Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/273

Rh is the surest and best way to know our true interest; yet I flatter myself that my little essays may be useful, at least they may be no bad beginning; and you know it is easy to add to a work once begun. But, if the work is known to be mine, the very name will condemn it, and render it useless to my country.

Whatever the faults may be, I have publickly applied to you to amend them, before the bearer's mistake made me determine this private application to you: And I must say, that I shall reckon it no small degree of honour, if you take that trouble upon you.

In the mean time, I shall beg the favour of you to keep a secret, which no other person but my printer, my bookseller, and the bearer, knows.I am,

JOHN BROWNE. Rh