We are sorry for the satire interspersed in some of these pieces upon a few people, from whom the highest provocations have been received, and who, by their conduct since, have shown, that they have not yet forgiven. us the wrong they did. It is a very unlucky circumstance to be obliged to retaliate the injuries of such authors, whose works are so soon forgotten, that we are in danger already of appearing the first aggressors. It is to be lamented, that Virgil let pass a line, which-toldposterity he had two enemies called Bavius and Mævius. The wisest way is not once to name them, but (as the madman advised the gentleman, who told him he wore a sword to kill his enemies) to let them alone and they will die of themselves. And according to this rule we have acted throughout all those writings, which we de-signed for the press: but in these, the publication whereof was not owing to our folly, but that of others, the omission of the names was not in our power. At the worst, we can only give them that liberty now for something, which they have so many years exercised for nothing, of railing and scribbling against us. And it is some commendation, that we have not done it all this while, but avoided publicly to characterise any person without long experience. Nonum prematur in annum is a good rule for all writers of characters; because it may happen to those, who vent praise or censure too precipitately, as it did to an eminent English poet, who celebrated a young nobleman for erecting Dryden's monument upon a promise, which his lordship forgot, till it was done by another. In regard to two persons only, we wish our raillery, though ever so tender, or resentment, though ever so just, had not been indulged. We speak of Sir John Van THE WORKS OF THE REV. JONATHAN SWIFT, D. D. DEAN OF ST. PATRICK'S, DUBLIN. ARRANGED BY THOMAS SHERIDAN, A. M. WITH NOTES, HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. A NEW EDITION, IN TWENTY-FOUR VOLUMES. CORRECTED AND REVISED BY JOHN NICHOLS, F. A. EDINBURGH AND PERTH. VOLUME XXIII. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM DURELL AND CO. PREFACE to the Miscellanies, by Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope, *Advertisement to a Fourth Volume, *Advertisement to the Fifth and Sixth Volumes, Martinus Scriblerus Isg Balous: or the Art of Sinking in Poe II. That the Bathos, or Profound, is the natural Taste of III. The Necessity of the Bathos physically considered, 35 VI. Of the several Kinds of Genius in the Profound, and 41 =་ 44 VII. Of the Profound, when it consits in the Thought, of Amplification and Per phrase in general, IX. Of Imitation, and the Manner of Imitating, X. Of Tropes and Figures: and first, of the variegating, : XI. The Figures continued of the magnifying and dimi- 200783 47 52 56 63 |