DEDICATORY EPISTLE.

...would it encounter so friendly a Protector; such as Your Humanity promises me.

For the titular Programma prospectus/title of Vanity could render Him suspect to some of inferior eye, as if he were acting the part of an author induced to argue gently against the morals of the age, with the purpose of more biting and slandering, secretly, as if from an ambush, slandering the gifts of fortune: and that which a timely verse enunciates with the counsel of an upright mind, would be received sinisterly, as a Satirical Cavil; the danger of which fear, Reverend Father, your perspicacity in discerning between the two had long ago absolved me.

You will therefore give an easy Hearing to the songs about Vanity; although the sound of the plebeian cithara, having scarcely glided to the ears, may suddenly expire in the air. You will incline a benevolent scent to the rustic smoke and vapors of common incense for the present: while from elsewhere the frankincense of the Cilicians and Arabians, to be sacrificed to the Gods and Sons of the Highest, is poured upon You. You will extend a propitious right hand, intending to admit the Muse, now a dweller of the Rhine, sometimes to be asserted by Your Domestics.