Preface.
THERE’s no Occaſion to prepoſſeſs the Reader with an Opinion of the Merit and Beauty of the following Work. There needs no more but to read it to ſatisfy any Man that hitherto nothing ſo fine, of this Nature, has appear’d in any Language.
What can be more ingenious, than to compoſe ſuch a prodigious Quantity of pleaſant Stories, whole Variety is ſurprizing, and whoſe Connexion is ſo wonderful? We know not the Name of the Author of ſo great a Work; but probably it is not all done by one Hand, for how can we ſuppoſe that one Man alone, could have Invention enough to make ſo many fine Things,
If Stories of this fort be pleaſant and diverting, becauſe of the Wonders they uſually contain; theſe have certainly the Advantage above all that have yet been publiſh’d, becauſe they are full of ſurprizing Events, which engage our Attention, and ſhew how much the Arabians ſurpaſs other Nations in Compoſures of this Sort.
They muſt alſo be pleaſing, becauſe of the Account they give of the Cuſtoms and Manners of the Eaſtern Nations, and of the Ceremonies of their Religion, as well Pagan as Mahometan, which are better deſcrib’d here, than in any Author that has wrote of ’em, or in the Relations of Travellers. All the Eaſtern Nations, Perſians, Tartars and Indians, are here diſtinguiſh’d, and appear ſuch as they are, from the Sovereign to the meaneſt Subject; ſo that without the Fatigue of going to ſee thoſe People in their reſpective Countries, the Reader has here the Pleaſure to ſee them act, and hear ſpeak. Care has been taken