Excerpt from The Miscellaneous Works of the Late Reverend and Learned Conyers Middleton, D.D., Principal Librarian of the University of Cambridge, Vol. 1 of 4: Containing All His Writings, Except the Life of Cicero This was my view, in publifhing 'a feparate edition of i the Introduetory di/zour/e which, as I eafily forefaw, was fure to encounter all the oppofition, that prejudice, _bi gottry, and fuperl'tition are ever prepared to give to all free inquiries into Opinions, which depend on the prevalence of their power. I was aware, that the very novelty of it would offend, and the matter of it {till more: that many wou1d rife up againfi it, and fome of them by writing, others, by noife and clamor, try to raife a popular odium. Upon it but my comfort was, that this would excite' the candid inquirers alfo, to take it into their confideration, and to weigh the merit and confequences of it, and it was the judge.. Ment of thefe alone, by which I propofed to determine my future meafures and refolution with regard to it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.