While seeking to reproduce the old texts as closely as practicable, with their legitimate typographic and orthographic peculiarities, it has been found advisable here and there to make a few minor changes. The original printer was sometimes careless,--Cramoisy especially so,--and his proof-reader negligent. The result was that certain typographical errors crept into the original prints,--errors not of the author's making, and therefore not illustrative of his methods. These consist in the main, of: (1) turned letters; (2) transposed letters; (3) slipped letters; and (4) mis-spacings. To these obvious errors may be added such as, e.g., mistaking the verb _gratter_ for _grauer_, evidently through a failure on the part of the writer to cross his t's,--the context plainly showing what was written; the printing, e.g., of _beau[(c]oup_ for _beaucoup_; or the repetition on the next line of a syllable in a divided word, resulting in such a redundancy as, _poupouuant_ for _pouuant_. Palpable blemishes like these, we have deemed it advisable to correct without specific mention; in some instances, however, the original error has been retained, and in juxtaposition the correct rendering given within brackets. Another and more annoying class of errors is, the wrong numbering of chapters and pages in the old issues, chiefly the fruit of carelessness in make-up. We indicate, throughout, the original pagination, by inclosing within brackets the number of each page at its beginning, e.g. [148]; in case of misnumbering, the correct figure is also given, e.g. [150, i.e. 149]. A similar device is adopted as to chapter misnumbering, e.g. Chapitre XXX. [i.e. XXIX.]. A difference in the typographic style of the documents presented in the present series, will occasionally be noticed. In following originals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we have of course reproduced their peculiarities, such as the long "s," and character diphthongs; but where our sole copy has been a modern reprint, in a modern typographic dress, we have followed its style, deeming it inadvisable, for mere sake of uniformity, to masquerade the document in olden guise.