which put me in a rage whenever I meet with them. I know no reason why, at this distance of time, the Examiners, and other political papers, written in the queen's reign, might not be inserted. I doubt you have been too negligent in keeping copies but I have them bound up, and most of them single besides. I lent Mr. Corbet + that paper to correct his Gulliver by; and it was from that I mended my own. There is every single alteration from the original copy; and the printed book abounds with all those errours which should be avoided in the new edition."

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Had Dr. Swift attended to this advice, the present publication would undoubtedly have been superseded; or, could the editor have fortunately obtained the collection so diligently made by Mr. Ford, it would have been a collateral proof of authenticity, and have probably increased the number of the Dean's political pamphlets. Those which are now printed are all which the editor has met with; and each of them is separately left to vouch for its own excellence, and for the authority on which it has been adınitted into this volume.

"The lighter prose parts of the collection have been selected, by various accidents, from different sources. For a few of them, the editor readily acknowledges himself indebted to Mr. Faulkner; to whose diligence the reader is also obliged for the additional letters; and for some entertaining anecdotes, particularly in matters relative to Ireland.

"Many of the poetical essays are the Dean's, and all of them such as are immediately connected with his writings. Among these, the productions of Dr. Delany are particularly distinguished.

Many others are here preserved.

† Dr. Swift's successor as deau of St. Patrick's.

"Facts and circumstances of a temporary nature are so soon forgotten, that little apology seems necessary for the number and minuteness of the notes. It has ever been the editor's opinion, that every book should include an explanation of the obscure and less known passages in it, without obliging the reader to refer to other sources of information. When it is considered that these - helps are designed for the use of such as are not general readers, it is presumed those who are more informed will pardon the insertion of some circumstances, which to them may appear superfluous."

To these, in 1779, was added the twentyfifth volume; from the preface to which, a few lines shall be taken :

"After what the editor of this volume has prefixed to those he before introduced to the press, it is needless to enlarge on the motives, or even on the contents, of the present publication. The numerous corrections in the Journal to Stella' are too material to pass totally unnoticed. That part of it which was published by Dr. Hawkesworth, appearing abundantly more polished than the other given to the world by Mr. Deane Swift; it was natural to imagine that some alteration had been made. On examining, I find that in the originals, now in the British Museum, beside a few corrections which appear to have been by the Dean at the time of writing them, there are some obliterations, and many whole sentences omitted. It is true, they relate principally to private matters. But how far there is a propriety in making such corrections, the reader will best determine, on a perusal of the passages here restored; many of which he will plainly perceive to have arisen from

the carelessness of a transcriber, who frequently omitted what he could not read.

"The characters extracted from the Dean's MS

Notes on Macky ** are sufficiently authenticated; and the Biographical Anecdotes t' and Epistolary Correspondence' cannot fail of being acceptable..

"It may perhaps be objected against some of the articles which will be found throughout Swift's works, that they are too trifling, and were never intended by the author for the eye of the publick. But it was thought it would be an agreeable entertainment to the curious, to see how oddly a man of his great wit and humour could now and then descend to amuse himself with his particular His bagatelles,' lord Chesterfield tells us, are much more valuable than other people's;' an observation which will fully justify the publication of his Remarks on Dr. Gibbs's Psalms ‡.'

friends.

"The editor returns thanks to those respectable gentlemen who have so liberally honoured him with their communications; and particularly to the friend § whose assistance has been of the most singular use to him in these researches.

"The titles of such pieces as are known to have been written by the Dean, not yet recovered, shall here be given:

1. His Letter to the Bishop of Killaloe. Tooke is going on with my Miscellany. I'd give a penny the letter to the bishop of Killaloe was in it; it would do him honour: Could not you contrive to

* See these in vol. VI. p. 157.

these formed a valuable article at the time; but are now in a great measure superseded by Mr. Sheridan's life of

the Dean.

See these in vol. XXIV.

Isaac Reed, esq., of Staple Inn.

say you hear they were printing my things together; and that you wish the bookseller had that letter among the rest? but don't say any thing of it as from me. I forgot whether it was good or no; but only having heard it much conmended, perhaps it may deserve it. If this was ever printed, it must have been in or before the year 1708.

2. A Tract," On Reading, and the Corruption of Taste in Writing." This tract was written by Swift, and sent to sir Andrew Fountaine. It never was printed, or is not ascribed to the true author; but is probably alluded to in the Journal to Stella, Nov. 4, 1710. I writ a pamphlet when I was last in London, that you and a thousand have seen, and never guessed it to be mine.' Oct. 12, he says, "They have fixed about fifty things on me since I came; I have printed but three.' Q. What were they?

3. "A Ballad (full of Puns) on the Westminster Election, 1710." In the Journal to Stella, Oct. 17, 1710, he says, This morning Delaval came to see me, and we went together to Kneller's, who was not in town. In the way we met the electors for parliament-men: and the rabble came about our coach, crying, A Colt, a Stanhope, &c.' We were afraid of a dead cat, or our glasses broken; and so were always of their side.' Journal to Stella, Oct. 5, 1710.-' There is a Ballad full of Puns on the Westminster Election, that cost me half an hour: it runs, though it be good for nothing. Ibid.

4. "Dunkirk still in the Hands of the French, being a plain and true Discovery of a most notorious Falsehood, invented by Jacobites and Tories, that the Town of Dunkirk was lately delivered to the English. Price id." Advertised July 17.-This

* Journal to Stella, Oct. 17, 1710.

and the three following are certainly part of the seven penny papers Swift mentions to Stella, Aug.

7, 1712..

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5. A Hue and Cry after Dismal; being a full and true Account how a Whig Lord was taken at Dunkirk in the Habit of a Chimney Sweeper, and carried before General Hill. Price id."

6. "It's out at last, or French Correspondence clear as the Sun. Price 1d.”

7.

"A Dialogue upon Dunkirk, between a Whig and a Tory, on Sunday Morning the 6th Instant. Price id."

8. What means 66 guessing is mine," in the Journal to Stella, Nov. 7, 1710? and "Goodman Peasley and Isaac," Feb. 9, 1710-11?

9. When the Earl of Oxford was under prosecution, Swift saw a pamphlet called The Conduct of Lord Treasurer impartially considered; upon which he wrote observations; but whether he published them, does not appear.

10. He wrote in 1725 more papers against Wood than are printed.

II. "MS. Scheme to Mr. Pulteney, about proper Measures to be followed by the Court."

12. It appears by his letter to Mr. Winder, in vol. XV. dated Jan. 13, 1698, that several of his very early sermons had been transcribed by that gentleman.

13. The Rev. Walter Harte, author of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus, &c. informed some of his friends, that he had read eleven sermons of the Dean's, which he had lent to Mr. Pope, who assured Mr. Harte, they were the best he ever had read; and Mr. Harte has said the same, who was very circumstantial in telling, they were not only stitched together, but in a black leather case; that they were among Mr. Pope's papers, when he died; and that he believed that Dr. Warburton, who had