wards it themselves? to inftance 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 waggish, to tell us of a cow that pricked up her tail; and, in his anfwer to this difcourse he fays, it is all a farce and a ladle; with other paffages equally fhining. One may fay of these impedimenta literarum, that wit owes them a fhame; and they cannot take wiser 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 excused in a young writer. He wrote only to the men of wit and tafte; and he thinks he is not mistaken 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 circumftance is no difagreeable amusement either to the public or himself.

The

The author is informed, that the bookfeller has prevailed on feveral gentlemen to write fome explanatory notes; for the goodness 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.

POSTSCRIPT.

SINCE

INCE the writing of this, which was about a year ago, a proftitute bookfeller hath published a foolish paper, under the name of Notes on the Tale of a tub, with Some account of the author; and with an infolence, which I suppose 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 gentle

man,

man, 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 dif courfes; which will be speedily published.

A

Character of the prefent fet of wits in this ifland.

A panegyrical effay upon the number

A panegyric upon the world.

An analytical discourse upon zeal, histori-theo-phyfi-logically confidered. A general history of ears.

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

A defcription of the kingdom of abfurdities.

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

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

то

PREFACE.

THE Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift were written and published at very

diftant periods of his life, and had passed through many editions before they were collected into volumes, or diftinguished from the productions of contemporary wits, with whom he was known to affociate.

The Tale of a Tub, the Battle of the Books, and the Fragment were first publifhed together in 1704, and the apology, and the notes from Wotton were added in 1710; this edition the Dean revised a short time before his understanding was impaired, and his corrections* will be found in this impreffion.

Gulliver's Travels were first printed in the year 1726, with fome alterations which had been made by the perfon through whose hands they were conveyed to the prefs, but. the original paffages were restored to the fubfequent editions +.

*The corrected Copy is now in the hands of Mr. Dean Swift.

+ See the letter to Symphon and note, Vol. II.

A

Many