large Periods of Time, in which nothing happened worthy of being recorded in a Chronicle of this Kind.
In ſo doing, we do not only conſult our own Dignity and Eaſe; but the Good and Advantage of the Reader: For beſides, that by theſe Means we prevent him from throwing away his Time in reading without either Pleaſure or Emolument, we give him at all ſuch Seaſons an Opportunity of employing that wonderful Sagacity, of which he is Maſter, by filling up theſe vacant Spaces of Time with his own Conjectures; for which Purpoſe, we have taken care to qualify him in the preceding Pages.
For Inſtance, what Reader but knows that Mr. Allworthy felt at firſt for the Loſs of his Friend, thoſe Emotions of Grief, which on ſuch Occaſions enter into all Men whoſe Hearts are not compoſed of Flint, or their Heads of as ſolid Materials? Again, what Reader doth not know that Philoſophy and Religion, in time, moderated, and at laft extinguiſhed this Grief? The former of theſe, teaching the Folly and Vanity of it, and the latter, correcting it, as unlawful, and at the ſame time aſſuaging it by raiſing future Hopes and Aſſurances which enable aſtrong
