Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/363

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PREFACE

TO

THE THIRD PART

OF

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S MISCELLANEA.

(First published in the year 1701. Our author was at that time M. A. and prebendary of St. Patrick's, Dublin.

THE two following Essays, "Of Popular Discontents," and "Of Health and Long Life," were written many years before the author's death. They were revised and corrected by himself; and were designed to have been part of a Third Miscellanea, to which some others were to have been added, if the latter part of his life had been attended with any sufficient degree of health.

For the third paper, relating to the controversy about "Ancient and Modern Learning," I cannot well inform the reader upon what occasion it was writ, having been at that time in another kingdom; but it appears never to have been finished by the author^[1].

The

1. It seems very improbable that Dr. Swift should be altogether ignorant of the famous dispute about ancient and modern learning. If