A Project for the universal Benefit of Mankind ... A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles GENERAL PREFACE. AN Advertisement in the first volume has, in some degree, explained the nature of the present edition. This Preface shall give the history of those which have preceded it. The earliest regular edition was in twelve volumes, 8vo. 1755 (reprinted in 1767), under the respectable name of the late Dr. JOHN HAWKESWORTH, who thus introduces them: "The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift were written and published at very distant periods of his life, and had passed through many editions before they were collected into volumes, or distinguished from the productions of cotemporary wits, with whom he was known to associate. "The Tale of a Tub, the Battle of the Books, and the Fragment, were first published 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 impression. "Gulliver's Travels were first printed in the year 1726, with some alterations which had been made * From a corrected copy then in the hands of the late Deane Swift, esq. by the person through whose hands they were conveyed to the press; but the original passages were restored to the subsequent editions. "Many other pieces, both in prose and verse, which had been written between the years 1691 and 1727, were then collected and published by the Dean, in conjunction with Mr. Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. Gay, under the title of Miscellanies. Of all these pieces, though they were intended to go down to posterity together *, the Dean was not the author, as appeared by the title pages: but they continued undistinguished till 1742; and then Mr. Pope, having new-classed them, ascribed each performance among the prose to its particular author in a table of contents; but of the verses he distinguished only the Dean's, by marking the rest with an asterisk. "In the year 1735, the pieces of which the Dean was the author were selected from the Miscellany, and, with Gulliver's Travels, the Drapier's Letters, and some other pieces which were written. upon particular occasions in Ireland, were published by Mr. George Faulkner, at Dublin, in four volumes. To these he afterward added a fifth and a sixth, containing the Examiners, Polite Conversation, and some other tracts; which were soon followed by a seventh volume of letters, and an eighth of posthumous pieces. "In this collection, although printed in Ireland, the tracts relating to that country, and in particular the Drapier's Letters, are thrown together in great * " At all adventures, yours and my name shall stand linked friends to posterity both in verse and prose." Pope to Swift, March 23, 1727-8. confusion; confusion; and the Tale of a Tub, the Battle of the Books, and the Fragment, are not included. "In the edition which is now offered to the publick*, the Tale of a Tub, of which the Dean's corrections sufficiently prove him to have been the author, the Battle of the Books, and the Fragment, make the first volume; the second is Gulliver's Travels; the Miscellanies will be found in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth; and the contents of the other volumes are divided into two classes, as relating to England or Ireland. As to the arrangement of particular pieces in each class, there were only three things that seemed to deserve attention, or that could direct the choice; that the verse and prose should be kept separate; that the posthumous and doubtful pieces should not be mingled with those which the Dean is known to have published himself; and that those tracts which are parts of a regular series, and illustrate each other, should be ranged in succession, without the intervention of other matter: such are the Drapier's Letters, and some other papers published upon the same occasion, which have not only in the Irish edition, but in every other, been so mixed as to misrepresent some facts and obscure others: such also are the tracts on the Sacramental Test, which are now first put together in regular order, as they should always be read by those who would see their whole strength and propriety. "As to the pieces which have no connexion with each other, some have thought that the serious and This was Dr. Hawkesworth's arrangement; Mr. Sheridan's will be described hereafter. the comick should have been put in separate classes; but this is not the method which was taken by the Dean himself, or by Mr. Pope, when they published the Miscellany, in which the transition From grave to gay, from lively to severe," appears frequently to be the effect rather of choice than accident *. However, as the reader will have the whole in his possession, he may pursue either the grave or the gay with very little trouble, and without losing any pleasure or intelligence which he would have gained from a different arrangement. 66 Among the Miscellanies is the history of John Bull, a political allegory, which is now farther opened by a short narrative of the facts upon which it is founded, whether supposititious or true, at the foot of the page. "The notes which have been published with former editions have for the most part been retained, because they were supposed to have been written, if not by the Dean, yet by some friend who knew his particular view in the passage they were intended to illustrate, or the truth of the fact which they as serted. "The notes which have been added to this edition contain, among other things, a history of the author's works, which would have made a considerable part of his life; but, as the occasion on which particular pieces were written, and the events which they produced, could not be related in a series, without frequent references and quotations, it was * "Our Miscellany is now quite printed. I am prodigiously pleased with this joint volume, in which methinks we look like friends side by side, serious and merry by turns-diverting others just as we diverted ourselves." Pope to Swift, March 8, 1726-7. thought |