TO THE KING.

...that it is easier, according to the opinion of the Philosophers Likely a reference to Aristotle or Plato regarding the stubbornness of human will compared to animal instinct., to bring almost all other animals to reason than man alone, and to lead him back to right belief once he has strayed from it. But I am certain that if these fickle and incredulous spirits will take the trouble to read this work thoroughly, they will change their minds. The important thing is that Your Majesty finds it agreeable, and that it be judged and esteemed, not by the external and apparent merit of the work, but by the internal affection and extreme desire I have to benefit the public. This is not a gift, SIRE, which I wish to use as a hook to draw in greater ones. I recognize myself henceforth as unworthy of seeking dignities, graces, benefits, or favors. My design is to keep my Muses A classical reference to the goddesses of inspiration, representing the author's creative and intellectual output. always in full liberty, and not to subject their labors to such baseness that they be weighed only in the scales of gratification and favor, fearing to find the counterweight of a forced reward, such as one gives to a nuisance. The Muses, being like Goddesses and possessing something of Divinity, should allow themselves to be more willingly stirred by honor and glory than by any sort of material benefits. Not that it would not be very honorable, should the occasion arise, not to offend in this point their great and sovereign Maecenas original: "Mecenas" — Gaius Maecenas was a Roman patron of the arts; here the author uses the name as a title for the King as a protector of scholars., who, having taken the trouble to visit their Mount Parnassus The mythological home of the Muses; the author implies the King has shown interest in the arts and sciences., would not have wished to leave it entirely deserted and barren of offerings: for one cannot close the hands of Royalty without crime or temerity. But it is no longer for me to have a mind entangled by the habits—