_THOMAS BROWN_, K^t, and Doctour of Physick; late of _NORWICH_.
Printed for _Charles Mearne_, and are to be sold by _Henry Bonwick_, at the _Red Lyon_, in St. _Paul's_ Church-Yard,
The Papers from which these _Tracts_ were printed, were, a while since, deliver'd to me by, those worthy persons, the _Lady_ and _Son_ of the excellent Authour. He himself gave no charge concerning his _Manuscripts_, either for the suppressing or the publishing of them. Yet, seeing he had procured _Transcripts_ of them, and had kept those _Copies_ by him, it seemeth probable that He designed them for publick use.
Thus much of his Intention being presumed, and many who had tasted of the fruits of his former studies being covetous of more of the like kind; Also these _Tracts_ having been perused and much approv'd of by some Judicious and Learned men; I was not unwilling to be instrumental in fitting them for the Press.
To this end, I selected them out of many disordred Papers, and dispos'd them into such a method as They seem'd capable of; beginning first with _Plants_, going on to _Animals_, proceeding farther to things relating to _Men_, and concluding with _matters_ of a _various nature_.
Concerning the _Plants_, I did, on purpose, forbear to range them (as some advised) according to their _Tribes_ and _Families_; because, by so doing, I should have represented that as a studied and formal work, which is but a Collection of _occasional Essaies_. And, indeed, both this _Tract_, and those which follow, were rather the _diversions_ than the _Labours_ of his Pen: and, because He did, as it were, drop down his Thoughts of a sudden, in those little spaces of vacancy which he snatch'd from those very many occasions which gave him hourly interruption; If there appears, here and there, any uncorrectness in the style, a small degree of Candour sufficeth to excuse it.
If there be any such errours in the words, I'm sure the Press has not made them fewer; but I do not hold my self oblig'd to answer for That which I could not perfectly govern. However, the matter is not of any great moment: such errours will not mislead a Learned Reader; and He who is not such in some competent degree, is not a fit Peruser of these LETTERS. Such these _Tracts_ are; but, for the Persons to whom they were written, I cannot well learn their _Names_ from those few obscure marks which the Authour has set at the beginning of them. And these Essaies being _Letters_, as many as take offence at some few familiar things which the Authour hath mixed with them, find fault with decence. Men are not wont to set down Oracles in every line they write to their Acquaintance.