- Madam,
THE great Kindneſſes I receiv’d from M. de Guilleragues, your illuſtrious Father, during my Abode at Conſtantinople, ſome years ago, are too freſh in my Mind, for me to neglect any Opportunity of publiſhing what I owe to his Memory. Were he ſtill alive for the Welfare of France, and my particular Advantage, I would take the liberty to dedicate this Work to him; not only as my Benefactor, but as a Perſon moſt capable of judging what is Fine, and inſpiring other with like Sentiments. Every one remembers the wonderful Exactneſs of his Judgement; the meaneſs of his Thoughts had ſomething in them that was ſhining; and his loweſt Expreſſions were always exact and nice, which mad every one admire him: For never had any Man ſo much Wit and ſo much Solidity. I have ſeen him at a time when he was ſo much taken up with the Affairs of his Maſter, that no body could expect any thing from him, but what related to his Miniſtry, and his profound Capacity to manage the moſt knotty Negotiation; yet all the Weight of his Employment diminiſh’d nothing of his inimitable Pleaſantneſs, which charm’d his Friends, and was agreeable even to thoſe barbarous Nations with whom that Great Man did treat. After the Loſs of him, which to me is irreparable, I could not addreſs my ſelſ to any other Perſon that your ſelſ, Madam, ſince you alone can ſupply the Want of him to me; therefore it is that I take the Boldneſs to beg of you the ſame Protection for this Book, that you was pleas’d to grant to the French Tranſlation of the Seven Arabian Stories that I had the Honour to preſent you.
You may, perhaps, wonder, Madam, that I have not ſince that Time preſented them to you in Print; but the reaſon of it is, that when I was about putting them to the Preſs, I was