fon to induce him to write, I urged the Benefit it might be of to Mankind, to behold a Picture of human Nature, as it really is, ftruggling amidst the War of the Paffions, that infpire the Breaft, and, at length, thro' a Series of Temptations, getting the better of Vice, and adding to the Triumphs of Virtue and the Virtuous. Indeed, he began upon this Difcourfe, to think it his Duty to publish his Adventures, for which he has well given his other Reasons in the Beginning of his Hiftory. Was my Author known as much to the Public in general, as he is by his particular Friends, the Veracity of all he has related of himself would never fall into Doubt. Perhaps the Kingdom cannot boast a Man of more Worth, or more Honour; and he lives a Bleffing to the World, and the Joy and Comfort of his Relations and Friends: But need 1 enlarge on his Character here, when he has fo well portrayed himself in the Book before me, and has given us a thorough Representation of an honeft, upright Heart? I know his Father, and have the greatest Veneration for the Son, who is a Gentleman of excellent Endowments; and has joined, to a finished Education, all the Experience that falls to a Man's Lot, who has feen the World, and inspected its Principles of Action on fo many various Occafions. I promised him to revise and pub

lifh

lish his Performance; and he insisted I should model it as I thought proper; but, I must own, I found it far fuperior to Correction, and exceeding all my most fanguine Expectations; and I ventured only upon two Alterations: He had wrote it as one continued Narrative; but for the Reader's greater Pleasure, and the Benefit of his Memory, I have divided it into Chapters, and added Contents to each; which I think, tho' a modern Way, is a Manner that is ufeful and pleasing; and, as a celebrated Author fays, is like erecting so many Baiting places, or Inns, for the Traveller's Refreshment in his Peregri nations thro' our Work. The other Liberty I took was this, that tho' he had made use of real Names, I, knowing most of the Persons mentioned, thought it was not fo eligible to suffer it to come Abroad in that Manner, and have changed many of the most remarkable, or best known Names, into fictitious ones, that are as expreffive, as any I could pitch upon, of the Characters of the Perfons they reprefent; and I have used the fame Freedom with the Names of Places in England, willing, as much as poffible, to prevent any bad Effects that might arife from the Openness and Sincerity of my Author; and I have had the Pleasure to receive a Letter of Thanks from him for my prudent Caution. Names fignify nothing, they are Facts that my Reader

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requires;

requires; and the Reflections that naturally arife from certain Combinations of Accidents of good and bad Fortune; by which Inftruction and Improvement is conveyed to the Mind. And now I am naturally led to fay fomewhat of the Conftruction and Moral of the Piece before me. The Life and Adventures of Joe Thompson is a Delineation of the Condition of unhappy Mortals, who are fubject to Misfortune, and the Affaults of Vice; and, to attain any desirable End, must wade thro' a Sea of Troubles from without, and of Struggles and Combats from within and my Author, not content with relating Things fimply, has deduced them from firft. Principles; and has endeavoured to make it appear, that Man is not born with any natural Turpitude inherent in him; and that it requires a long Habit of Vice and bad Company intirely to root out those Ideas of Religion and Virtue he is fupplied with by Nature, and a good and careful Education; nor, that once done, can an ingenuous Mind thus, for ever, be debafed, but will rife again from the Rubbish that furrounds it on every Side, again become found and reasonable. The feveral Epifodes that are intersperfed, here and there, as the Adventures of Mrs. Goodwill, Mr. Prim, Mr. Saris, &c. have all of them fo visible a good Tendency, that the Moral need not be point-.

ed

ed out; and the whole Work may be faid to exhibit the Triumphs of Virtue, all benign, ferene, and amiable; and the Defeats of Vice baneful, obnoxious, and ruinous, to Mankind both in Soul and Body. I must look upon my Author a little in another Light alfo, with Regard to the Reflections, Maxims and inftructive Leffons, fcattered thro' every Page of his Adventures. And here I must own his Manner and Spirit charms me; and gives me fo high an Opinion of his Sagacity and Good Senfe, that, tho' I ever had the greatest Affection for him, yet methinks, whenever I read those Breathings, let me call them, of a generous and noble Soul, my Affection is heightened, to a prodigious Degree, more than ever; and I believe our Reader will admit with me, that they make the Work a Syftem of Ethics and Morality, as much as it is an History, or Series of Adventures.

The French, who are noted for their numerous Lives and Memoirs, have introduced the most trifling and jejune Circumftances, that happen to a Man, therein, by which they have made that kind of Writing the Subject of Ridicule and Satire; but, fure, if, with proper Dignity and Decorum, the Tranfactions of a busy Life are given to the World, it may be faid to become as ufeful, or more fo than the most fhining Examples exhibited in

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in Perfon, as it makes a greater Impreffion upon the Heart, and finks more deeply into the Mind: And I must say this for our Countrymen, that they have given the World Works of this Nature, that far furpass the Productions of our Neighbours; and have in them all the eafy Flow and Politeness of the French, together with the nervous Strength and Fire of the English. And I believe it will be admitted, without Difpute, that this brave Nation display, in their Histories and Biography, a Manner and Sentiment peculiar to a free People, which can never be imitated by the Slaves of defpotic Governments.

The Language of my Author is beautiful and applicable to the Subject he treats of; common Events are related in familiar Words, but, when it is required, no one can rise into more apt and proper Strains, and in those you discover the Man, and the genuine Cast and Difpofition of his Soul. You have no uncouth and unnatural Flights of the false Sublime; no distorted Images are introduced; nor is the Fancy bewildered with far fetched Figures and crude Ideas, which never existed any where but in the Brain of the Writer. The whole Production is one even champaign Country; and the verdant Hills and leafy Thickets, that are here and there interfperfed, are fo many Beauties that add to the delightful Prospect of the fruitful

Plain,