Page:Terræ-filius- or, the Secret History of the University of Oxford.djvu/34

 jutify'd for publihing uch falhoods, tho' I did it in the gravet and mot olemn tile.

In a work of this nature, it is very hard to pleae any, and impoible to pleae all. The different tempers and tates of men cannot relih the ame tile or manner of writing, any more than the ame dih or the ame deverion: Fops love Romances; Pedants love jargon; the plenatick man delights in atire; and the gay Courtier in panegyrick; ome are pleas'd with Poetry; others with Proe; ome are for plain truths, and ome for diguie and diimulation.

I was aware of this, when I began, and, in my econd paper, reerv'd to my elf a liberty to be in what humour I pleas'd, and to vary my manner as well as my ubject, hoping thereby to pleae mot orts of readers; but I quickly found my elf diappointed in my expectation, having often receiv'd, by the ame pot, complaints from ome of my correpondents, that I was too grave for the character of Terræ-Filius; and from others, that I affected levity too much for one, who il'd himelf a Reformer.

In anwer to both thee objections, I hall only beg of my readers to conider, that as, on one had, it ought not to be expected that a man hould keep his face upon the broad grin for half a year together; o, on the other, I cannot apprehend that it is at all neceary for a Reformer to be a Puritan, always in the