By JOHN NORRIS, Rector of Diram qui contudit Hydram. Deram qu Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit, Comperit invidiam fupremo fine domari. Hor. Epift. Lib. 2. Epift. 1. Carefully Revifed, Corrected, and Improved The Sirth Edition. LONDON, Printed by W. BOWYER, for S. MANSHIP; and Sold ADVERTISEMENT from the Author to the Reader. A S it cannot be thought ftrange, that having by this Edition an opportunity of revifing this Book, I should comply with it; fo neither can it, that when I did fo, I should find many things in it, (being a juvenile compofition) which my now riper, and as I prefume better judgment, cannot fo well approve of. I have indeed found many things that were not as they should be; fome as to notion, Some as to fact, and fome as to manner of expreffion; and accordingly what I have obferv'd of this kind, at least in the most confiderable inftances, I have endeavour'd to rectifie, leaving out what was incorrigible, and making fome improvements up and down as occafion offered: And tho' I cannot fay it is now fo correct as if it were the prefent production of my pen, yet I think it is indifferently fo. And accordingly, this Edition, is the Edition which I would commend to pofterity, not owning A 2 the the former, any farther than they agree with this. In like manner as St. Auftin fays of his imperfect Book upon Genefis, written when he was young, which he would have measured by what he wrote afterwards upon the same subject, when he was a Bishop. Breviter admoneo ut illi duodecem libri legantur, quos longe poftea Epifcopus feci, & ex ipfis de ifto judicetur. The fame with due accommodation fay I here, defigning as I have opportunity, to revife my other writings, and to correct what is amifs in them: In the mean while, all that I have farther to say upon this occafion is, that if there be any thing in the verfe part, that fhall appear offenfive in strictness of notion, as perhaps there may, this line in particular, But fure he coveted to have thee there. I would not have it taken as offered for theological or phylofophick truth, but only as a ftroke of Poetry, which with equitable Readers I hope will find allowance. |