The lives of all the princes of Orange, from William the Great, founder of the Common-wealth of the United Provinces written in French by the Baron Maurier, in the year 1682, and published at Paris, by order of the French King ; to which is added the life of His present Majesty King William the Third, from his birth to his landing in England, by Mr. Thomas Brown ; together with all the princes heads taken from original draughts.

To his Honoured Friend THOMAS CHAMBERS OF Hanworth, Esq

SIR,

THough I know what a just aversion you have to the common strain of Dedicati∣ons, yet with the usual assurance of an Authour of the Town, I have pre∣sumed to inscribe this History to you; so much too powerful was either my gratitude or my interest for the Complaisance I ought to have had for your Modesty. As I have recei∣ved too many Obligations at your hands not to endeavour at some sort of a requital (if Addresses of this

Nature don't rather serve to in∣crease the Debt than to acquit it) so I am too well acquainted with your Temper to offer at any thing that may look like Flattery. 'Tis I con∣fess somewhat hard to be avoided upon these occasions, and few Pa∣trons quarrel with the poor Slaves, that make these Applications to them, for being too liberal of their Incense. But you need not fear any such dreadful Entertainment from me: For contrary to the received Practise of all my Predecessors in Dedication, I intend not to say one Word in your Praise. Nay what is more surprizing, instead of being a Panegyrist I here come publickly to reproach you, and that freedom as gross as it looks, I know you will much sooner excuse than being prai∣sed.

I must therefore, (though it is much against my inclination to be the bearer of ill News) take the bold∣ness to inform you that the World speaks very strange things of you, and such as I am afraid you will find it a difficult matter to justifie without the affectation of being sin∣gular. It complains in the first place that in a time of Universal perfi∣diousness and degeneracy, when the profession of Friendship serves only to usher in some piece of Treachery with a better grace, you have the opiniatreté to be sincere and unde∣signing; that at an Age wherein o∣thers of your quality wholly aban∣don themselves to their pleasures, and generously neglect the pursuit of every thing besides, you are so ill∣natured as to use them only en pas∣sant, and cannot be brought to al∣low that Learning sits ill upon a

Gentleman; and lastly, that amidst so vast a Wealth, which uses to have no other effect upon the rest of Man∣kind, but either to make them neg∣lect themselves or despise others, you obstinately continue to be un∣fashionably virtuous and condescen∣ding. I could tell you of several other objections of the like terrible importance that are frequently made against you, but as by these I have mention'd, you may sufficiently judge what malicious Worlds thinks of you, I shall forbear to recount the rest.

And now Sir, if I may be per∣mitted to speak something of the fol∣lowing Translation, I hope it is a Present not altogether unworthy of your Acceptance. There is this at least to be said in the behalf of it, which very few done out of the same Language can pretend to, and that is, the extream Scarcity as well as

Excellence of the Original, there being (as far as I can inform my self) not above four or five of them in England. That very Book which my Friends and I made use of, (for you must give me leave here to inform you, that I have but a small share in this performance) and is now in the Possession of a Learned Gentleman, had formerly passed the Hands of King Charles the Second; for he having recei∣ved a mighty Character of it, was so impatient to read it over, that he could not stay to be furnished with one of them from France, but sent to borrow this. As for the Author, though I ingenuously own that I am so uncharitable to his Country-men, as to believe they are for the general part as unfit to write History as Dutch-men are to write Epic Poems (for Dutch Epic

Poetry is down-right. History dis∣guised with Metre, and French Hi∣story, as far as Fiction will make it so, is down-right Poetry,) yet he has happily escaped the Genius of the rest of his Nation, who are so apt to run out into strange Love∣adventures, and other Chimera's e∣ven upon the most solemn occasions, and, as appears by his Writings, was a Person of great Quality, Pro∣bity and Experience. If he has a∣ny fault 'tis this, that he is now and then too much upon the Nar∣rative, but his Old-Age will ex∣cuse that Infirmity. As for the rest, he was a passionate Lover of Truth, and an Adorer of true Me∣rit, where-ever he found it, whether in Catholic or Hugonot. Diffe∣rence in Religion not being able to prepossess him to any Man's disad∣vantage, if he were otherwise valu∣able.

In short, he has discovered several important Matters of State, which, till he revealed them, were Mysteries to all the World, and I shall but do him justice when I say that he has joyned the unaffected Simplicity of Philip de Comines, to the Veracity of the great Thua∣nus. The last Life has been done by a modern Hand; but though it does not come up to the former, seems to be written with great Impartia∣lity and Freedom.

I have thus given you a short Ac∣count of the Author: It now re∣mains that I should conclude, which I find I must do in a different man∣ner from most Dedications: For whereas they generally end with some devout Wishes for the Person, to whom they address; you have been so eminently well treated both by Nature and Fortune, that I can

wish you nothing but what you pos∣sess already. Therefore not altoge∣ther to depart from so ancient and received a Custom, I will pray, but it shall be for my self, who need it most. My first Petition is, that you would be pleased to forgive all the defects in the Translation, I mean in my own Part of it; and my se∣cond, that when your Candor has forgiven them, you would once more employ it, and pardorn this Presump∣tion in,

Sir,

Your most Humble, and Most Obliged Servant, T. Brown.