Numb. 70.
[293]
I Am very sorry to see any of the Readers of this Paper so impatient, that they cannot give leave to have the proper parts of this history, take their full Extent.
’Tis endless to repeat the many Interruptions the author has met with, from Gentlemen of sundry Opinions; some say we injure the Hungarians, some the Emperor; tho’ the Author presumes neither can be prov’d: Some say ’tis an unpleasant History, and some have nothing to say, but that ’tis too long: To these Lovers of Novelty, he can say but little, but the main Objection is, what’s all this to the Affairs of France?
To these Gentlemen I would reply, by asking them a Question, what’s the Description of a Mill? What’s the Picture of a Bridge, without laying down the Draught of the River that attends it? – The Author can never be charg’d with Incoherence in the Story he tells, till the Gentlemen have heard it all told; and they whose Patience will not permit them to go thro’ with it, are like to be little the Wiser for what they have read.
’Tis the Application makes the Sermon; if I do not bring the Coherence of the Story to be as plain as the Story it self; if I do not make it answer my Title; if I do not make the Affairs of France appear in a Connection with those of Hungary; if I do not make it appear, that the King of France is as really a Party in the Hungarian Revolt, as in the Bavarian, and as effectually concern’d in the Battle near Lanisia, in Lower Hungaria , as that of Hockstet in Franconia; nay, if I do not make it out, that a Review of the Affairs of France would have been imperfect, without this Hungarian Story; and that the Title would have been absurd, and should rather have been a Review of some of the Affairs of France; If I do not perform all this by the end of the Story, then I do nothing; and am content to have it call’d a needless Digression. Continue reading Saturday, November 4. 1704.