Excerpt from Davideis; The Life of David, King of Israel: A Sacred Poem, in Five Books After it was finished, deliberating about the publish ing of it as whether to publish it myself, or leave it, as a posthume, to be published (if thought fit) by some kind hand, after my death The reasons which turned the balance for present printing were, first, that at pre sent the press is open which possibly may hereafter be shut. And secondly, that if, upon publication of it, Momus should carp (which he is but too apt to do, even' where there is less occasion for it)' I might be at hand, ready myselfto answer his cavils, who, if any cause be given for them, gave it though assuredly, without any in tention so to do. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.