hope you do not write the thing that is not. We are afraid that B― hath been guilty of that crime, that you (like Honynhnm) have treated him as a Yahoo, and dif carded him your fervice. I fear you do not understand these modifh terms, which every creature now understands but yourself.

You tell us your Wine is bad, and that the Clergy do not frequent your house, which we look upon to be tautology. The best advice we can give you is, to make them a prefent of your Wine, and come away to better. You fancy we envy you, but you are mistaken; we envy thofe you are with, for we cannot envy the man we love. Adieu,

I

LETTER XIX.

Nov. 16, 1726.

Have refolved to take time; and in fpite of all misfortunes and demurs, which fickness, lamenefs, or disability of any kind can throw in my way, to write you (at intervals) a long letter. My two leaft fingers of one hand hang impediments to the others, like ufelefs dependents, who only take up room, and never are active or affiftant to our wants: I fhall never be much the better for 'em- I congratulate you upon what you call your Coufin's wonderful Book, which is publica trita manu at present, and I prophefy will be hereafter the admiration of all men. That countenance with which it is received by fome stateimen, is delightful; I wish I could tell you how every fingle man looks upon it, to obferve which has been my whole diverfion this fortnight. I've never been a night in London fince you left me, till now for this very end, and indeed it has fully answered my expectations.

I find no confiderable man very angry at the book: fome indeed think it rather too bold, and too general a Satire but none, that I hear of, accufe it of particular reflections (I mean no perfons of confequence, or good judgment; the mob of Critics, you know, always are defirous to apply Satire to thofe they envy for being above them) fo that you needed not to have been fo fecret upon this head. Motte received the copy (he tells me) he knew not from whence, nor from whom, dropp'd at his house in the dark, from a Hackney-Coach: by computing the time I found it was after you left England, fo, for my part I suspend my judgment,

I am pleas'd with the nature and quality of your Prefent to the Princefs. The Irish ftuff you fent to Mrs. H. her R. H. laid hold of, and has made up for her own ufe. Are you determined to be national in every thing, even in your civilities? you are the greatest Politician in Europe at this rate; but as you are a rational Politician, there's no great fear of you, you will never fucceed.

Another thing in which you have pleas'd me, was what you fay to Mr. P. by which it feems to me that you value no man's civility above your own dignity, or your own reafon. Surely, without flattery, you are now above all parties of men, and it is high time to be fo, after twenty or thirty years obfervation of the great world.

Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri.

I queftion not, many men would be of your intimacy, that you might be of their intereft: But God forbid an honeft or witty an fhould be of any, but that of his country. They have fcoundrels enough to write for their paffions and their defigns: let us write for truth, for honour, and for pofterity. If you must needs write about Politics at all (but perhaps 'tis full as wife to play the fool any other way) furely it ought to be fo as to preferve the dignity and integrity of your character with those times to come, which will moft impartially judge of you.

I wish you had writ to Lord Peterborow; no man is more affectionate toward you. Don't fancy none but Tories are your friends; for at that rate I must be, at most, but half your friend, and fincerely I am wholly fo. Adieu, write often, and come foon, for many with you well, and all would be glad of your company.

I

LETTER XX.

From Dr. SWIFT.

Dublin, Nov. 17, 1726,

Am juft come from anfwering a Letter of Mrs. H-'s writ in fuch myftical terms, that I fhould never have found out the meaning, if a Book had not been fent me called Gulliver's Travels, of which you fay fo much in yours. I read the Book over, and in the fecond volume obferve feveral paffages, which appear to be patch'd and

alter'd

alter'd, and the ftyle of a different fort (unless I am much mistaken). Dr. Arbuthnot likes the Projectors least †; others, you tell me, the Flying ifland; fome think it wrong to be fo hard upon whole bodies or Corporations, yet the general opinion is, that reflections on particular perfons are moft to be blam'd: fo that in these cafes, I think the beft method is, to let cenfure and opinion take their course. A Bishop here faid, that book was full of improbable lies, and for his part, he hardly believed a word of it, and fo much for Gulliver.

Going to England is a very good thing, if it were not attended with an ugly circumftance of returning to Ireland. It is a fhame you do not perfuade your Minifters to keep me on that fide, if it were but by a court expedient of keeping me in Prifon for a Plotter: but at the fame time I must tell you, that fuch journeys very much fhorten my life, for a month here is longer than fix at Twickenham. How comes friend Gay to be fo tedious! another man can publifh fifty thousand Lies fooner than he can fifty Fables.

I am juft going to perform a very good office, it is to affift with the Archbishop, in degrading a Parfon who couples all our beggars, by which I fhall make one happy man; and decide the great queftion of an indelible character in favour of the Principles in fafhion: this I hope you will represent to the Miniftry in my favour, as a point of merit; fo farewell till I return.

I am come back, and have deprived the parfon, who by a law here is to be hanged the next couple he marries: he declared to us that he refolved to be hanged, only defired when he was to go to the gallows, the Archbishop would take off his Excommunication. Is not he a good Catholic? and yet he is but a Scotchman. This is the only Irish event I ever troubled you with, and I think it deferves notice.-Let me add, that, if I were Gulliver's friend, I would defire all my acquaintance to give out 'that his copy was bafely mangled and abufed, and added to, and blotted out by the Printer; for fo to me it seems, in the fecond volume particularly. Adieu.

*This was the fact, which is complained of, and redressed in the Dublin Edition of the Dean's works.

+ Because he understood it to be intended as a fatise on the Royal Society.

LETTER

I

LETTER XXI.

From Dr. SWIFT.

December 5, 1726.

Believe the hurt in your hand affects me more than it does yourself, and with reafon, because I may probably be a greater lofer by it. What have Accidents to do with thofe who are neither jockeys, nor fox-hunters, nor bullies, nor drunkards? And yet a rafcally Groom shall gallop a foundered horse ten miles upon a causeway, and get home fafe.

I am very much pleas'd that you approve what was fent, because I remember to have heard a great man say, that nothing required more judgment than making a prefent; which, when it is done to those of high rank, ought to be of fomething that is not readily got for money. You oblige me and at the fame time do me juftice in what you obferve as to Mr. P. Befides, it is too late in life for me to act otherwise, and therefore I follow a very easy road to virtue, and purchase it cheap. If you will give me leave to join us, is not your life and mine a ftate of power, and dependance a state of flavery? We care not three-pence whether a Prince or Minifter will fee us or no: We are not afraid of having ill offices done us, nor at the trouble of guarding our words for fear of giving offence. I do agree that Riches are Liberty, but then we are to put into the balance how long our apprenticeship is to laft in acquiring them.

Since you have receiv'd the verfes, I moft earneftly intreat you to burn those which you do not approve, and in those few where you may not diflike fome parts, blot out the reft, and sometimes (tho' it be against the laziness of your nature) be fo kind to make a few corrections, if the matter will bear them. I have fome few of thofe things I call Thoughts moral and diverting; if you please, I will fend the best I can pick from them, to add to the new volume. I have reason to chuse the method you mention of mixing the feveral verses, and I hope thereby among the bad Critics to be entitled to more merit than is my due.

This moment I am so happy to have a letter from my Lord Peterborow, for which I intreat you will present him with my humble refpects and thanks, tho' he all-tobe-Gullivers me by very ftrong infinuations. Though

you

you defpife Riddles, I am ftrongly tempted to fend a parcel to be printed by themfelves, and make a nine-penny jobb for the bookfeller. There are fome of my own, wherein I exceed mankind, Mira Poemata! the moft folemn that were ever feen; and fome writ by others, admirable indeed, but far inferior to mine; but I will not praife myself. You approve that writer who laughs and makes others laugh; but why fhould I who hate the world, or you who do not love it, make it fo happy? therefore I refolve from henceforth to handle only ferious fubjects, nifi quid tu, docte Trebati diffentis.

Yours, etc.

M'

LETTER XXII.

March 8, 1726-7.

R. Stopford will be the bearer of this letter, for whofe acquaintance I am, among many other favours, obliged to you and I think the acquaintance of fo valuable, ingenious, and unaffected a man, to be none of the leaft obligations.

Our Miscellany is now quite printed. I am prodigiously pleafed with this joint-volume, in which methinks we look like friends, fide by fide, ferious and merry by turns, converfing interchangeably, and walking down hand in hand to pofterity: not in the ftiff forms of learned Authors, flattering each other, and fetting the reft of mankind at nought; but in a free unimportant, natural, eafy manner; diverting others juft as we diverted ourselves. The third volume confifts of Verses, but I would chufe to print none but fuch as have fome peculiarity, and may be diftinguifh'd for ours, from other writers. There's no end of making Books, Solomon faid, and above all of making Mifcellanies, which all men can make. For unless there be a character in every piece, like the mark of the elect, I fhoud not care to be one of the Twelve thousand figned.

You receiv'd, I hope, fome commendatory verses from a Horfe and a Lilliputian to Gulliver; and an heroic Epiftle of Mrs. Gulliver. The bookfeller would fain have printed 'em before the fecond Edition of the book, but I would not permit it without your approbation: nor do I much like them. You fee how much like a Poet I write, and yet if you were with us, you'd be deep in Politics. People are very warm, and very angry, very little to the purpose, but therefore the more warm and VOL. IV.

Pp

the