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bullies in White-Friers, then fell among the footmen, and at laft retired to the pedants; by whom it is applied as properly to the productions of wit, as if I should apply it to Sir Ifaac Newton's mathematics. But if this bantering, as they call it, be fo defpifable a thing, whence comes it to pafs they have fuch a perpetual itch towards it themfelves? To inftance only in the answerer already mentioned: It is grievous to fee him, in fome of his writings, at every turn going out of his way to be waggifh, to tell us of a cow that pricked up her tail; and in his anfwer to this discourse, he fays, It is all a farce and a ladle; with other paffages equally fhining. One may say of these impedimenta literarum, that wit owes them a fhame; and they cannot take wiser counsel, than to keep out of harm's way, or at least not to come till they are fure they are called.

To conclude: With thofe allowances above required, this book fhould be read; after which, the author conceives, few things will remain, which may not be excufed in a young writer. He wrote only to the men of wit and tafte; and he thinks he is not mistaken in his accounts, when he fays, they have been all of his fide, enough to give him the vanity of telling his name; wherein the world, with all its wife conjectures, is yet very much in the dark: Which circumstance is no difagreeable amusement, either to the public, or himself.

The author is informed, that the bookfeller has prevailed on feveral gentlemen to write fome explanatory

explanatory notes; for the goodnefs of which he is not to answer, having never feen any of them, nor intending it till they appear in print; when it is not unlikely he may have the pleasure to find twenty meanings, which never entered into his imagination.

June 3. 1709.

POST SCRIPT.

SINCE

INCE the writing of this, which was about a year ago, a prostitute bookfeller hath published a foolish paper, under the name of Notes on the Tale of a Tub, with fome account of the Author; and, with an infolence which I fuppofe is punishable by law, hath prefumed to affign certain names. It will be enough for the author to affure the world, that the writer of that paper is utterly wrong in all his conjectures upon that affair. The author farther afferts, that the whole work is entirely of one hand; which every reader of judgment will eafily difcover: The gentleman who gave the copy to the bookfeller, being a friend of the author, and using no other liberties, befides that of expunging certain paffages, where now the chafius appear under the name of defiderata. But if any perfon will prove his claim to three lines in the whole book, let him ftep forth, and tell his name and titles; upon which the bookfeller thall have orders to prefix them to the next edition, and the claimant fhall from henceforward be acknowledged the undisputed author. Treatifes

Treatifes written by the fame author, most of them mentioned in the following difcourfes, which will be fpeedily published.

A

Character of the present fet of wits in this ifland.

A panegyrical effay upon the number THREE.

A differtation upon the principal productions of Grub-street.

Lectures upon a diffection of human nature.

A panegyric upon the world.

An analytical discourse upon zeal, hiftori-theophyfilogically confidered.

A general hiftory of ears.

A modeft defence of the proceedings of the rabble in all ages.

A defcription of the kingdom of abfurdities.

A voyage into England, by a person of quality in Terra auftralis incognita, tranflated from the original.

A critical effay upon the art of canting, philo fophically, and mufically confidered.

VOL. I.

S

Το

To the Right Honourable

JOHN LORD SOMMERS.

MY LORD,

ALTHOUGH the author has written a

large dedication, yet that being addreffed

to a prince, whom I am never likely to have the honour of being known to; a perfon, befides, as far as I can obferve, not at all regarded, or thought on by any of our prefent writers; and being wholly free from that flavery which bookfellers ufually lie under to the caprices of authors; I think it a wife piece of prefumption, to infcribe thefe papers to your Lordfhip, and to implore your Lordship's protection of them. God, and your Lordship, know their faults, and their merits: For, as to my own particular, I am altogether a ftranger to the matter; and though every body else should be equally ignorant, I do not fear the fale of the book, at all the worse, upon that fcore. Your Lordship's name on the front, in capital letters, will at any time get off one edition: Neither would I defire any other help to grow an alderman, than a patent for the fole privilege of dedicating to your Lordship.

I

I fhould now, in right of a dedicator, give your Lordship a list of your own virtues, and at the fame time be very unwilling to offend your modefty; but, chiefly, I fhould celebrate your liberality towards men of great parts and finall fortunes, and give you broad hints, that I mean myfelf. And I was just going on, in the usual method, to perufe a hundred or two of dedications, and tranfcribe an abstract, to be applied to your Lordship; but I was diverted by a certain accident. For, upon the covers of these. papers, I cafually obferved, written in large letters, the two following words, DETUR DIGNISSIMO; which, for aught I knew, might contain fome important meaning. But it unluckily fell out, that none of the authors I employ, understood Latin; (though I have them often in pay, to tranflate out of that language.) I was therefore compelled to have recourse to the curate of our parish, who Englished it thus, Let it be given to the worthieft. And his comment was, that the, author meant his works fhould be dedicated to the fublimeft genius of the age, for wit, learning, judgment, eloquence, and wifdom. I called at a poet's chamber (who works for my shop) in an alley hard by, fhewed him the tranflation, and defired his opinion, who it was that the author could mean. He told me, after fome confideration, that vanity was a thing he abhorred; but, by the defcription, he thought himself to be the perfon aimed at; and, at the fame time, he very S 2 kindly

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