reply to Wotton and Bentley. The following extract from a letter written by Temple (about Boyle's Examination) dated March 30, 1698, apparently gives the explanation.[1]
'You needed no excuse for anything in your former letter, nor Mr ——— for giving you the occasion for it. What he saw, was written to a friend ——— who had undertaken ——— without my knowledge: which I afterwards diverted, having no mind to enter the list with such a mean, dull, unmannerly pedant.'
It is impossible now to fill in the blanks with any certainty: but the date of the letter strongly suggests that the 'friend' was Swift, and that Temple refers to the Tale of a Tub or the Battle of the Books. If this is true. Swift postponed publication in deference to Temple's wishes, and waited for five years after his death before disregarding them. Considering his ignorance of the whole subject, Temple's feeling that it would be more dignified not to publish an answer to his opponents was undoubtedly justified.[2]
