WORKS

O F

Dr. Jonathan Swift,

Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin,

Accurately reviled

In TWELVE VOLUMES,

Adorned with COPPER-PLATES;

WITH

Some Account of the AUTHOR'S LIFE,.

AND

NOTES HISTORICAL and EXPLANATORY,

By JOHN HAWKESWORTH, LL. D.

LONDON,

Printed for W. BowYER, C. BATHURST, W. OWEN,
W. STRAHAN, J. RIVINGTON, J. HINTON, L. Davis,

and C. REYMERS, R. BALDWIN, J. DODSLEY,
S. CROWDER and Co, and B. COLLINS.

MDCCLXVIII.

PREFACE.

T HE Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift were written and publifhed at very diftant periods of his life, and had paffed through many editions before they were collected into volumes, or diftinguished from the productions of contemporary wits, with whom he was known to affociate.

The Tale of a Tub, the Battle of the Books, and the Fragment were first publifbed together in 1704, and the apology, aud the notes from Wotton were added in 1710; this edition the Dean revised a fhort time before his understanding was impaired, and his corrections will be found in this impreffion.

Gulliver's Travels were first printed in. the year 1726, with fome alterations which had been made by the person through whofe hands they were conveyed to the press, but the original paffages were reftored to the fubfequent editions',

a The corrected Copy is now in the hands of Mr. Dean Swift.

See the letter to Sympfon and note, Vol. II.

A 2

Many

Many other pieces both in profe and verfe, 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 Mifcellanies; of all these pieces, though they were intended to go down to pofterity together, the Dean was not the author, as appeared by the title pages, but they continued undiftinguished till 1742, and then Mr. Pope, having new claffed them, afcribed each performance among the profe to its particular author in a table of contents, but of the verfes he diftinguished only the Dean's, by marking the rest with an afterisk.

In the year 1735, the pieces of which the Dean was the author, were felected from the mifcellany, and with Gulliver's Travels, the Drapier's Letters, and fome other pieces which were written upon particular occafions in Ireland, were published by George Falkener, at Dublin, in four volumes ; to these he afterwards added a fifth and a

* See the preface to Vol. III. figned by the Dean and Mr. Pope.

At all adventures yours

fixth, containing the Examiners, polite Converfation, and fome other tracts, which

e foon followed by a feventh volume of letters, and an eighth of pofthumous 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 confufion, 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 fufficiently prove him to have been the author, the Battle of the Books, and the Fragment, make the first volume; the fecond is Gulliver's Travels; the Miscellanies will be found in the third, fourth, fifth, and fixth; and the contents of the other volumes are divided into two claffes, as relating to England or Ireland as to the arrangement of particular pieces in each class, there were only three things that feemed to deferve attention, or that could direct the choice; that the verfe and profe fbould be kept feparate; that the pofthumous and doubtful pieces fhould not be mingled with thofe which the Dean is known to have A 3

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