The word 'time'--here admits of a double rendering whereby the _author's_ aims are more manifestly laid open; and there is also another word in this sentence which carries a 'delicate sound' with it, to those who have met this author in other fields, and who happen to be of his counsel. But lest the stories of themselves should still seem flat and pointless, or trivial and insignificant to the uninstructed ear, it may be necessary to interweave them with some further 'allegations on this subject,' which the author assumes, or appears to assume, in his own person. 'I write my book for _few men_, and for _few years_. Had it been _matter of duration_, I should have put it into a _better language_. According to the continual variation that ours has been subject to hitherto [and we know who had a similar view on this point], who can expect that the present _form of language_ should be in use fifty years hence. It slips every day through our fingers; and since I was born, is altered above one half. We say that it is now perfect: _every age says the same of the language it speaks_. I shall hardly trust to that so long as it runs away and _changes_ as it does. ''Tis for good and useful writings to nail and rivet it to them, and its reputation will go _according to the fortune of our state. For which reason, I am not afraid to insert herein several private articles, which will spend their use amongst the men now living_, AND THAT CONCERN THE PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE OF SOME WHO WILL SEE FURTHER INTO THEM THAN THE COMMON READER.' But that the inner reading of these private articles--that reading which lay farther in--to which he invites the attention of those whom it concerns--was not expected to spend its use among the men then living, that which follows might seem to imply. It was that wrapping of them, it was that gross superscription which 'the fortune of our state was likely to make obsolete ere long,' this author thought, as we shall see if we look into his prophecies a little. 'I will not, after all, as I often hear dead men spoken of, that men should say of _me_: "He _judged_, and LIVED SO and SO. Could he have spoken when he was dying, he would have said _so_ or _so_. I knew him better than any." 'So _our_ virtues Lie in the interpretation of the times,' 'says the unfortunate Tullus Aufidius, in the act of conducting a Volscian army against the infant Roman state, bemoaning himself upon the conditions of his historic whereabouts, and beseeching the sympathy and favourable constructions of posterity-- So our virtues Lie in the interpretation of the times; And power unto itself most commendable Hath not a tomb so evident as a hair To extol what it hath done. 'The times,' says Lord Bacon, speaking in reference to books particularly, though _he_ also recommends the same key for the reading of lives, 'the times in many cases give _great light_ to true interpretations.'