniuses.

[h]ow Do I Pity Those Who (assuming The Name Of Friends) Surround Themselves With Maxims Importing The Wisdom Of Doubt And Suspicion, 'til They Impose On Themselves That Very Hard Task Of Laboring Through Life Without Ever Knowing A Human Creature To Whom They Can Make The Proper Use Of Language And Freely Speak The Dictates Of Their Hearts!

I Often Used To Think Myself In The Case Of The Fox-hunter, Who, When He Had Toiled And Sweated All Day In The Chase As If Some Unheard-of Blessing Was To Crown His Success, Finds At Last All He Has Got By His Labor Is A Stinking Nauseous Animal. But My Condition Was Yet Worse Than His; For He Leaves The Loathsome Wretch To Be Torn By His Hounds, Whilst I Was Obliged To Fondle Mine, And Meanly Pretend Him To Be The Object Of My Love.

The Motives To Actions And The Inward Turns Of Mind Seem In Our Opinion More Necessary To Be Known Than The Actions Themselves; And Much Rather Would We Choose That Our Reader Should Clearly Understand What Our Principal Actors Think Than What They Do.

If Modesty And Candor Are Necessary To An Author In His Judgment Of His Own Works, No Less Are They In His Reader.