It cannot possibly escape the Observation of the Reader, that the Baron, when he wrote these Letters to his noble Friend, was a profess’d Member of the Church of _Rome_; but that nevertheless, he was not such a Bigot to its Constitution, nor such a Believer in the Legends of its Writers, or the pretended Miracles of its Saints, as to incur the Character of a blind and furious Zealot; it appearing on the contrary, from several Declarations of his Mind in the following Pages, that he did not want Charity either in his Nature or Principles for those from whom he differ’d in religious Sentiments. Such a Catholic Spirit, assisted by his good Sense, made it, no doubt, much easier for him, after reflecting upon the Fopperies and Impostures which he had seen in that Church during his Travels, to abjure the _Romish_ and to embrace the _Protestant_ Religion, which he did accordingly with great Devotion last Summer, at _Berlin_; after which, his _Prussian_ Majesty was pleas’d to distinguish him with peculiar Marks of his Favour and Esteem, by declaring him one of the Gentlemen of his Bed-Chamber, and Chief Cup-Bearer of his Court; and he has very lately given him a considerable Prebend. To the new Edition of his Memoirs, from which the following Sheets are translated, there’s not only a great number of material Additions in the Body of the Work, as is observ’d by the Editor of it, _Amsterdam_, but several new Notes: In this Translation, these Notes are likewise considerably augmented, for the sake of continuing the Thread of the History to the present Time, by the Notice taken of certain remarkable Alterations, or other curious Particulars that have happen’d to the Persons or the Places mentioned, since 1734, when the said Edition was publish’d. One great Defect for which the foreign Editor has been very much blam’d, was the want of a Table to these Memoirs; which, if not absolutely necessary in a Work of this kind, wherein so many Persons and Facts are mentioned, cannot be necessary for any Book whatsoever that comes from the Press. To supply this Defect, the Translator has added an Alphabetical Index to each of the two Volumes; which Indexes are the more copious, that the Reader might know where to turn in an Instant for some Account of the Characters, Conduct, or Familys of those public Personages, whose Names so often occur in the News-Papers. [Illustration] [Illustration] THE AUTHOR’s PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.