A DEFENSE OF THE REFLECTIONS UPON Ancient and Modern Learning, In Answer to the OBJECTIONS O F Sir W. Temple, and Others. With OBSERVATIONS upon The Tale of a Tub. LONDON: Printed for Tim. Goodwin, at the Queen's Head, against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetftreet. MDCCV. [Wotton's own copy of the Tale, a first edition, is in the possession of Major Chetwood-Aiken, of Woodbrook, Queen's County, the present representative of Swift's friend and correspondent, Knightley Chetwood. It contains several notes and jottings, some of which are undoubtedly in Wotton's hand, and mark the first stage in the preparation of the Observations. They are almost wholly confined to the sections containing the allegory, i.e. Sections II, IV, VI, VIII, XI. The more interesting are here set down, with page references to the present edition : 6 P. 80, 1. 20 (on Vein and Race') 'This is like Sr W. Temple'. P. 86, 1. 15 C--' explained as 'Conway', and 'J. W.' as 'John Walters'. 6 P. 100, l. 15-17 (perhaps not in Wotton's hand) Salamandr Ld. Cutts'. 6 P. 111, 1.6 (on 'Decline') 'This word is frequent with S1 W. T.'. P. 115, 1. 20 (on Boutade") Any Body but Sr W. Temple would have said Sally'. 6 6 P. 151, l. 8-12 (opposite Farther... Mysteries') All this is like Mr Hobbes's banter upon in-blowing'. 6 P. 175, II. 26, 27, Seymour', Musgrave', Bolls', 'How'. Wotton thought that Temple was the author of the Tale. The notes show suspicion becoming mistaken certainty. It is a pleasure to thank Mr. Walter G. Strickland, late Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, for drawing attention to this volume and sending it to Oxford for inspection, and Major Chetwood-Aiken for granting permission to make use of the notes.-March, 1919.] I A DEFENSE OF THE REFLECTIONS UPON Ancient and Modern Learning.' To Anthony Hammond, Efq; have now given a full Answer, as I think, Sir, to all the Argu- we do not allow that he misunderstood the Question as I had plainly stated it (t), we must believe that he wilfully mistook it; and the rather, (t) Vide because when he was to examine the several Particulars in which supra ReI apprehended that the Preference was to be given to the Moderns, he flex. pag. 7. 'drops the Question. It is done decently indeed, and there is a Hiatus in Manuscripto, as the Publisher of the Tale of a Tub expresses it (u), (u) P. 42. that so we may suppose the Comparison was intended to be made, and only by accident left imperfect. For after Sir William Temple had said, "Since the Modern Advocates yield, though very unwillingly, the "Pre-eminence of the Ancients in Poetry, Oratory, Painting, Statuary "and Architecture; I shall proceed to examine the Account they give "of those Sciences, wherein they affirm the Moderns to excel the "Ancients; whereof they make the chief to be the Invention of "Instruments; Chymistry; Anatomy; Natural History of Minerals, "Plants, and Animals; Astronomy and Optics; Music; Physick; "Natural Philosophy; Philology and Theology; of all which I shall "take a short survey. There is a Gap, and Dr. Swift fills it up thus, Here it is supposed, the Knowledge of the Ancients and Moderns last mentioned, was to have been compared: But whether the Author The Defense was printed both separately and at the conclusion (with continuous pagination) of the third edition of Wotton's Reflections, 1705. It there occupies pp. 471-541. The designed to have gone through such a Work himself, or intended these Papers only for Hints to some body else that desired them, is not known. After which, the rest was to follow written in his own Hand as before. (w) De- (w) This Method of answering of Books, and of publishing such fense of Es- Answers, is very dissatisfactory. Just where the Pinch of the Quessay, p. 230. tion lay, there the Copy fails, and where there was more Room for flourishing, there Sir W. Temple was as copious as one would wish. To use his own Words, This is very wonderful, if it be not a Jest; and I take it for granted, Dr. Swift had express Orders to print these Fragments of an Answer. 231. This way of printing Bits of Books that in their Nature are intended for Continued Discourses, and are not loose Apophthegms, Occasional Thoughts, or incoherent Sentences, is what I have seen few Instances of; none more remarkable than this, and one more which may be supposed to imitate this, The Tale of a Tub, of which a Brother of Dr. Swift's is publicly reported to have been the Editor at least, if not the Author. In which though Dr. Bentley and my self are coursely treated, yet I believe I may safely answer for us both, that we should not have taken any manner of notice of it, if upon this Occasion I had not been obliged to say something in answer to what has been seriously said against us. For, believe me, Sir, what concerns us, is much the innocentest part of the Book, tending chiefly to make Men laugh for half an Hour, after which it leaves no farther Effects behind it. When Men are jested upon for what is in it self praiseworthy, the World will do them Justice: And on the other hand, if they deserve it, they ought to sit down quietly under it. Our Cause therefore we shall leave to the Public very willingly, there being no occasion to be concerned at any Man's Railery about it. But the rest of the Book which does not relate to us, is of so irreligious a nature, is so crude a Banter upon all that is esteemed as Sacred among all Sects and Religions among Men, that, having so fair an Opportunity, I thought it might be useful to many People who pretend they see no harm in it, to lay open the Mischief of the Ludicrous Allegory, and to shew what that drives at which has been so greedily brought up and read. In one Word, God and Religion, Truth and Moral Honesty, Learning and Industry are made a May-Game, and the most serious Things in the World are described as so many several Scenes in a Tale of a Tub. That this is the true Design of that Book, will appear by these Particulars. The Tale in substance is this; "A Man had three Sons, "all at a Birth, by one Wife; to whom when he died, because he had "purchased no Estate, nor was born to any, he only provided to each "of them a New Coat, which were to last them fresh and sound as long 66 as they lived, and would lengthen and widen of themselves, so as to 66 "be always fit." (x) By the Sequel of the Tale it appears, that by (x) p. 54. these three Sons, Peter, Martin, and Jack; Popery, the Church of England, and our Protestant Dissenters are designed. What can now be more infamous than such a Tale? The Father is Jesus Christ, who at his Death left his WILL or TESTAMENT to his Disciples, with a Promise of Happiness to them, and the Churches which they and their Successors should found for ever. So the Tale-teller's Father to his three Sons, "You will find in my WILL full Instruc'tions in every Particular concerning the wearing and managing of your "Coats; wherein you must be very exact, to avoid the Penalties I have appointed for every Transgression or Neglect, upon which your Future "Fortunes will entirely depend." (y) By his Coats which he gave (y) Ibid. his Sons, the Garments of the Israelites are exposed, which by the P. 54, 55. Miraculous Power of God waxed not old, nor were worn out for Forty Years together in the Wilderness. (z) The number of these Sons (*) Deut. born thus at one Birth, looks asquint at the TRINITY, and one of VIII. 4. the Books in our Author's Catalogue in the Off-page over-against the Title, is a Panegyric upon the Number THREE, which Word is the only one that is put in Capitals in that whole Page (a). (a) In the Citations out of the Tale of a Tub, the first Impression is constantly quoted. In the pursuit of his Allegory, we are entertain'd with the Lewdness of the Three Sparks. Their Mistresses are the Dutchess d' Argent, Madamoizelle de Grands Titres, and the Countess d'Orgueil (b) i.e. (b) P.[55]. Covetousness, Ambition and Pride, which were the Three great Vices that the Ancient Fathers inveighed against as the first Corrupters of Christianity. Their Coats having such an extraordinary Virtue of never wearing out, give him large Scope for his Mirth, which he employs in burlesquing Religion, Moral Honesty and Conscience, which are the strongest Ties by which Men can be tied to one another. Is not Religion a Cloak, Honesty a Pair of Shoes worn out in the Dirt, Self-love a Surtout, Vanity a Shirt, and Conscience a Pair of Breeches? (c) Which last Allusion gives him an opportunity that he never misses (c) P. 60. of talking obscenely. 66 His Whim of Clothes is one of his chiefest Favourites. "Man,. says he, is an Animal compounded of two Dresses, the Natural and "the Coelestial-Suit, which were the Body and the Soul." (d) And (d) P. 61. "That the Soul was by daily Creation and Circumfusion they proved "by Scripture, because In them we live, and move, and have our Being." In them (i. e. in the Clothes of the Body :) Words applicable only to the Great God of Heaven and Earth, of whom they were first spoken by St. Paul (e). Thus he introduces his Tale; then that he might (e) Acts shelter himself the better from any Censure here in England, he falls XVII. 28. most unmercifully upon Peter and Jack, i.e. upon Popery and Fanaticism, |