5

reader will have the whole in his poffeffion, he may perfue either the grave or the gay with very little trouble, and without lofing any pleasure or intelligence which he would have gained from a different arrangement.

Among the mifcellanies is the hiftory of John Bull, a political allegory, which is now farther opened by a short narrative of the facts upon which it is founded, whether fuppofitious 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 intended to have been written, if not by the Dean, yet by fome friend who knew his particular view in the paffage they were intended to illuftrate, or the truth of the fact which they afferted; however, this has fince appeared not always to have been the cafe; for there is not the leaft reafon to believe that Stella was related to Sir William Temple, or that he was vifited by King William at Moor Park, although both thefe facts are afferted, one in a note on the letter to Lord Palmerston, Vol. XII. p. 200, the other in a note on a letter to Dr. Sheridan, Vol. XII. p. 227.

A 4

The

The notes which have been added to this edition, contain, among other things, an biftory of the author's works, which would have made a confiderable part of his life; but as the occafion on which particular pieces were written, and the events which they produced, could not be related in a feries, without frequent references and quotations, it was thought more eligible to put them together; in the text innumerable paffages have been restored, which were evidently corrupt in every other edition, whether printed in England or Ireland.

Among the notes will be found fome remarks on thofe of another writer, for which no apology can be thought neceffary, if it be confidered that the fame act is justice if the fubject is a criminal, which would have been murder if executed on the innocent.

Lord Orrery has been fo far from acting upon the principle on which Mr. Pope framed this petition in his univerfal prayer, Teach me

To hide the faults I fee.

That where he has not found the appearance of a fault, be bas laboured hard to make

one,

one, an inftance of which will be found in his remark upon a maxim of Cadenus to Vaneffa.

That Virtue pleas'd by being fhown,"
Knows nothing which it dares not own.

He taught her, fays his lordship, that vice as foon as it defied fhame, was immediately changed into virtue; but the most obvious and natural meaning is juft contrary. That we defire to conceal no act which upon reflection we do not difcover to be vicious, becaufe virtue is pleafed in proportion as it is difplayed; and indeed these verses could not be fuppofed an apology for lewdness, if his lordship believed his own affertion, that the Dean was "Not to be fwayed by de

"liberate evil."

Lord Orrery has alfo fuppofed the Dean himself to have been the editor of at least fix volumes of the Irish edition of his works, but the contrary will incontestably appear upon a comparison of that edition with this, as well by thofe paffages, which were altered under colour of correction, as by those in which accidental imperfections were fuffered to remain. Of thefe paffages the fol

lowing are felected from Gulliver's Travels, because the correction of this part of the work, efpecially with refpect to dates and numbers, is boafted in an advertisement prefixed, and because being divided into chapters, the places referred to will be more eafily found.

In the following fentence, they have, is fubftituted for he hath :

"Whoever makes ill returns to his "benefactor, muft needs be a common enemy to the rest of mankind, from whom THEY HAVE received no obligations.” Voyage to Lilliput, Chap. VI. The children of the Lilliputians are faid to be apprenticed at seven years of age inftead of eleven, which is evidently wrong, as the author fuppofes the age of fifteen with them, to answer that of one and twenty with us, a proportion which will be nearly kept by fuppofing them to be apprenticed at eleven, and to ferve five years. Ibid.

Gulliver fays, that he arrived in the Downs from Lilliput, on the 13th of April, 1702, and that he took fhipping again on the 20th of June following, two

months

9

months after his return; but in the Irish edition, though the fame dates are preferved, we are told, that ten months after his return he took shipping, &c. Compare the laft chapter of Part I, with the firft chapter of Part II.

In the following fentence, bring is fubfituted for carry:

"A gentleman-ufber came from court commanding my master to BRING me thither; but as thither fignifies to that place, to bring thither is falfe English.

Voyage to Brobdingnag, Chap. III. By putting the word born for both, Gulliver is reprefented as fhewing how the British nobility are qualified to be born Councellors to the king and kingdom; or in other words, defcribing a part of their education antecedent to their birth. And though it is true that the English nobility are councellors to the king and kingdom by right of birth, yet it is not true that they are born councellors. Ibid. Chap. VI.

It appears by many paffages, that the ftature of the Brobdingnagians was to that of Gulliver, nearly as ten to one, and this proportion is kept in other things;

our