in Principles and Sentiments,
they will never differ in their Censure or Applause, when they touch
upon such Notions which are generally receiv'd.

If you'll consider, Sir, what I have said in the two last Paragraphs,
you will easily see the Possibility that Books may get into an ill
Repute and a very bad Character without deserving it. The next I shall
endeavour to demonstrate to you, is, that this has been the Case of
_The Fable of the Bees_, and that the Animosities which have been shewn
against it, were originally owing to another Cause, than what my
Adversaries pretended to be the true one. In order to this, I shall be
obliged to make several Quotations from the Book it self, and repeat
many Things, which I have already said in the Vindication hinted at
before: But as I design this only for your self and those who have
judged of the Book from Common Report, and never perused either the
First or the Second Part of it, these Citations will be as new to you
as any other Part of my Letter.

I am not ignorant of the Prejudice and real Hurt, which Authors do
themselves by making long Quotations. They interrupt the Sense, and
often break off the Thread of the Discourse; and many a Reader, when he
comes to the End of a long Citation, has forgot the main Subject, and
often the Thing it self, which that very Citation was brought in to
prove. For this Reason we see, that Judicious Writers avoid them as
much as possible; or that where they cannot do without, instead of
inserting them in the main Text of their Works, they make Place for
them in Notes or Remarks, which they refer to, or else an Appendix,
where many of them may be put together, and are never seen but by
Choice, and when the Reader is at Leisure. That this segregating all
extraneous Matter from the main Body of the Book, the Text it self, is
less disagreeable to most Readers, than the other, which I hinted at
first, is certain; but it is attended with this ill Consequence, which
the less engaging Method of Writing is not, to wit, that many curious
and often the most valuable Things, and which it is of the highest
Concern to the Author, that they should be known, are neglected and
never look'd into, only because they are put into Notes or Appendixes.
In my Case you'll find, Sir, that the long Quotations, some of them of
several Pages, which I am obliged to trouble you with, are more
material for the Vindication of my Book than all that can possibly be
said besid