it to pass they have fuch a perpetual itch towards it themselves? To infance only in the answerer already mentioned it is grievous to fee him in fome of his writings at every turn going out of his way to be waggifh, to tell us of a cow that pricked up her tail; and, in his answer to this discourse, he says, it is all a farce and a ladle; with other paffages equally thining. One may fay of these impedimenta literarum, that wit owes them a fhame; and they cannot take wifer counfel, than to keep out of harm's way, or at least not to come till they are fure they are called.

To conclude; with thofe allowances above required this book fhould be read: after which, the author conceives, few things will remain, which may not be excufed in a young writer. He wrote only to the men of wit and tafte; and he thinks he is not miftaken in his accounts, when he fays they have been all of his fide, enough to give him the vanity of telling his name, wherein the world, with all its wife conjectures, is yet very much in the dark; which circumstance is no difagreeable amusement either to the publick or himself.

The author is informed, that the bookfeller has prevailed on feveral gentlemen to write fome explanatory notes; for the goodnefs of which he is not to answer, having never seen any of them, nor intending it till they appear in print; when it is not unlikely he may have the pleasure to find twenty meanings, which never entered into his imagination.

June 3, 1709.

POST

POSTSCRIPT.

INCE the writing of this, which was about a

Syear ago, a prostitute bookfeller hath published a

foolish paper, under the name of Notes on the Tale of a Tub, with fome account of the author; and with an infolence, which I fuppofe is punishable by law, hath prefumed to affign certain names. It will be enough for the author to affure the world, that the writer of that paper is utterly wrong in all his conjectures upon that affair. The author farther afferts, that the whole work is intirely of one hand, which every reader of judgment will easily discover: the gentleman, who gave the copy to the bookfeller, being a friend of the author, and ufing no other liberties, befides that of expunging certain paffages, where now the chafms appear under the name of defiderata. But, if any perfon will prove his claim to three lines in the whole book, let him step forth and tell his name and titles; upon which, the bookfeller fhall have orders to prefix them to the next edition, and the claimant fhall from henceforward be acknowledged the undisputed author.

Treatifes

Treatifes written by the fame author, most of them mentioned in the following discourses; which will be speedily published.

A Character of the prefent set of wits in this

ifland.

A panegyrical effay upon the number THREE.

A dissertation upon the principal productions of GrubStreet.

Lectures upon a diffection of human nature.

A panegyrick upon the world.

An analytical difcourfe upon zeal, hiftori-theo-phyfi logically confidered.

A general history of ears.

A modeft defence of the proceedings of the rabble in all ages.

A description of the kingdom of abfurdities.

A voyage into England, by a perfon of quality in terra quftralis incognita, tranflated from the original.

A critical effay upon the art of canting, philofophically, phyfically, and mufically confidered.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

JOHN

LORD SOMMER S.

MY LORD,

A

LTHOUGH the author has written a large dedication, yet that being addrefs'd to a prince, whom I am never likely to have the honour of being known to; a perfon befides, as far as I can observe, not at all regarded, or thought on by any of our prefent writers; and being wholly free from that flavery, which bookfellers ufually lie under, to the caprices of authors; I think it a wife piece of prefumption to infcribe thefe papers to your lordship, and to implore your lordship's protection of them. God and your lordship know their faults, and their merits; for, as to my own particular, I am altogether a ftranger to the matter; and, though every body elfe fhould be equally ignorant, I do not fear the fale of the book, at all the worse, upon that fcore. Your lordship's name on the front in capital letters will at any time get off one edition: neither would I defire any other help to grow an alderman, than a patent for the fole privilege of dedicating to your lordship.

I fhould now, in right of a dedicator, give your lordship a list of your own virtues, and at the fame time be very unwilling to offend your modefty; but chiefly, I fhould celebrate your liberality towards men of great parts and small fortunes, and give you broad hints, that I mean myself. And I was just going on, in the ufual method, to perufe a hundred or two of dedications, and tranfcribe an abstract to be applied to your lordfhip:

but

but I was diverted by a certain accident: for, upon the covers of these papers, I cafually obferved written in large letters the two following words, DETUR DIGNISSIMO; which, for aught I knew, might contain fome important meaning. But it unluckily fell out, that none of the authors I employ understood Latin; (though I have them often in pay to tranflate out of that language ;) I was therefore compelled to have recourfe to the curate of our parish, who englished it thus, Let it be given to the worthieft: and his comment was, that the author meant his works fhould be dedicated to the fublimeft genius of the age, for wit, learning, judgment, eloquence, and wisdom. I called at a poet's chamber (who works for my fhop) in an alley hard by, fhewed him the tranflation, and defired his opinion, who it was that the author could mean he told me, after fome confideration, that vanity was a thing he abhorred; but, by the description, he thought himself to be the perfon aimed at; and, at the fame time, he very kindly offered his own affiftance gratis towards penning a dedication to himself. I defired him, however, to give a fecond guess; why then, said he, it must be I, or my lord Sommers. From thence I went to feveral other wits of my acquaintance, with no small hazard and weariness to my perfon from a prodigious number of dark, winding ftairs; but found them all in the fame ftory, both of your lordship and themselves. Now your lordship is to understand, that this proceeding was not of my own invention; for I have fomewhere heard, it is a maxim, that thofe, to whom every body allows the fecond place, have an undoubted title to the first.

This infallibly convinced me, that your lordship was the perfon intended by the author. But, being very unacquainted in the ftyle and form of dedications, I employed those wits aforefaid to furnish me with hints and materials towards a panegyrick upon your lordfhip's virtues.

In