I have incessantly perus’d the vast _Volumes_ of others, _Ancients_ as well as _Moderns_; and whatever may be found there variously dispers’d, over-strain’d, or collected profusely, without either Order, or Coherence, you’ll find here manifestly disposed, and neatly contracted in this small WORK. I have sever’d the _Grain_ from the CHAFF, winnowed the _Seeds_ from the HUSKS, and purged the _Gold_ from the ORE, to the end that I might again successfully _Sow_ what I have thus laboriously _reaped_; and digest all Things into such an easy and clear _Method_, that you’ll be at no Loss here for what you want, but may turn to it at once, whatever the _Case_ may be; you’ll read nothing twice, nor will you fall into any _Trifles_, which might either confuse, or detain you. BUT that I may not be misconstrued or misrepresented here, give me Leave to affirm that the Design of this WORK, is not to reprehend or find Fault, with any former _Writer’s Performance_; but only to render these Things, which _others_ have either treated negligently, or indifferently, confusedly, or obscurely, the more Clear and Evident. THIS, candid _Reader_, being the Design as well as the Reason of my _Undertaking_, according to the _Fruit_ you receive by it, Pray, repress the Minds of the Invidious; and according to the Judgment you make of its Worth, let it stand or fall in your Esteem. Not that I am so vain in the _interim_ to imagine, that the Work can stand upon the Foot of its own _Merit_; and far less can I expect that it will escape the ordinary Fate of _Censure_: No, I shall take it well, considering its _Imperfections_, if it undergoes no worse Fate, than what is common to BOOKS; especially considering that it is no ways set off with a great _Figure_, under the splendid appearance and modish Trappings of flourishing _Hypotheses_, so common among our _Modern Writers_.