Читать книгу The Totall Discourse of the Rare Adventures & Painefull Peregrinations. The Long Nineteene Yeares Travayles from Scotland to the most famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia and Affrica онлайн

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AMEN.

Your Majesties most humble,

and most obedient Subject,

and Servant:

William Lithgow.

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Judicious Lector; if good Bookes may be tearmed wise guides, then certainely true Histories, may be tearmed perfite Oracles, secret Counsellours, private Schoolemasters, familiar friends to cherish knowledge, and the best Intelligencers, for all intendements; being duely pondered, and rightly used. This laborious worke then of mine, depending on this preamble, is onely composed of mine owne eye sight, and occular experience; (pluris est occulatus testis unus, quam auriti decem) being the perfit mirrour, and lively Portraicture of true understanding, excelling far all inventions whatsoever, Poeticque, or Theoricque. And now to shun Ingratitude, which I disdaine as Hell, I thought it best to exhibit the profit of my paynefull travailes to the desirous world; for two respects, the one a naturall obligation, the other a generall request: for as my dangerous adventures, have bene wrought out from the infinit variety of variable sights, innumerable toyles, pleasures, and inevitable sorrowes; so doth it also best simpathize with reason, and most fitting, that I should generally dispose of the same, to the temperate judgements of the better sort, the sound and absolute opinions of the Judicious; and to the variable censures of calumnious Critticks, who run at random, in the fields of other mens labours, but can not find the home-bred way in their owne close grounds: And therefore the different disposition of the good and bad, doe best concurre with the interchangeable occurrences of the matter.