BUT now a-days _Women_ may well complain, and cry out with _Soranus_, “_O malè Occupatum virorum Genus, occidimur nos, non Morimur: Et ab illis, qui inter vos peritissimi existimantur, perperam curatæ, vos vero de qualibet vel levissima vestrarum Affectionum, Libros ex Libris facientes, Bibliothecas voluminibus oneratas, de Nostris inter ea diris ac difficillimis Cruciatibus, nulla vel exigua, & ea quidem satis oscitanter mentione factâ_”: That _Men_, in short, study their own Good, and take more Care of Themselves than of the _Women_.
BECAUSE then there are so many Faults and Defects in this part of _Physick_; in that the _Antients_, by reason of their precise Gravity, rendred their _Works_ either obscure, or at least difficult to be understood: As _some_ of the more _modern Authors_ have, treated them but Partially and Defectively in most respects; _others_ but transiently and indifferently, or as if they were otherways employ’d: _Some_ again darkly and briefly; _others_ so confusedly and prolixly, that we may justly say to them, as the _Lacedemonians_ did to the _Samian Legats_ of old; “_Prioris orationis vestræ partis sumus obliti, postremam ob primæ oblivionem non intelleximus_”: We have forgot the Beginning of your Discourse, and for that reason, cannot understand the latter Part.
THESE being the Reasons of this Undertaking, I shall trouble you with no farther _Apologies_ in its behalf, save only that I thought it my Duty, notwithstanding the Considerable _Charge_ and immense _Labour_, not only so far to endeavour to imitate my _Predecessors_, but also to deserve well of Humane Kind, and particularly of _English Women_: FIRST by collecting these things, which I have found clearly written by the most approved _Authors_, together with what I have conceiv’d to be true and Rational by my own painful Study, frequent Speculation, and assiduous Practice; and SECONDLY by publishing this _Praxis_ and _Analysis_ of Women’s Distempers, as they are accurately, tho’ succinctly comprehended in this small _Volume_: Yet not so briefly neither, but that most Things are consider’d and explain’d for removing _Obscurity_; nor so prolixly, that any Head is swell’d with Trifles or empty Words: And that not only in our vernacular _Tongue_, but also in a certain middle _Style_, adapted to the Capacity of the meanest _Reader_; so that if it be possible, where the _Flowers_ are thinnest Sown, there the _Fruit_ may appear the thickest; Because I have all along consider’d this to be no Work of _Eloquence_, but of _Midwifery_, or _Physick_, or _both_ together, if you please, in which I have studied the common Good, but no vain Glory.