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by Mr Pope, when they published the Mifcellany; in which the tranfition

From grave to gay, from lively to fevere,

appears frequently to be the effect rather of choice than accident *. However, as the reader will have the whole in his poffeffion, he may purfue either the grave or the gay with very little trouble, and without lofing any pleasure or intelligence which he would have gained from a different arrangement f.

Among the mifcellanies is the hiftory of John Bull, a political allegory: which is now farther opened by a fhort narrative of the facts upon which it is founded, whether fuppofititious or true, at the foot of the page 1.

The notes which have been published with former editions, have for the most part been retained, because they were supposed to have been written, if not by the Dean, yet by fome friend who knew his particular view in the paffage they were intended to illuftrate, or the

*Our mifcellany is now quite printed. I am prodigiously pleased with this joint volume; in which methinks we look like friends, fide by fide, ferious and merry by turns -- - diverting others juft as we diverted ourfelves. Letter of Pope to Swift, March 8. 1726-7. [vol. 8. P. 64.]

As to the arrangement, we have generally obferved this rule : To collect together pieces relating to one and the fame fubject; fuch as the pieces both ferious and humorous, relating to religion; the political tracts in Q. Anne's reign; thofe concerning the controver fy about Wood's halfpence, the facramental test, and affairs in Ireland; Gulliver's travels, and other pieces of a humorous, fatirical, or romantic caft; the tracts which the Dean wrote in conjunction with cotemporary writers; the letters, and pofthumous pieces, which have no immediate connection with each other. The mifcellanies in verfe are for the most part arranged in the fame order as Mr Pope claffed them in the Mifcellanies, and from which Mr Hawkesworth took them into his edition; only a few pofthumous poems at the end of the letters in Hawkefworth's 12th volume, are now transferred to the poetical pieces in our 7th volume, that the poetry might be kept quite diftinct from the prose.

This we have followed without any variation. Mr Hawkefworth certainly means, that the fhort narrative he speaks of is more full and diftinet than that of former editors: for in all the editions of this piece that we have feen, there are short notes to illuftrate the allegory.

truth

truth of the fact which they afferted. However, this has fince appeared not always to have been the cafe. The notes which have been added to this edition, contain, among other things, an hiftory of the author's works, which would have made a confiderable part of his life. But as the occafion on which particular pieces were written, and the events which they produced, could not be related in a feries, without frequent references and quotations, it was thought more eligible to put them together. In the text, innumerable paffages have been. reftored, which were evidently corrupt in every other edition, whether printed in England or Ireland +.

Among the notes will be found fome remarks on those of another writer [Lord Orrery]; for which no apology can be thought neceffary, if it be confidered, that the fame act is juftice if the fubject is a criminal, which would have been murder if executed on the innocent 1.

Lord Orrery has fuppofed the Dean himself to have been the editor of at leaft fix volumes of the Irish edition of his works. But the contrary will inconteftably appear upon a comparison of that edition with this, as well by thofe paffages which were altered under colour of correction, as by thofe in which accidental imperfections were fuffered to remain. Of these paffages the following are felected from Gulliver's Travels, fin vol. 4.]; because the correction of this part of the work,. efpecially with respect to dates and numbers, is boaffed in an advertisement prefixed, and because being divided into chapters, the places referred to will be more eafily found.

In the following fentence, they have is fubftituted for be bath. "Whoever makes ill returns to his bettefactor, muft needs be a common enemy to the rest of

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*See the notes in vol. 8. p. 239. 253.

We have inferted almost all Mr Hawkefworth's notes, and followed his corrections of the text; which however we have compared with that of former editions. This fometimes gave occafion to cor rect miftakes which he had overlooked. His remarks on fotal of thofe of Lord Orrery have also been attended to.

A paragraph here omitted, will be found among the notes in vol. 6. p. 34. "mankind,

41 mankind, from whom THEY have received no ob"ligations." Voyage to Lilliput, chap. vi. p. 53.

The children of the Lilliputians are faid to be apprenticed at feven years of age inftead of eleven ; which is evidently wrong, as the author fupposes the age of fifteen with them, to anfwer that of one and twenty with us; a proportion which will be nearly kept, by fuppofing them to be apprenticed at eleven, and to ferve five years. Ibid. p. 55.

Gulliver fays, that he arrived in the Downs from Lilliput on the 13th of April 1702, and that he took shipping again on the 20th of June following, two months after his return. But in the Irish edition, though the fame dates are preserved, we are told, that ten months after his return he took fhipping, &c. Compare the last chapter of Part I. with the first chapter of Part II. p. 72. 74.

ry.

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In the following fentence, bring is substituted for car"A gentleman-ufher came from court, commanding my mafter to BRING me thither." But as thither fignifies to that place, to bring thither is false English. Voyage to Brobdingnag, chap. iii. p. 91.

By putting the word born for both, Gulliver is reprefented as fhewing how the British nobility are qualified to be born counsellors to the king and kingdom; or, in other words, defcribing a part of their education antecedent to their birth. And though it is true that the English nobility are counsellors to the king and kingdom by right of birth, yet it is not true that they are born counsellors. Ibid. chap. vi. p. 118.

It appears by many paffages, that the ftature of the Brobdingnagians was to that of Gulliver nearly as ten to one; and this proportion is kept in other things. Our battering pieces being about twelve feet long, Gulliver, who was willing to facilitate the use of cannon in Brobdingnag, tells the King that he need not make his largest pieces longer than one hundred feet. But this proportion is deftroyed, and Gulliver reprefented as incumbering a new project with unneceffary expense and labour, by changing one hundred feet into trva. Ibid. chap. vii. p. 125.

When Gulliver was floating on the fea in a box which Glumdalclitch

Glumdalclitch used to carry on her girdle, and the wa ter oozed in at the crannies, he obferves, that if he could have lifted up the roof, he would have fat on the top of it, where he might at least have preserved himfelf fome hours longer, than by being fhut up in the hold. But, as if it was difficult to conceive, that when a veffel is gradually finking, a man will drown fooner in the hold than upon deck, the Irifh edition tells us, that Gulliver would have got on the top, because he might thus have preferved himself from being hut up in it. And indeed it is a truth fo evident as to admit no difpute, that while a man fits on the top of a box, he will effectually preferve himself from the infide of it. Voyage to Brobdingnag, chap. viii. p. 133.

Gulliver's refidence among the Houyhnhnms is faid to be five years instead of three, though he tells us he was set on fhore there in 1711, and departed in 1714. Voyage to the Houyhnhmus. Compare the beginning of chap. i. with chap. xi. ; of which fee also the last paragraph.

In other places the London edition has been copied with great exactness. Gulliver is made to fay of his box, that it was toffed up and down like a fign-POST in a windy day; though the manner in which a fign-post is toffed up and down by the wind, is much less eafy to conceive than the motion of the box which it was intended to illuftrate. Voyage to Brobdingnag, chap. viii. p. 132.

As the word poft is not rejected in this paffage, neither is the word take fupplied in the following: though by this neglect Gulliver is reprefented as putting on a bundle of linen with his beft fuit of cloaths. "They "forced me into the long-boat, letting me put on my " beft fuit of cloaths, - and a fmall bundle of linen. Voyage to the Houyhnhnms, chap. i. p. 225.

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So when the Irish editor found, by an accidental tranfpofition, that Gulliver, in his way to England, came to Amfterdam the 16th of April, and arrived from Amfterdam in the Downs on the 10th; he faithfully copied the mistake, although the two dates are within half a page of each other. [vol. 4. p. 218.]

Such, among innumerable others, are the Irish emendations of Gulliver's Travels; and many more examples

of

of equal skill and diligence, might have been felected from an equal number of pages in any part of the eight volumes. But he who is not convinced by thefe, that the Dean could not thus alter to pervert his meaning, and overlook blunders that obfcured it, would ftill doubt if all the rest had been brought together. Some of them, however, are yet more grofs; as preventing an apparent difeafe, for preventing the deceafe; rules for ruelles; and armed with the power, the guilt, and the will to do mischief, instead of armed with the power and the will. It might reasonably be supposed, that a disease which was. apparent, could not be prevented; and it should have been known, that there is no fuch affembly or place as the rules of court-ladies; and that it is an abfurd redundancy to say of a man who has the power and the will, that he has also the guilt to do mischief; for whatever guilt he can contract before the perpetration of the mischief, is included in the will. Thefe paffages are to be found in the 46th and 48th Examiners [in vol. 2.] and in the Answer to a memorial, in vol. 3. p. 170. I. * 33. These examiners indeed are not taken into this collection, because the last paper written by the Dean was N° 44; which is yet a ftronger proof, that he did not revife the Irish edition, where the fubfequent numbers are imputed to him, and have received correction from the hand that corrected the reft. † The editor of the Irish edition has also taken into his collection feveral fpurious pieces in verse, which the Dean zealously disavowed, and which therefore he would certainly have excluded from any collection printed under his infpection, and with his confent, particularly, The life and character of Dr. Swift, on a maxim of Rochefocault; of which he fays, in a letter to Mr. Pope, dated May 1. 1733,

We have literally followed Mr. Hawkesworth's copy in printing Gulliver's travels, the Examiners, and the Anfwer to a memorial, &c. and the grofs blunders here pointed out, are corrected in our edition.

+ See Examiner, No. 44. and the notes on No. 13. in vol. 2. Though it now appears, that the laft fix Examiners were not written by Dr. Swift; yet, as they had got a place in the Irish, and fome of the English editions that had appeared before that of Hawkesworth, it was thought advisable to retain them. See the note on the Examiner, No. 45. in vol. 2.

VOL. 1.

b

[vol. 8.

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