Nay, then, thought I, if that you breed so fast, I’ll put you by yourselves, lest you at last Should prove ad infinitum , and eat out The book that I already am about.

Well, so I did; but yet I did not think To show to all the world my pen and ink In such a mode; I only thought to make I knew not what; nor did I undertake Thereby to please my neighbour: no, not I; I did it my own self to gratify.

Neither did I but vacant seasons spend In this my scribble; nor did I intend But to divert myself in doing this From worser thoughts which make me do amiss.