rus, a heathen prince, and a foreigner,
but from a Christian king, their native sovereign; who expects a return
in specie from them, that the kindness, which he has graciously shown
them, may be retaliated on those of his own persuasion.

As for the poem in general, I will only thus far satisfy the reader,
that it was neither imposed on me, nor so much as the subject given me
by any man. It was written during the last winter, and the beginning of
this spring; though with long interruptions of ill health and other
hindrances. About a fortnight before I had finished it, his Majesty's
declaration for liberty of conscience came abroad; which, if I had so
soon expected, I might have spared myself the labour of writing many
things which are contained in the third part of it. But I was always in
some hope, that the Church of England might have been persuaded to have
taken off the penal laws and the test, which was one design of the poem,
when I proposed to myself the writing of it.

It is evident that some part of it was only occasional, and not first
intended: I mean that defence of myself, to which every honest man is
bound, when he is injuriously attacked in print; and I refer myself to
the judgment of those who have read the Answer to the Defence of the
late King's Papers, and that of the Duchess (in which last I was
concerned), how charitably I have been represented there. I am now
informed both of the author and supervisors of this pamphlet, and will
reply, when I think he can affront me; for I am of Socrates's opinion,
that all creatures cannot. In the mean time let him consider whether he
deserved not a more severe reprehension than I gave him formerly, for
using so little respect to the memory of those whom he pretended to
answer; and at his leisure, look out for some original treatise of
humility, written by any Protestant in English; I believe I may say in
any other tongue: for the magnified piece of Duncomb on that subject,
which either he must mean, or none, and with which another of his
fellows has upbraided me, was translated from the Spanish of Rodriguez;
though with the omission of the seventeenth, the twenty-fourth, the
twenty-fifth, and the last chapter, which will be found in comparing of
the books.

He would have insinuated to the world, that her late Highness died not a
Roman Catholic. He declares himself to be now satisfied to the contrary,
in which he has given up the cause; for matter of fact was the