DEDICATION TO THE TWO FIRST VOLUMES OF SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S PUBLISHED IN 1700, SOON AFTER SIR WILLIAM'S DECEASE. To his most sacred majesty, William III., king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, &c. These letters of sir William Temple having been left to my care, they are most humbly presented to your majesty, by Your majesty's most dutiful and obedient subject, PREFACE TO SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S WORKS. THE collection of the following letters is owing to the diligence of Mr. Thomas Downton, who was one of the secretaries during the whole time wherein they bear date; and it has succeeded very fortunately for the public, that there is contained in them an account of all the chief transactions and negotiations which passed in Christendom during the seven years wherein they are dated; as the war from Holland which began in 1665; the treaty between his majesty and the bishop of Munster, with the issue of it; the French invasion of Flanders in the year 1667; the peace concluded between Spain and Portugal by the king's mediation; the treaty at Breda; the triple alliance; the peace at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the first part; and in the second part the negotiations in Holland in consequence of those alliances, with the steps and degrees by which they came to decay; the journey and death of madam; the seizure of Lorrain and his excellency's recalling; with the first unkindness between England and Holland, upon the yacht's transporting his lady and family; and the beginning of the second Dutch war in 1672. With these are intermixed several letters, familiar and pleasant. I found the book among Sir William Temple's papers, with many others, wherewith I had the opportunity of being long conversant, having passed several years in his family. I pretend no other part than the care that Mr. Downton's book should be correctly transcribed, and the letters placed in the order they were writ. I have also made some literal amendments, espe cially in the Latin, French, and Spanish; these I took care should be translated and printed in another column, for the use of such readers as may be unacquainted with the originals. Whatever fault there may be in the translation, I doubt I must answer for the greater part, and must leave the rest to those friends who were pleased to assist me. I speak only of the French and Latin; for the few Spanish translations I believe need no apology. It is generally believed that this author has advanced our English tongue to as great a perfection as it can well bear; and yet how great a master he was of it, as I think, never appeared so much as it will in the following letters, wherein the style appears so very different, according to the difference of the persons to whom they were addressed; either men of business or idle, of pleasure or serious, of great or of less parts or abilities, in their several stations; so that one may discover the characters of most of those persons he writes to, from the style of his letters. At the end of each volume, is added a collection, copied by the same hand, of several letters to this ambassador, from the chief persons employed, either at home or abroad, in these transactions, and during six years' course of his negotiations; among which are many from the pensionary John De Witt, and all the writings of this kind that I know of, which remain of that minister, so renowned in his time. It has been justly complained of as a defect among us, that the English tongue has produced no letters of any value; to supply which it has been the vein of late years, to translate several out of other languages, though I think with little success; yet among many advantages, which might recommend this sort of writing, it is certain that nothing is so capable of giving a true account of stories, as letters are; which describe actions while they are breathing, whereas all other relations are of actions past and dead; so as it has been observed, that the epistles of Cicero to Atticus give a better account of those times, than is to be found in any other writer. In the following letters the reader will everywhere discover the force and spirit of this author; but that which will most value them to the public, both at home and abroad, is, first, that the matters contained in them were the ground and foundation, whereon all the wars and invasions, as well as all the negotiations and treaties of peace in Christendom have since been raised. And next, that they are written by a person who had so great a share in all those transactions and negotiations. By residing in his family I know the author has had frequent instances from several great persons, both at home and abroad, to publish some memoirs of those affairs and transactions, which are the subject of the following papers; and particularly of the treaties of the triple alliance, and those of Aix-la-Chapelle; but his usual answer was, that whatever memoir he had written of those times and negotiations were burnt; however, that perhaps after his death some papers might come out, wherein there would be some account of them. By which, as he often told me, he meant these letters. I had begun to fit them for the press during the author's life, but never could prevail for leave to publish them; though he was pleased to be at the pains of reviewing, and to give me his directions for digesting them in order. It has since pleased God to take this great and good person to himself; and he having done me the honor to leave and recommend to me the care of his writings, I thought I could not at present do a greater service to my country, or to the author's memory, than by making these papers public. By way of introduction, I need only take notice that, after the peace of the Pyrenees, and his majesty's happy restoration in 1660, there was a general peace in Christendom, (except only the remainder of a war between Spain and Portugal,) until the year 1665; when that between England and Holland began, which produced a treaty between his majesty and the bishop of Munster. And this commences the following letters. PREFACE TO THE THIRD PART OF SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S MISCELLANEA, 1701. THE two following essays, "Of Popular Discontents," and "Of Health and Long Life," were written many years before the author's death. They were revised and corrected by himself; and were designed to have been part of a third miscellanea, to which some others were to have been added, if the latter part of his life had been attended with any sufficient degree of health. For the third paper, relating to the controversy about "Ancient and Modern Learning," I cannot well inform the reader upon what occasion it was writ, having been at that time in another kingdom; but it appears never to have been finished by the author. The two next papers contain the heads of two essays intended to have been written upon the "Different Conditions of Life and Fortune," and upon "Conversation." I have directed they should be printed among the rest, because I believe there are few who will not be content to see even the first draught of anything from the author's hand. At the end I have added a few translations from Virgil, Horace, and Tibullus, or rather imitations, done by the author above thirty years ago; whereof the first was printed among other eclogues of Virgil, in the year 1679, but without any mention of the author. They were indeed not intended to have been made public, till I was informed of several copies that were got abroad, and those very imperfect and corrupt. Therefore the reader finds them here, only to prevent him from finding them in other places very faulty, and perhaps accompanied with many spurious additions. JONATHAN SWIFT. PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME OF SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S LETTERS, 1703. THE following papers are the last of this, or indeed of any kind, about which the author ever gave me his particular commands. They were corrected by himself, and fairly transcribed in his lifetime. I have in all things followed his directions as strictly as I could; but accidents unforeseen having since intervened, I have thought convenient to lessen the bulk of this volume. To which end, I have omitted several letters addressed to persons with whom this author corresponded without any particular confidence, further than upon account of their posts: because great numbers of such letters, procured out of the office, or by other means, (how justifiable I shall not examine,) having been already printed but, running wholly upon long dry subjects of business, have met no other reception than merely what the reputation of the author would give them. If I could have foreseen an end of this trade, I should, upon some considerations, have longer forborne sending these into the world. But I daily hear, that new discoveries of original letters are hasting to the press; to stop the current of which, I am forced to an earlier publication than I designed. And therefore I take this occasion to inform the reader, that these letters, ending with the author's revocation from his employments abroad, (which in less than two years was followed by his retirement from all public business,) are the last he ever intended for the press; having been selected by himself from great numbers yet lying among his papers. If I could have been prevailed with by the rhetoric of booksellers, or any other little regards, I might easily, instead of retrenching, have made very considerable additions: and by that means have perhaps taken the surest course to prevent the interloping of others. But, if the press must needs be loaded, I would rather it should not be by my means. And therefore I may hope to be allowed one word in the style of a publisher, (an office liable to much censure without the least pretensions to merit or to praise,) that if I have not been much deceived in others and myself, the reader will hardly find one letter in this collection unworthy of the author, or which does not contain something either of entertainment or of use. PREFACE TO THE THIRD PART OF SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S MEMOIRS; FROM THE PEACE CONCLUDED 1679 TO THE TIME OF THE AUTHOR'S RETIREMENT FROM PUBLIC BUSINESS. [FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1709.] Et ille quidem plenus annis obiit, plenus honoribus, illis etiam quos recusavit. PLIN. EPIST. ii. 1. It was perfectly in compliance to some persons for whose opinion I have great deference, that I so long withheld the publication of the following papers. They seemed to think that the freedom of some passages in these memoirs might give offence to several who were still alive; and whose part in those affairs which are here related could not be transmitted to posterity with any advantage to their reputation. But whether this objection be in itself of much weight, may perhaps be disputed; at least it should have little with me, who am under no restraint in that particular; since I am not of an age to remember those transactions, nor had any acquaintance with those persons whose counsels or proceedings are condemned, and who are all of them now dead. But, as this author is very free in exposing the weakness and corruptions of ill ministers, so he is as ready to commend the abilities and virtue of others, as may be observed from several passages of these memoirs; particularly of the late carl of Sunderland, with whom the author continued in the most intimate friendship to his death; and who was the father of that most learned and excellent lord, now secretary of state: as likewise of the present earl of |