[Epistle Apologeticall (Intended by Hayward for the suppressed second edition)

Extract

[Gentle reader, thy friendly acceptance of these loose labors, the accompt of my idle howres from exercises of greater profit and use, hath moved me, before I proceede any further, to overlooke and overlick them once againe, as the beare is said to doe her unformed whelpes, and thereby both in portion and proportion to amend the same. I have purposely passed over many imputations, as some secrete sences, which the deepe searchers of our time have rather framed then found, partly upon the science of myne owne conscience, and partly seeing no reason wherefore they should be more applied to this book, then to the originall authors out of which it hath bene gathered.