On The Wings Of Fancy, Gentle Readers,

Yet If Strict Criticism Should Till Frown On Our Method, Let Candor And Good Humor Forgive What Is Done To The Best Of Our Judgment, For The Sake Of Perspicuity In The Story And The Delight And Entertainment Of Our Candid Reader.

[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.

On The Wings Of Fancy, Gentle Readers, Bear Yourselves Into The Mid-air, Where By Imagination You May Form A Large Stupendous Castle.

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.

I Endeavor Not To Conceal That I Believe There Is A Great Mixture Of Desire In The Passion Which Is Called Love--or Rather, Without Any Far-fetched Strain On Words, It May Be Called The Companion Of Love.