T H E

PUBLISHER

T O T H E

R E A D E R.

Reader,

• That you have not sooner enjoyed this long-expected edition, you cannot justly blame either the author or myself. Not myself, for I could not publish the book before I had it; nor the author, because many unexpected circumstances distracted his mind with other matters and interrupted him in his current plan—so much so that he was snatched away by death before he had quite finished it.

But though the learned world may very well lament the loss of such an able and ingenious writer, yet regarding this present point—if it may lessen original: "mitigate" your sorrow—in all likelihood this book would not have seen the light of day so soon if he had lived. So many pressing circumstances original: "emergent occasions" gave him new interruptions and offered him new temptations for further delay. Indeed, it would have been desirable for it to have had the final polishing of his own hand That is, his final revisions and edits., as the editor original: "peruser" of his papers indicates in his last*