Miscellanea ... by a person of honour.

The AUTHOR's Letter to the Stationer, upon occasion of the following Papers.

I Have received both your Excuses and Desires about those Papers I left in your Fathers hands upon my several journeys into Hol∣land, with a charge That none ever should see them, unless I happen'd to dye before my re∣turn: In that case only I gave him leave to Print them, be∣cause I found it would be a sa∣tisfaction to him, and he thought

an advantage. I will examine no further how several of them came to run abroad both in Print and Manuscript, since you justifie your felf; and I will not accuse your Father, whom I ever esteemed a good man. All I can say of the mat∣ter is, That the Two Copies at first dispersed, came from two of your Fathers Friends, and that you confess to have Print∣ed ten by order of one of Mine while I was abroad, upon the belief he would not have desi∣red it without my Consent; But that you ought not to have con∣cluded without knowing it from me, as you might easily have

done in ten days time.

You pretend to be sure the Press was broken after tbat number was taken off; which is a thing you cannot answer for, without your Printers leave; nor if it were so, do I make any difference between Ten and a Hundred. This I am sure of, that how few soever were Printed, very many have seen them, and more have heard of them, and so many of my ac∣quaintance prest me for Copies, that I have been troubled to refuse them, and to be so hardly believed when I assured them I had none.

Now for what you tell me

of the great care and pains you have taken, since I spoke to you last, to discover how they went out, and to call them in, and that you find this last is impossible, and apprehend every day that some or other will Print them without your knowledge or mine, and there∣upon ground your desires for my leave to do it; I know not well what to say, having said so much to you already upon this occasion, and think 'tis best troubling my self no longer about a thing that is past reme∣dy: Therefore I am content you should publish them, rather than any other should do it

without my leave, and rather than any further mystery should be made of those that are a∣broad, which has given the oc∣casion of two other Books being laid to my charge, that I have been so far from writing, as never to have seen.

For the Order and Titles of the several Papers, they must, I doubt, be the same with the Copies already dispersed, since these cannot be recalled. For any general Title, I leave it wholly to you, as well as the time; nor are you to expect from me either any Correction of Press, or trouble of Pre∣face; being resolved, since they

first run away without my con∣sent, to own them no longer, and to concern my self in them no more than if they had never been mine. What advantages soever you can propose to your self by them, I can expect but one (and that will agree very ill with yours) which is, That the publishing of them may pos∣sibly suppress them; and that they may be talkt of no more when once they grow common; since nothing but the scarcity of them can give them any vogue. If this happens, I shall be at quiet, which is all I ask of them or of you.

June 12. 1679.