The Preface

rambling digressions than I had done in the fable itself.

I shall spend no time in answering these accusations; where men are prejudiced, the best apologies are lost; and I know that those who think it criminal to suppose a necessity of vice in any case whatever will never be reconciled to any part of the performance; but if this is thoroughly examined, all the offense it can give must result from the wrong inferences that may perhaps be drawn from it, and which I desire nobody to make. When I assert that vices are inseparable from great and potent societies, and that it is impossible their wealth and grandeur should subsist without them, I do not say that the particular members of them who are guilty of any should not be continually reproved, or not be punished for them when they grow into crimes.

There are, I believe, few people in London, of those that are at any time forced to go on foot but what could wish the streets of it much cleaner than generally they are, while they regard nothing but their own clothes and private convenience: but, when once they come to consider that what offends them is the result of the plenty, great traffic and opulence of that mighty city, if they have any concern in its welfare, they will hardly ever wish to see the streets of it less dirty. For if we mind the materials of all sorts that must supply such an infinite number of trades and handicrafts as are always going forward, the vast quantity of vic-