Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/10

2 shall continue to bear to his memory. I confess it is with some disdain that I observe great authors descending to write any dedications at all: and for my own part, when I looked round on all the princes of Europe, I could think of none who might deserve that distinction from me, beside the king your master (for I say nothing of his present Britannick majesty, to whose person and character I am an utter stranger, and likely to continue so); neither can I be suspected of flattery on this point, since it was some years after that I had the honour of an invitation to his court, before you were employed as his minister in England, which I heartily repent that I did not accept; whereby, as you can be my witness, I might have avoided some years uneasiness and vexation, during the last four years of our late excellent queen, as well as a long melancholy prospect since, in a most obscure disagreeable country, and among a most profligate and abandoned people.

I was diverted from pursuing this history, partly by the extreme difficulty, but chiefly by the indignation I conceived at the proceedings of a faction, which then prevailed; and the papers lay neglected in my cabinet until you saw me in England; when you know how far I was engaged in thoughts and business of another kind. Upon her majesty's lamented death, I returned to my station in this kingdom; since which time there is not a northern curate among you who has lived more obscure than myself, or a greater stranger to the commonest transactions of the world, it is but very lately that I found the following papers, which I had almost forgotten. I publish them now, for two reasons; first,