Theſe are indeed to be conſidered as Blanks in the grand Lottery of Time. We therefore who are the Regiſters of that Lottery, ſhall imitate thoſe ſagacious Perſons who deal in that which is drawn at Guild-Hall, and who never trouble the Public with the many Blanks they diſpoſe of; but when a great Prize happens to be drawn, the News-Papers are preſently filled with it, and the World is ſure to be informed at whoſe Office it was ſold: Indeed, commonly two or three different Offices lay claim to the Honour of having diſpoſed of it; by which I ſuppoſe the Adventurers are given to underſtand that certain Brokers are in the Secrets of Fortune, and indeed of her Cabinet-Council.
My Reader then is not to be ſurpriſed, if in the Courſe of this Work, he ſhall find ſome Chapters very ſhort, and others altogether as long; ſome that contain only the Time of a ſingle Day, and others that compriſe Years; in a word, if my Hiſtory ſometimes ſeems to ſtand ftill, and ſometimes to fly. For all which I ſhall not look on myſelf as accountable to any Court of Critical Juriſdiction whatever: For as I am, in reality, the Founder of a new Province ofWriting,
