Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/238



I am very sure that men of ingenuity and levity, will sneer, and ridicule, and treat with contempt this little work, because poetical neatness is wanting to the expressions, and precision to the single words: And if there is a deficiency in the orthography or arrangement, or some letters substituted in place of others in this book, we need not be surprised, for the man who printed the book had not one word of Gaelic, but printed as his fancy chanced to direct him. And well do I know that the Papists especially, and above all, the old satirical priests, will vomit malice against me, and that my work will procure me, from them, only scandal and reproach: But notwithstanding, I am not the worse of that; and I say with Paul, If I do the will of men, I am no faithful servant of Christ. And surely the truth is not injured by the dispraise of the unjust; and as I am resolved to assist the plain Christians who receive my good-will with gratitude, and will not reproach me with my defects; so, on the other hand, it is far from my wish to provoke abuse from the Papists, in honestly speaking and writing the truth, and establishing its authority during the whole course of my life: For neither prophet nor apostle, nor the Son of God himself, escaped the abuse of the priests and enemies of the truth; and yet the victory was obtained by patience through the power of God. To that one true God in three Persons, the Father, powerful, merciful; and the Son, beauteous, miraculous; and the Spirit, strong, holy; be all superiority,