If, from all this, _Shakespear_ or good Letters have received any advantage, and the Public any benefit or entertainment, the thanks are due to the _Proprietors_, who have been at the expence of procuring this Edition. And I should be unjust to several deserving Men of a reputable and useful Profession, if I did not, on this occasion, acknowledge the fair dealing I have always found amongst them; and profess my sense of the unjust Prejudice which lies against them; whereby they have been, hitherto, unable to procure that security for their Property, which they see the rest of their Fellow-Citizens enjoy: A prejudice in part arising from the frequent _Piracies_ (as they are called) committed by Members of their own Body. But such kind of Members no Body is without. And it would be hard that this should be turned to the discredit of the honest part of the Profession, who suffer more from such Injuries than any other men. It hath, in part too, arisen from the clamours of profligate Scriblers, ever ready, for a piece of Money, to prostitute their bad sense for or against any Cause prophane or sacred; or in any Scandal public or private: These meeting with little encouragement from Men of account in the Trade (who even in this enlightened Age are not the very worst Judges or Rewarders of merit), apply themselves to People of Condition; and support their importunities by false complaints against _Booksellers_. But I should now, perhaps, rather think of my own Apology, than busy myself in the defence of others. I shall have some _Tartuffe_ ready, on the first appearance of this Edition, to call out again, and tell me, that _I suffer myself to be wholly diverted from my purpose by these matters less suitable to my clerical Profession_. “Well, but,” says a friend, “why not take so candid an intimation in good part? Withdraw yourself, again, as you are bid, into the clerical Pale; examine the Records of sacred and profane Antiquity; and, on them, erect a Work to the confusion of Infidelity.” Why, I have done all this, and more: And hear now what the same Men have said to it. They tell me, _I have wrote to the wrong and injury of Religion, and furnished out more handles for Unbelievers_. “Oh now the secret’s out; and you may have your pardon, I find, upon easier terms. ’Tis only, to write no more.”—Good Gentlemen! and shall I not oblige them? They would gladly _obstruct_ my way to those things which every Man, who _endeavours well_ in his Profession, must needs think he has some claim to, when he sees them given to those who never did _endeavour_; at the same time that they would _deter_ me from taking those advantages which Letters enable me to procure for myself. If then I am to write no more (tho’ as much out of my Profession as they may please to represent this Work, I suspect their modesty would not insist on a scrutiny of our several applications of this profane profit and their