Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery; Baron Herbert of Caerdiff; Lord Rosse, Par, Marmion, St. Quintin and Shurland; Lord Lieutenant of the County of Wilts and South-Wales; Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter, and President of Her Majesties most Honourable Privy Council.

I count it no small Happiness, in an Age so Censorious as this, to have found a Patron so universally admir’d, that I am under no apprehension of being thought a Flatterer, should I make use of and indulge all the Liberty of a profest Panegyrist; but that is what a sense of my own Inability and Your Lordship’s Modesty forbids: It is sufficient for me, that, under Your Lordship’s known Learning in Antiquity and History, both Antient and Modern, my weak Endeavours at restoring a lost Science may be secure from the Assaults of the Envious or the Ignorant.

I have nothing to fear from the Animosities of Parties, since how inveterate soever they may be against each other, yet they all agree in this one Point, to Esteem and Honour Your Lordship, who are the Atticus of the Times, by Your Virtues endear’d to all sides, and each believing that not to Value Your Lordship, would be to discover such an aversion to Honour and Virtue as the worst of Men would abhor.

Your Virtues, my Lord, are so conspicuous, that they give you that Natural and Rational Right to true Nobility, which the Roman Satyrist so justly exprest:

I will not dispute whether or no there be any Intrinsic Value in a long Descent, or whether that be deriv’d from the necessity of a Subordination essential to Government, or else from the just Reward of Virtue, which ennobles all the Posterity of the Possessors of it, it being here a very useless Disquisition since Your Lordship’s Family is of so very high an Original that none can boast a greater Antiquity, and that Your Lordship is possest of all that Merit which first distinguish’d Man from Man, and gave a Preeminence to the Deserving. Among all the Excellencies which thus dignifie Your Lordship’s Character, perhaps there is none more eminent than Your Protection and Encouragement of Arts and Sciences, to which the English World owe the incomparable Mr. Lock’s Essays on Human Understanding, and other Works extreamly beneficial to the Public. Neither do I in the least question but Your Lordship’s Protection of so excellent and useful an Art as Surgery, will render it as flourishing here in England as it is in any other part of the World. ’Tis true we are not wanting of some extraordinary Professors of that Art, but I could also heartily wish we had not a greater number of Bad, and yet perhaps the chief occasion of this may be the want of a due Method of Encouragement, by which the modest Endeavours of young Proficients are eclips’d, and which (to make a Comparison) like tender Plants, are nipp’d in the Bud and perish for want of Watering.

Now as the want of Opportunity has been in some respect a prejudice to my Business, so also the want of Encouragement has in a great measure been a hindrance to this Work: For what regret of Mind must it needs occasion, to find none esteem’d but such as speak Experience in their Looks, and that Youth should be despis’d tho’ never so hopeful and industrious, meerly because of a particular number of Years, and what an interruption must it be to our painful Studies, to think that even the best Performances of this kind are contemn’d because they are chiefly a Collection, when on the contrary it is receiv’d as an establish’d Maxim, that such as Travel into Foreign Countries, are not only the most capable to describe them, but also whatsoever they relate is look’d upon as the sole matter of Fact and Truth, when many times Business is better transacted by Correspondence, and those that have been at the trouble, expence and danger of Travelling have come home no more improv’d than they went out, except in the Fashions and Levities of the Age, yet are we commonly so imprudent as to value Things meerly for their coming from a far and at a great deal of Expence; but whilst we admire those Novelties, we are often misled and deceiv’d by meer Fables and imaginary Stories of such Things as neither are, nor ever have been.

This I speak not in prejudice to Travelling it self, which, if rightly understood, is certainly the greatest Improvement in the World, and I could heartily wish I had had the opportunity of its Advantage, but on the contrary I do it chiefly to show that it is not impossible to give a tolerable, if not the best Account of the Ancients without it; for what can any one, who now travels into Egypt, learn or see but such a ruin’d Country, that the very Place is hardly known where those wonderful Cities Thebes and Memphis stood, except what is Traditional or extracted from the Writings of the Ancients. ’Tis true, the learn’d and accurate Mr. Greaves has given us the best Description of the Pyramids, but then this was both because they are at this Day in being, and to be view’d by Travellers, as also that he carry’d along with him the best contriv’d Instruments for taking their exact Altitudes and Dimensions, which few besides that see them trouble themselves with, but are content to say, they have seen them; nevertheless Greaves can neither give us the Names of the right Founders of them, nor any certainty whether there were perpetual burning Lamps in them, or a Colossus or Statue on the top of the bigger Pyramid, or, in a word, by whom and to what end the monstrous Figure of the Sphinx was built.

But however the aforesaid Reflections are not the only Discouragements to Industry and Study; to see our Profession over-run by Quacks and Mountebanks, and that Valet de Chambres are suffer’d to Bleed, dress Wounds, cut Fontanells, and perform the like Operations, is what has reduc’d Surgery to so low an ebb. In like manner the noble Art of Embalming has been intirely ruin’d by the Undertakers, as also the Court of Honour much prejudic’d, of which Your Lordship has been twice Supreme Judge; from whence it is the Balsamic Art is now-a-days look’d upon as a very insignificant Thing, and not a little despis’d, whereas the Knowledge and Practise of that Art is both useful in Natural Phylosophy, Physiology, Physic, Surgery and Anatomy, as I hope I have fully prov’d in the body of my Book, over and above that the History thereof leads us into the first and best Antiquities of the World. Your Lordship therefore being both a great Admirer and Encourager of Things of this nature, I hope, thro’ Your generous Protection, not only to secure my self against the contempt of all Critics, but also to be enabl’d to continue and complete my intended Work, and this has also been one Reason why I have thus vindicated Surgery, the Art of Embalming and my own Collection; in which, altho’ I am not thoroughly satisfy’d that there is any thing worthy Your Lordship’s perusal, yet this I am sure of, that Your Candour will appear the greater, by condescending to accept my mean Performance.

And here, my Lord, I have the temptation to loose my self in the Field of Your Praises, but that I know both my Patron and my self too well to indulge the agreeable Contemplation. Were Your Lordship like common Patrons, I should do like common Dedicators, speak of the admirable Temperance of Your Life, Your Moderation, the Wonders of Your Conduct when You were Lord High Admiral, which Office was Administer’d by Your Lordship to the Universal Content and Satisfaction, both of the Merchant, the Officers and Sailers; Your Lordship’s Prudence, Judgment and Sincerity in Your high Post of President of Her Majesties most Honourable Privy Council: And I might extend my Considerations even to the great Happiness such a Person must possess, who is so generally valu’d and esteem’d both by his Queen and Country; but what is so well known I shall leave as wanting not the help of any Panegyric to make it more evident, and content my self with the Honour and Satisfaction of being permitted to Subscribe my self, My Lord,