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But fince it hath otherwife fallen out, we think we have fufficiently paid for our want of prudence; and determine for the future to be less communicative: or rather, having done with fuch amufements, we are refolved to give up, what we cannot fairly difown, to the feverity of critics, the malice of perfonal enemies, and the indulgence of friends.

We are forry for the fatire interfpersed in some of these pieces upon a few people, from whom the highest provocations have been received, and who, by their conduct fince, have fhewn, that they have not yet forgiven us the wrong they did. It is a very unlucky circumftance, to be obliged to retaliate the injuries of fuch authors, whofe works are so foon forgotten, that we are in danger already of appearing the firft aggreffors. It is to be lamented, that Virgil let pass a line, which told pofterity he had two enemies, called Bavius and Mævius. The wifeft way is, not once to name them, but (as the madman advised the gentleman, who told him he wore a fword to kill his enemies) to let them alone, and they would die of themselves. And according to this rule, we have acted throughout all those writings, which we defigned for the press: but in these, the publication whereof was not owing to our folly, but that of others, the omiffion of the names was not in our power. At the worst, we can only give them that liberty now for fomething, which they have fo many years exercised for nothing, of railing

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and fcribbling against us.

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not done it all this

mendation, that we have while, but avoided publickly to characterize any perfon, without long experience.

Nonum prematur in annum, is a good rule for all writers, but chiefly for writers of characters; because it may happen to thofe, who vent praise or cenfure too precipitately, as it did to an eminent English poet, who celebrated a young nobleman for erecting Dryden's monument upon a promife, which his Lordfhip forgot, till it was done by another.

In regard to two perfons only, we wish our raillery, though ever fo tender, or resentment, though ever fo juft, had not been indulged. We fpeak of Sir John Vanburgh, who was a man of wit, and honour; and of Mr. Addifon, whose name deferves all refpect from every lover of learning.

on.

We cannot deny (and perhaps moft writers of our kind have been in the fame circumftances) that in feveral parts of our lives, and according to the difpofitions we were in, we have written fome things, which we may with never to have thought Some fallies of levity ought to be imputed to youth, (fuppofed in charity, as it was in truth, to be the time in which we wrote them ;) others to the gaiety of our minds at certain junctures common to all men. The publishing of thefe, which we cannot difown, and without our confent, is, I think, a greater injury, than that of afcribing to us the most stupid productions, which we can wholly deny.

This has been usually practifed in other countries after a man's deceafe; which, in a great meafure, accounts for the manifeft inequality found in the works of the beft authors; the collectors only confidering, that fo many more fheets raife the price of the book; and the greater fame a writer is in poffeffion of, the more of fuch trafh he may bear to have tacked to him. Thus, it is apparently the editor's intereft to infert what the author's. judgment bad rejected; and care is always taken. to interfperfe these additions in fuch a manner,. that scarce any book of confequence can be bought without purchafing fomething unworthy of the author along with it.

But in our own country, it is ftill worfe: thofe very bookfellers, who have fupported themselves. upon an author's fame while he lived, have done their utmost, after his death, to leffen it by fuch practices even a man's laft will is not fecure from being expofed in print; whereby his most particular regards, and even his dying tenderneffes are laid open. It has been humoroufly faid,. that fome have fifhed the very jakes for papers. left there by men of wit: but it is no jest to affirm, that the cabinets of the fick, and the closets. of the dead, have been broke open and ranfacked to publifh our private letters, and divulge to all mankind the moft fecret fentiments and intercourse of friendship. Nay, these fellows are arrived to that height of impudence, that when an author has publickly difowned a fpurious piece,.

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they have difputed his own name with him in printed advertisements; which has been practised to Mr. Congreve and Mr. Prior.

We are therefore compelled, in respect to truth, to submit to a very great hardship; to own fuch pieces as, in our ftricter judgments, we would have fuppreffed for ever: we are obliged to confefs, that this whole collection, in a manner, confifts of what we not only thought unlikely to reach the future, but unworthy even of the prefent age; not our ftudies, but our follies; not our works, but our idleneffes.

Some comfort, however, it is, that all of them are innocent, and most of them, flight as they are, had yet a moral tendency, either to foften the virulence of parties against each other, or to laugh out of countenance fome vice or folly of the time; or to difcredit the impofitions of quacks, and falfe pretenders to fcience, or to humble the arrogance of the ill-natured and envious; in a word, to leffen the vanity, and promote the goodhumour of mankind.

Such as they are, we must in truth confess, they are ours, and others fhould in justice believe, they are all that are ours. If any thing elfe has been printed, in which we really had any hand, it is either intolerably imperfect, or loaded with fpurious additions; fometimes even with infertions of mens names, which we never meant, and for whom we have an esteem and respect. Even thofe pieces, in which we are least injured,

have never before been printed from the true copies, or with any tolerable degree of correctnefs. We declare, that this collection contains every piece, which in the idleft humour we have written; not only fuch as came under our review or correction, but many others, which, however unfinished, are not now in our power to fupprefs. Whatsoever was in our own poffeffion at the publifhing hereof, or of which no copy was gone abroad, we have actually destroyed, to prevent all poffibility of the like treatment.

The volumes likewife will contain all the papers, wherein we have cafually had any share; particularly thofe written in conjunction with our friends, Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Gay; and lastly, all of this fort compofed fingly by either of those hands. The reader is therefore defired to do the fame justice to these our friends, as to us; and to be affured, that all the things, called our miscellanies, (except the works of Alexander Pope, published by B. Lintot, in quarto and folio, in 17173 thofe, of Mr. Gay, by J. Tonfon, in quarto, in 1720; and as many of these miscellanies as have been formerly printed by Benj. Tooke) are absolutely fpurious, and, without our confent, imposed upon the public.

Twickenham,

May 27, 1727.

JONATH. SWIFT.
ALEX. POPE.

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