ambition, from this fingle confidence, that I fhall always prefer the indulgence of your inclinations to the fatisfaction of A very ftrong inftance of my own. which I fhall give you in this addrefs; in which I am determined to follow the example of all others dedicators, and will confider not what my patron really deferves to have written, but what he will be best pleased to read. Without further preface then, I here: prefent you with the labours of fome years of my life. What merit thefe la-bours have is already known to yourself. If, from your favourable judgment, I have conceived fome efteem for them, it cannot be imputed to vanity; fince I fhould have agreed as implicitly to your opinion, had it been given in favour of any other man's production. Negatively, at least, I may be allowed to fay, that had I been fenfible of any great demerit in the work, you are the laft perfon to whofe protection I would have ventured! to recommend it.. B From the name of my patron, indeed, I hope my reader will be convinced, at his very entrance on this work, that he will find in the whole courfe of it, nothing prejudicial A 5 prejudicial to the caufe of religion and virtue; nothing inconfifteut with the ftricteft rules of decency, nor which can offend even the chafteft eye in the perufal. On the contrary, I declare, that to recommend-goodnefs and innocence hath been my fincere endeavour in this history. This honeft purpose you have been pleafed to think I have attained and to fay the truth, it is likelieft to be attained in books of this kind; for an example is a kind of picture, in which virtue becomes as it were an object of fight, and ftrikes us with an idea of that loveliness which Plato afferts there is in her naked charms. Befides difplaying that beauty of virtue which may attract the admiration of mankind, I have attempted to engage a ftronger motive to human action in her favour, by convincing men, that their true intereft directs them to a purfuit of her. For this purpose I have shown, that no acquifitions of guilt can compensate the lofs of that folid inward comfort of mind, which is the fure companion of innocence and virtue; nor can in the leaft balance the evil of that horror and anxiety which, in their room, guilt introduces into our bofoms. And again, that as thefe acquifitions are in themselves generally worthlefs, fo are the means to attain them not only bafe and infamous, but at best uncertain, and always full of danger. Lastly, I have endeavoured ftrongly to inculcate, that virtue and incocence. can scarce ever be injured but by indifcretion; and that it is this alone which often betrays them into the fnares that deceit and villainy fpread for them. A moral which I have the more induftrioufly laboured, as the teaching it is, of all others, the likelieft to be attended with fuccefs; fince, I believe, it is much easier to make good men wife, than to make bad men good. For thefe purposes I have employed all? the wit and humour of which I am mafter in the following hiftory; wherein I have endeavoured to laugh mankind out of their favourite follies and vices. Howfar I have fucceeded in this good "attempt, I fhall fubmit to the candid reader, with only two requefts: First, That he will not expect to find perfection in this work; and Secondly, That he will excufe fome parts parts of it, if they fall fhort of that little merit which I hope many appear in others. I will detain you, Sir no longer. Indeed I have run into a preface, while I' profeffed to write a dedication. But how can it be otherwife? I dare not praise you; and the only means I know of to avoid it, when you are in my thoughts, are either to be entirely filent, or to turn my thoughts to fome other fubject. Pardon, therefore, what I have said in this epiftle, not only without your con. fent, but abfolutely against it; and give me at least leave, in this public manner, to declare, that I am, with the highest respect and gratitude, SIR, Your most obliged, obedient humble Servant, HENRY FIELDING. Containing as much of the birth of the Foundling as An odd accident which befell Mr. Allworthy, at his return |