First Sentence

"WHAT could induce the sagacious Doctor to step so far out of his way, or to meddle with a matter so foreign to the purpose of a natural historian, may, at this distance of time, be a little difficult to determine; but most certain it is, his rude and insipid conjectures and misrepresentations of the Freemasons, to whose foundation and history he was an absolute stranger, are not more false and groundless, than his conduct in that affair was base, insidious, and unworthy of any writer, who had the least regard for truth; and, besides, it was ungrateful, because the bread he eat was furnished him by Mr. Ashmole, the greatest Mason of his day, and who could, had the good Doctor been in the least inclined to receive it, have given him ample satisfaction, which will set this unbiassed history in a point of view, very little to the credit of the supple, and, as it will be found, timeserving Dr. Plot."