Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/255

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EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE

CONTINUED.






GENTLEMEN,
FEBRUARY 14, 1691-2.


SINCE every body pretends to trouble you with their follies, I thought I might claim the privilege of an Englishman, and put in my share among the rest. Being last year in Ireland (from whence I returned about half a year ago[2]), I heard only a

loose
  1. This letter is printed in the fourth volume of the Athenian Oracle, ed. 3, p. 111. The ode, which accompanied it, is printed in vol. VII, p. 10. in which the ingenious author refers to a former ode written by him, and addressed to king William when in Ireland. Mr. Deane Swift, in his Essay on the Life of his Kinsman, informs us that this latter piece was also printed in the same publication. It however is not to be found in the last, nor in several other editions of that work; but will be given in the poetical part of this volume, p. 405.
  2. By this expression, and some particulars which follow, it appears that Dr. Swift, on his return from Ireland, did not immediately go back to Moor Park; as, in a letter to Mr. Kendal,
Vol. XVIII.
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