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; |