Page 11
TO
THE
F
ROM
the
mostable,
to
him
that
can
but
spell.
There
you
arc
numbred.
We
had
rather
you
were
weigh'd.
Especially,
when
the
fate
of
all
Books
depends
upon
your
capacities
:
and
not
of
your
heads
alone,
but
of
your
Purses.
Well,
it
is
now
publick,
and
you
will
stand
for
your
privi-
ledges,
we
know
:
to
read,
and
censure.
Do
so,
but
buy
it
first
;
that
doth
best
commend
a
Boook,
the
Stationer
says.
Then
how
odd
soever
your
brains
be,
or
ycur
wisdoms,
make
your
silence
the
same,
and
spare
not.
Judg
your
six-penny
worth,
your
shillings-worth,
your
five
shillings-worth
at
a
time,
or
higher,
so
you
rise
to
the
just
rates,
and
welcome.
But,
whatever
you
do,
Buy.
Censure
will
not
drive
a
trade,
nor
make
the
Jack
go.
And
tho
you
be
a
Magistrate
of
Wit,
and
sit
on
the
stage
at
Black-Fryers,
or
the
Cock-pit,
to
arraign
Plays
daily
;
know,
these
Plays
have
had
their
tryal
already,
and
stood
out
all
Appeals
;
and
do
now
come
forth
quitted
rather
by
a
Decree
of
Court,
than
any
pur-
chas'd
Letters
of
Comendation.
It
had
been
a
thing,
we
confess,
worthy
to
have
been
wished,
that
the
Author
himself
had
lived
to
have
set
forth,
and
overseen
his
own
Writings;
But
since
it
hath
been
ordain'd
otherwise,
and
he
by
death
departed
from
that
right,
we
pray
you
do
not
envy
his
Friends
the
office
of
their
care
and
pain,
to
have
collected
and
published
them;
and
so
to
have
publish'd
them,
as
where
(before)
you
were
abus'd
with
divers
stoln
and
surreptitious
Copies,
maimed
and
deformed
by
the
frauds
and
stealths
of
injurious
lmpostors,
that
expos'd
them:
even
those,
are
now
offered
to
your
view
cured,
and
perfect
of
their
limbs;
and
all
the
rest,
absolute
in
their
numbers
as
he
con-
ceived
them.
Who,
as
he
was
a
happy
imitator
of
Nature,
was
a
most
gentle
expresser
of
it.
His
mind
and
hand
went
together:
And
what
he
thought,
he
uttered
with
that
easiness,
that
we
have
scarce
received
from
him
a
blot
in
his
Papers.
But
it
is
not
our
Province,
who
only
gather
his
Works,
and
give
them
you
to
praise
him.
it
is
yours
that
read
him.
And
there
we
hope,
to
your
divers
capacities,
you
will
find
enough,
both
to
draw,
and
hold
you:
for
his
wit
can
no
more
lie
hid,
than
it
could
be
lost.
Read
him
therefore,
again
and
again:
And
if
then
you
do
not
like
him,
surely
you
are
in
some
manifest
danger,
not
to
understand
him.
And
so
we
leave
you
to
other
of
his
Friends,
who,
if
you
need,
can
be
your
guides
:
if
yon
need
them
not,
you
can
lead
your
selves,
and
others.
And
such
Readers
we
wish
him.
J.
Heminge:
H.
Condell.
TO
Great
Variety
O
F
READERS,