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Those who are advocates for the change of s into eth, affign as a reafon for it, that in fo doing we avoid the frequent repetition of that hiffing letter, objected to our language as an imperfection. But in this, as in many other inftances where found is concerned, they judge by the

the letter

وی

after

eye, not the

ear ;

for

every confonant in our language,

except four, lofes its own power, and affumes that of z, one of our most pleasing founds.

In this edition I have given all the genuine Writings of Swift hitherto published, of whatever kind, and however trifling; as it was the general opinion, that an edition which should omit any thing of his, printed in a former one, would be confidered as imperfect. The eagerness with which every thing has been fought after, which cafually drop'd from his pen, confirms this opinion. His flighteft fketches, like thofe of fome great painter, still shew a masterly hand; and his most imperfect pieces, however great may be the quantiny of alloy, ftill contain fome particles of gold worth extracting. If the more faftidious critics fhould object that there is fome trash to be found among them, I fhall give them the fame answer that Lord Chefterfield did to one of that fort, "It is true there is some stuff to be found there, but ftill it is Swift's ftuff.”

A

TALE OF A TU B.

WRITTEN FOR THE

UNIVERSAL IMPROVEMENT

OF

MANKIND.

Diu multumque defideratum.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

An Account of a BATTLE between the ANCIENT and MODERN BOOKS in St. James's Library.

Bafyma cacabafa eanaa, irraumifta diaraba caëota bafobor camelanthi.

-Juvatque novos decerpere flores,

Infignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam,
Unde prius nulli velarunt tempora Mufa.

IREN. Lib. i. c. 18.

LUCRET.

WITH THE AUTHOR's APOLOGY;

AND

EXPLANATORY NOTES, by W. WOTTON, B. D. and Others.

Printed for CHARLES BATHURST, in Fleet-Street.

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THE AUTHOR's

IF

APOLOGY.

F good and ill nature equally operated upon mankind, I might have saved myself the trouble of this Apology; for it is manifeft by the reception the following discourse has met with, that those who approve it, are a great majority among the men of taste: yet there have been two or three treatises written expressly against it, befide many others that have flirted at it occafionally, without one fyllable having been ever published in its defence, or even quotation to its advantage, that I can remember, except by the polite Author of a late Discourse between a Deift and a Socinian.

Therefore, fince the book feems calculated to live, at least as long as our language and our taste admit no great alterations, I am content to convey some Apology along with it.

The greatest part of that book was finished about thirteen years fince, 1696, which is eight years before it was published. The author was then young, his invention at the height, and his reading fresh in his head. By the affiftance of fome thinking, and much converfation, he had endea

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