If any loose word have dropt from (the Mindes best Interpreter) my Pen, I would have the Reader to pass it over regardless, and not like a Toad, only gather up the venom of a Garden; or like a Goldfinder, make it his business to dive in stench and excrements. However, very cautious I was in offending any modest ear, (though sometimes it could hardly be avoided, the matter in a manner requiring it) because I look upon obscene expressions as the Plague on Paper; and he that comes between the sheets, is in danger of being infected. I shall assure you, had I not more respected a general good, by displaying Vice in general, to put men out of conceit with it, I should not have taken so much pains, to be both blam’d and laught at, but should have wrapt up in silence my shame and infamy. For in truth, this Book may bear a similitude with the _Amphisbena_, a Serpent headed at either end: one biteth the vicious temper of him that reads it, and the other stings him that wrote it. To conclude, I care not though my wickedness and folly be set up as a Monument to make my infamy eternal, so that the reading of my Life may be any ways instrumental for the reformation of licentious persons. _FINIS._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s note: Variations in spelling, hyphenation, apostrophisation and capitalisation have been retained. Frontispiece, ‘n’d’ changed to ‘n’t.,’ “that is thronged with n’t.” Page vi, comma changed to full stop following ‘hereof,’ “have hereof. I am so” Page 8, ‘mourh’ changed to ‘mouth,’ “from my mouth. And then” Page 10, ‘Surpliee’ changed to ‘Surplice,’ “or Surplice, was adjudged” Page 16, closing parenthesis inserted following ‘him,’ “(which I temptingly shewed him)” Page 17, closing parenthesis changed to comma following ‘Preacher,’ “for being a protestant Preacher,” Page 18, ‘minu’ changed to ‘menu,’ “to the menu of the true Church” Page 22, ‘to’ changed to ‘too,’ “of him, yet too forward” Page 23, ‘irecoverably’ changed to ‘irrecoverably,’ “precious time (irrecoverably) I had lost” Page 34, ‘&c’ changed to ‘&c.,’ “Crabs, Bullies, &c., and longed to” Page 39, comma changed to full stop following “Swigmen.” Page 41, comma changed to closing parenthesis following ‘injustice,’ “that must needs (without injustice) be commemorized” Pages 47-53, format of canting vocabulary regularised Page 80, second ‘a’ struck, “concomitant of a very white” Page 80, opening parenthesis inserted before ‘as,’ “or Flaxenish hair, (as I said)” Page 83, ‘I’ changed to italic, “said my Mistress, _I have_” Page 84, ‘mnst’ changed to ‘must,’ “I must have a word” Page 88, second ‘my’ struck, “over powered my sourness” Page 101, ‘Hs’ changed to ‘He,’ “of a Tavern. He is” Page 107, second ‘a’ struck, “spirits with a glass or” Page 107, ‘&’ struck following ‘and,’ “and my Mistresses affection”