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port the Truth of the Facts, would the Stories but bear telling.
I confess, 'tis something hard that Men shou'd sin on, only because they cannot be modestly reproved; that they shou'd go on in superlative Wickedness, with an Impunity only owing to the horrid exorbitance of their Crime, too dirty to be spoken of, too nauseous to be mentioned. Why has not our fruitful Inventions added some Signals, some Figures, to serve instead of Speech, (as I have observed the Turks do, by turning up the Slipper) by which Signals or Figures the filthy Part might be expressed, without fouling the Mouth, or affronting the Ears of others.
But it is not to be done, and therefore, as above, I have chosen to leave out many long Histories of inexpressible Lewdness, particularly under the Matrimonial Cover, and which would have given a keener Edge to the Satyr, and have confirmed the Necessity of the Reproof in this Case, more than all that has been express'd. But, I say, it is not to be done.
Where I have been necessitated to come to the very Brink of the Fact, and to go as far as Language would suffer me; certainly I hope for so much Charity in the Reader, as to acknowledge the Justice and Necessity of going so far, at the same time giving the true Reason of my going no farther.
'Tis a hardship an Author is seldom put to, to be obliged to break off in the middle of his Evidence; to omit and drop all the Illustrations of his Story, and scarce give you enough of the Generals to guess at the Particulars by; but this is my Case, and all in obedience to thatModesty,
