A Reader that is not Unattentive, may easily collect from what he will meet with in some of the ensuing Discourses, That they were written several years ago, under an Usurping Government, that then prevail’d. And this may keep it from appearing strange, That in Papers, which contain some things not likely to be Relish’d by those that were then in Power, the Author should take occasion to speak of himself as of Another person, as well to avoid the being Suspected by them, in case his Papers should come into any of their hands, as to comply with the Design he then had; That if these Discourses should happen to be made publick, the Reader might be left to ghess, whether or no he were entertain’d with a Fiction or a true Narrative. And though a Change of Circumstances, has occasion’d the Publication of these Papers, which should have come forth by themselves (if at all) in such a way as will make most Readers look upon them as containing a Story purely Romantick: Yet they may have in them much less of Fiction, than Such will (tis like) Imagine. For being really a great Lover of Angling, and frequently diverting my self at that sport, sometimes alone, and sometimes in Company; the Accidents of that Recreation, were the true Themes, on which the following Discourses were not the Only Meditations I had made. Nor is the Intimation given at the end of this (4th) Section, of a further Continuation of such Discourses, an Artifice or shift, to steal away from a Conversation I was unable to Continue, without seeming to do so; there being in readiness divers Reflections relating to our Anglers, which had furnish’d Eusebius and his Friends with Discourses for the Afternoon, if I had judg’d, that to invite an Addition to so Prolix an Account as I had given of them already, nothing could be requisite but a Supply of Thoughts.
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