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THE

PREFACE.

He Worth of the following Treatife is fuffici

Τ'

ent to Recommend it felf to the World: The Antiquity of the Manufcript, and the near Relation of the Au thor to the Cardinal's Service, must Enhance the Value with ery confidering Reader. It will be plain from the Treatife, that the Author was a Domestick of the Cardinal's; and therefore you will not be furpriz'd to find,

that

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that he endeavour'd to give you only the handfom Likeness of his Mafter, putting his Finger on all that might Disfigure his Face. They tell a Story of Vandike, that he painted his Daughter leaning on her Hand, and with her Fingers hiding all the lower part of her Face, which was as deform'd, and Shocking, as the upper part was charming. The fame may be Laid of our Author; He has not deliver'd any thing but Truth, and Truth that affords a great deal of Variety and Pleafure; but he has cast into a Shade all the evil Effects of that Stateman's Adminiftration,

which will be evident from the Perufal of the Memorial of my Lord Cecil.

? It must be own'd, that the Cardinal was a Man of extraordinary Parts, and the best qualify'd for fuch a Favourite; but it must also be confefsd, that no Man can be so qualify'd as to deferve fuch fingu iar Favour. And he will be an Example to warn all others who aspire to the fame Heighth and Grandeur, on what a flippery Bottom they fix their Hap pineß, the Mutability of Fortune, the tottering State of all earthly Dignity, the Deceitfulneß of flattering Friends,

and

and the Inftability of Prin ces Favours. For this great Cardinal experienc'd all these

Things witneß his fleeting

Honour, the Loẞ of Friends,

Riches, and Dignities; having

Satiety of all Things while

Fortune fmil'd, and, being in her Frown forgot by his Prince, who doated on him, and depriv'd of all earthly Foys, and even of his Liberty, the Sum of all; who in above twenty Years Study, Industry and Pains, obtain'd Wealth and Dignity fo eminent, and lost all in leß than one Year.

THE