He takes his boldness, from never having feen any fuch treatife in his life, nor heard of it before; and he is fure it is impoffible for two writers of diffeferent times and countries, to agree in their thoughts after fuch a manner, that two continued difcourfes fhall be the fame, only mutatis mutandis. Neither will he infift upon the mistake in the title. But let the answerer and his friend produce any book they pleafe, he defies them to shew one fingle particular, where the judicious reader will affirm he has been obliged for the smallest hint; giving only allowance for the accidental encountering of a fingle thought, which he knows may fometimes happen; though he has never yet found it in that discourse, nor has heard it objected by any body else.

So that if ever any defign was unfortunately executed, it must be that of this answerer; who, when he would have it observed that the author's wit is none of his own, is able to produce but three inftances, two of them mere trifles, and all three manifeftly false. If this be the way thefe gentlemen deal with the world in those criticifms, where we have not leifure to defeat them, their readers had need be cautious how they ́rely upon their credit; and whether this proceeding can be reconciled to humanity or truth, let those who think it worth their while determine.

It is agreed, this answerer would have fucceeded much better, if he had ftuck wholly to his bufinefs as a commentator upon the Tale of a

Tub,

Tub, wherein it cannot be denied, that he hath been of fome fervice to the public, and hath given very fair conjectures towards clearing up fome difficult paffages. But it is the frequent error of those men, (otherwife very commendable for their labours,) to make excurfions beyond their talent and their office, by pretending to point out the beauties and the faults; which is no part of their trade, which they always fail in, which the world never expected from them, nor give them any thanks for endeavouring at. The part of Minellius, or Farnaby, would have fallen in with his genius, and might have been ferviceable to many readers, who cannot enter into the abftrufer parts of that discourse. But optat ephippia bos piger: The dull, unwieldly, illfhaped ox would needs put on the furniture of a horfe, not confidering he was born to labour, to plough the ground for the fake of fuperior beings; and that he has neither the shape, mettle, nor speed of that noble animal he would affect to perfonate.

It is another pattern of this anfwerer's fair dealing, to give us hints that the author is dead, and yet to lay the fufpicion upon fomebody, I know not who, in the country. To which can only be returned, that he is absolutely mistaken in all his conjectures; and furely conjectures are, at best, too light a pretence to allow a man to affign

* Low commentators, who wrote notes upon claffic authors for the use of school-boys. Hawkef.

affign a name in public. He condemns, book, and confequently the author, of whom he is utterly ignorant; yet at the fame time fixes in print, what he thinks a difadvantageous character upon those who never deferved it. A man who receives a buffet in the dark, may be allowed to be vexed; but it is an odd kind of revenge, to go to cuffs in broad day with the first he meets, and lay the last night's injury at his door. And thus much for this difcreet, candid, pious, and ingenious anfwerer.

How the author came to be without his papers, is a story not proper to be told, and of very little use, being a private fact, of which the reader would believe as little, or as much, as he thought good. He had, however, a blotted copy by him, which he intended to have written over with many alterations; and this the publishers were well aware of, having put it into the bookfeller's preface, that they apprehended a furreptitious copy, which was to be altered, &c. This, though not regarded by readers, was a real truth; only the furreptitious copy was rather that which was printed; and they made all the hafte they could; which indeed was needlefs, the author not being at all prepared. But he has been told, the bookfeller was in much pain, having given a good fum of money for the copy.

In the author's original copy, there were not fo many chafms as appear in the book; and why fome of them were left, he knows not. Had the publication been trufted to him, he would

have ma..e feveral corrections of paffages, against which nothing hath been ever objected. He would likewife have altered a few of those that feem with any reafon to be excepted againft; but, to deal freely, the greatest number he should have left untouched, as never fufpecting it poffible any wrong interpretations could be made of them. The author obferves, at the end of the book there is a difcourfe, called, A Fragment *; which he more wondered to fee in print than all the reft; having been a most imperfect sketch, with the addition of a few loofe hints, which he once lent a gentleman, who had defigned a difcourfe on fomewhat the fame fubject. He never thought of it afterwards; and it was a fufficient furprise to fee it pieced up together, wholly out of the method and fcheme he had intended; for it was the ground-work of a much larger difcourfe, and he was forry to obferve the materials fo foolishly employed.

There is one farther objection made by thofe who have answered this book, as well as by fome others, That Peter is frequently made to repeat oaths and curfes. Every reader obferves, it was neceffary to know that Peter did fwear and curse. The oaths are not printed out, but only fupposed; and the idea of an oath is not immoral, like the idea of a profane or immodest speech. A man may laugh at the Popish folly of curfing people

This Fragment begins vol. ii. of this edition of the author's works, under the title of A Difcourfe concerning the mechanical Operation of the Spirit.

people to hell, and imagine them fwearing, without any crime; but lewd words, or dangerous opinions, though printed by halves, fill the reader's mind with ill ideas; and of these the author cannot be accused. For the judicious reader will find, that the fevereft ftrokes of fatire in his book, are levelled against the modern cuftom of employing wit upon thofe topics; of which there is a remarkable inftance in fect. 7. parag. 7. as well as in feveral others, though perhaps once or twice expreffed in too free a manner, excufeable only for the reafons already alledged. Some overtures have been made, by a third hand, to the bookfeller, for the author's altering thofe paffages which he thought might require it. But it seems the bookfeller will not hear of any fuch thing, being apprehenfive it might spoil the fale of the book.

The author cannot conclude this apology, without making this one reflection, That as wit is the noblest and most useful gift of human nature, fo humour is the moft agreeable; and where these two enter far into the compofition of any work, they will render it always acceptable to the world. Now the greater part of thofe, who have no fhare or tafte of either, but by their pride, pedantry, and ill manners, lay themselves bare to the lafhes of both, think the blow is weak, because they are infenfible; and where wit hath any mixture of raillery, it is but calling it banter, and the work is done. This polite word of theirs was firft borrowed from the

bullies