Читать книгу The Present State of Germany - Samuel Pufendorf - Страница 15

TO THE READER <v>

I need not pretend to apologize for the publishing this small Piece at a time when the continued Victories of the Emperor of Germany over that once so formidable Enemy the Turk, and the present War with the French, has made that Nation the Subject of all our Conversation and Discourse for so many years: and our present Union with those Princes in a War that is of so great consequence in the event, be it what it will, is like to make this Country more the Subject of our Hopes and Fears now, than ever it was before.

It is natural for men to be very desirous to know the Circumstances of those they are concern’d with; and there is nothing excites our Curiosity so much, as the considering our own Happiness or Misery is wrapt up in the <vi> Fate of another. Our Regards for the Empire of China are very languid, and we read their Story and Descriptions with little more attention than we do a well-drawn Romance, because be they true or false, we are nothing concerned in the Fortunes of that remote Empire, which can have no influence upon our Nation.

If the World desires it, it will not be difficult to give a more particular account of the Electors, and of the other Princes and Free Cities of Germany, but without that, this will be sufficient to shew the general State of Germany, which is the thing we Englishmen are most desirous and concerned to know.

I shall make no other Apology for it, because I am before hand resolved to be wholly unconcerned for its fate; the Reader is left entirely to his own liberty, to think and speak of it as he himself please.

January the 24th. 1689.