The following anecdote of Professor Porson's critical acumen, was related by the late Professor of Greek, in the University of Cambridge. In the introduction to the Tale of a Tub, p. 51, first edition, we have the following passage:" Fourscore and eleven pamphlets have I writ under three reigns, and for the service of six and thirty factions."-And in Gulliver's Travels, vol. 1. p. 22, first edition, we have this: "On each side of the gate was a small window, not above six inches from the ground, into that on the left side, the King's smiths conveyed fourscore and eleven chains, like those that hang to a lady's watch in Europe, and almost as large, which were locked to my left leg with six and thirty padlocks." From the curious coincidence of the numbers in these two passages, Professor Porson inferred that both were written by the same person, that is, from internal evidence, that Swift was the author of the Tale of a Tub."—Parthenon. 1 A WRITTEN FOR THE UNIVERSAL IMPROVEMENT MANKIND. Diú multumque desideratum, TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN ACCOUNT OF A BATTLE BETWEEN THE ANCIENT AND MODERN BOOKS IN ST. JAMES'S LIBRARY. WITH THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGY; AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, BY W. WOTTON, B. D. AND OTHERS. NEW-YORK : PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM DURELL'AND CO. C. S. Van Winkle, Printer. |