A

DISCOURSE

Concerning the

Mechanical Operation

OF THE

SPIRIT.

IN A

LETTER

To a FRIEND.

A

FRAGMENT.

LONDON:

Printed in the Year, MDCCX.

T

THE

BOOKSELLER'S

Advertisement.

HE following Discourse came into my Hands perfect and entire. But there being several Things in it, which the present Age would not very well bear, I kept it by me some Years, resolving it should never see the Light. At length, by the Advice and Assistance of a judicious Friend, I retrench'd those Parts that might give most Offence, and have now ventured to publish the Remainder; Concerning the Author, I am wholly ignorant; neither can I conjecture, whether it be the same with That of the two foregoing Pieces, the Original having been sent me at a different Time, and in a different Hand. The Learned Reader will better 'determine; to whose Judgment I entirely submit it.

This statement was probably written by Swift himself.

A

DISCOURSE

Concerning the

Mechanical Operation

OF THE

SPIRIT, &c.

For T. H. Esquire, at his Chambers in the Academy of the Beaux Esprits in New-Holland.3

I

SIR,

T is now a good while since I have had in my Head something, not only very material, but absolutely necessary to my Health, that the World should be informed in. For, to tell you a Secret, I am able

This Discourse is not altogether equal to the two Former, the best Parts of it being omitted; whether the Bookseller's Account be true, that he durst

to contain it no longer. However, I have been perplexed for some time, to resolve what would be the most proper Form to send it abroad in. To which End, I have three Days been coursing thro' Westminster-Hall, and St. Paul's Church yard, and Fleet-street,' to peruse Titles; and, I do not find any which holds so general a Vogue, as that of A Letter to a Friend: Nothing is more common than to meet with long Epistles address'd to Persons and Places, where, at first thinking, one would be apt to imagine it not altogether so necessary or Convenient; Such as, a Neighbour at next Door, a mortal Enemy, a perfect Stranger, or a Person of Quality in the Clouds; and these upon Subjects, in appearance, the least proper for Conveyance by the Post; as, long Schemes in Philosophy; dark and Wonderful Mysteries of State; Laborious Dissertations in Criticism and Philosophy, Advice to Parliaments, and the like.

NOW, Sir, to proceed after the Method in present Wear. (For, let me say what I will to the contrary, not print the rest, I know not, nor indeed is it easie to determine whether he may be rely'd on, in any thing he says of this, or the former Treatises, only as to the Time they were writ in, which, however, appears more from the Discourses themselves than his Relation.3

Learning (ed. 1696, p. 49), of ' a Continent... about the length of Java, which is marked by the Name of New Holland in the Maps, and to what Extent, none knows, either to the South, the East, or the West'. Dampier had contributed further information shortly before Swift wrote the Discourse, but New Holland continued for many years yet to be part of Terra Australis Incognita. Compare the reference to it in A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms, chap. xi.

The chief bookselling centres

in London at this time.

2 The vogue of this form of title will be seen on consulting Arber's Term Catalogues.

3 This note, like all the footnotes, as distinct from the notes in the margin, was added in the edition of 1710.

The Discourse is clearly later than the Battle, and was probably written about the same time as the later sections of the Tale. In the unauthorized edition of 1720, it is printed before the Battle, with the running title 'A Fragment of The Tale of a Tub'.