A true & faithful relation of what passed for many yeers between Dr ...

The T%EFJCE.
Hiftory confirm the truth of the relation. And let him that reads it jnda^r
what dull and dry fellows the Mountebank-Aftrologers, Proanoftjcators and
Fortune-tellers, of thefe dayes are,..to this Noble, Renowned Alexmviou Orily
let him know that reads , that Lnckn vjis a profeft Atheift, and therefore np
wonder if he find Epicurus fpokerl of with great refpedt, whom all Atheiil:s,and
Atheiftically inclined are fo much obliged to honour. -Thi^-vvcj^ted, I th'ink
the Story is very worthy to be known, and much more worthy to be read hyal\
men (confideringthe good ufe that may be made of it) then many books that are
daily tranflated out of other languages,
Butlaftly, If there were any fuch thing, really as Divelsand Spirits that u(e to
appear unto men ; to whom lliould they (probably) fooner appear, then to fuch
as daily call upon them, and devote their Souls and Bodies untothern by dreadful
Oaths and Imprecations ? And again, then to fuch, who through damnable
curiofity have many times ufed the means ( the befl: they could find m books by
Magical Circles, Chara(aers and Invocations) and yet never, neither the one nor
the other faw any thing ?
I have faidasmuch as I mean to lay (though fbmewhat perchance might be
addedj to fhew theplaufibleneflfe of the opinion, in oppofition to vulgar appre-'
henlions and capacities, whereby (as I conceive, for I have not wittingly omitted
any thing that I thought material) it chiefly imitles it felf to wildom^
and more then ordinary prudence , which all men generally are ambitious of!
Yet I would not have it thought that all men that hold this concluiion That
there be no Spirits, ^c. go fo rationally to work, or can give this account or
any other more rational and plaufible for what they hold. God knows there
be many in the world, men of no learning, and mean capacities, who can fpeak
as peremptorily as the beft, notbecaule they have conlidered of it, and under-
ftand the grounds of either opinion, but becaufe they know, or have heard it
is the opinion of fomc Learned, and they hope they fhall be thought learned
too if they hold with them. Befides an ordinary (for Ibme have been learned)
£^;icHre4«,who makes it his Motto (to himfelf and in his heart) eV ^i f^»jir hrivau,
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