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Show ThePreface. made a facriflce of them all. The truth is, I have an incorrigible inclination, to that folly of riming, and intending the effeBs of that humor , only fdr my own amnjement in a retifd life \ I did not fo much refifl it as a wifer woman would haze done ; but fome of my dearefl friends having found my Ballads, (for they defer ve no better name) they, made me fo much believe they did not dijlike them, than I was betray d to permit fome Copies for their divertifement , but this, with fo little concern for them, that I have lofl mofl of the originals and that Ifnppofe to be the caufe of my prefent misfortune 5 for fome infernal Spirits or other have cafcl/d thofe rags of Paper, and what the carelefs blotted writing kept them from underflanding, they have fupplied by con-je& nre, till they put them into the fhape wherein you faw them; or elfe I know not which way it is poffible for them to be colle&ed, or fo abominably tranfcriUd as I hear they are. I believe alfo there are fome among them that are not thine, but every way I have fo much injury and the worthy perfons that had the ill luckof mycon-verfe, and fo their Names expos d in this Imprefflon without their leave, that few things in the power of Fortune could have given me fo great a torment as this mofl affli&ive accident. I fyww you Sir, fo much my friend, that I need not ask yonr pardon for making this tedious complaint 5 but methinks it is a great in-juftice to revenge my felf upon yon by this Harangue for the wrongs I have received from others; therefore I will only tell you that the file advantage I have by this cruel news, is that it has given me an experiment, That no adverflty can jbahg the conftancy of your friendship, and that in the worfl humor that ever I rvas in, I am ftill, Worthy Poliarchus, Cardigan, Your moft faithful, moil: obliged J Jan. i9. Friend, and moft humble Servant l66>' O R I N D A. She The Preface. She writ divers Letters to many of her other friends,full of the like refcntments; but this is enough to (hew h o w little fhe defired" the fame of being in Print \ and h o w much (lie was troubled to be fo ex-pofed. It m a y ferve likewife to give a tafte of her Profe to thofe that have feen none of it, and of her way of writing familiar I etters, which (he did with ftrange readinefs and facility, in a very fair hand, and perfect Orthography ; and if they were collected with thofe excellent Difcourfes (lie writ on feveral fubjects, they would make a Volume much larger than this, and no lefs worth the reading. About three months after this Letter (he came to London, where her Friends did much follicite her to redeem her felf by a correct impreffion $ yet (he continued ftill averfe, though perhaps in time (he might have been over-rufd by their perfuafions if (lie had lived. But the fmall Pox, that malicious difeafe (as knowing h o w little fhe would have been concern'd for her handfomnefs, when at the beft) was not fatisfied to be as injurious a Printer of her face, as the other had been of her Poems, but treated her with a more fatal cruelty than the Stationer had them: for though he, to her moft fenfible affliction, furreptitioufly pof-fefs'd himfelf of a falfe Copy, and fent thofe children of her Fancy into the World, fo martyred, that they were more unlike themfelves than ihe could have been made, had fhe efcaped ; that murtherous Tyrant, with greater barbarity feiz'd, unexpectedly upon her, the true Original, and to the much jufter affliction of all the world, violently tore her out of it, and hurried her untimely to her Grave, upon the 22. of June 1664. fhe being then but 31 years of age. But he could not bury her in Oblivion, for this Monument which (he erected for her felf, will, for ever, make her to be honored as the hanor of her Sex, the emulation of ours, and the admiration of both. That unfortunate furprife hath robbd it of much |