Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/25

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GENERAL PREFACE.

xix

mediocrity. Yet there are few readers who would not wish (as Swift has said of Sir William Temple) 'to see the first draught of any thing from this author's hand^[1].' And the present editor hopes to escape the imputation of reviving 'libels born to die,' if he expresses a wish that the less valuable parts of the whole collection were removed from the places they now possess, and (by being classed in a separate volume) consigned to whatever fate their respective degrees of merit may deserve."

One very material part of the last-mentioned volume consisted of Swift's "History of the Four last Years of Queen Anne^[2];" which having

been

↑ See vol. xvi, p. 356.
↑ The following note, written by bishop Warburton, was printed with the letters of Dr. Swift, Mr. Pope, and others, concerning this history: "These papers some years after were brought finished by the Dean into England, with an intention to publish them. But a friend on whose judgment he relied dissuaded him from that design. He told the Dean, there were several facts he knew to be false, and that the whole was so much in the spirit of party-writing, that though it might have made a seasonable pamphlet in the time of their administration, it was a dishonour to just history. The Dean would do nothing against his friend's judgment; yet it extremely chagrined him: and he told a common friend, that since —— did not approve the history, he would cast it into the fire, though it was the best work he had ever written. However, it did not undergo this fate, and is said to be yet in being." So says the right reverend annotator. And yet it is certain, that a friend of Dr. Swift's took occasion (in some conversation with lord Bolingbroke at Battersea in 1750) to ask his lordship about the facts mentioned in the said work, alleging, that a great part of the materials was furnished from his lordship's papers, when secretary of state; who replied, "That indeed he did not recollect any thing he might object to, as concerning the matters of fact, but one;

b 2

which

[1] See vol. xvi, p. 356.

[p25-2] The following note, written by bishop Warburton, was printed with the letters of Dr. Swift, Mr. Pope, and others, concerning this history: "These papers some years after were brought finished by the Dean into England, with an intention to publish them. But a friend on whose judgment he relied dissuaded him from that design. He told the Dean, there were several facts he knew to be false, and that the whole was so much in the spirit of party-writing, that though it might have made a seasonable pamphlet in the time of their administration, it was a dishonour to just history. The Dean would do nothing against his friend's judgment; yet it extremely chagrined him: and he told a common friend, that since —— did not approve the history, he would cast it into the fire, though it was the best work he had ever written. However, it did not undergo this fate, and is said to be yet in being." So says the right reverend annotator. And yet it is certain, that a friend of Dr. Swift's took occasion (in some conversation with lord Bolingbroke at Battersea in 1750) to ask his lordship about the facts mentioned in the said work, alleging, that a great part of the materials was furnished from his lordship's papers, when secretary of state; who replied, "That indeed he did not recollect any thing he might object to, as concerning the matters of fact, but one;

[1]

[2]