Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/61



HAVE been so well entertained by reading Dr. Hare's sermon, preached before the duke of Marlborough and the army, in way of thanksgiving for passing the lines and taking Bouchain, that I cannot forbear giving part of my thoughts thereupon to the publick. If a colonel had been to preach at the head of his regiment, I believe he would have made just such a sermon; which before I begin with, I must beg leave to consider the preface, and that stale topick in the publisher, of "printing a discourse without the author's leave, by a copy got from a friend; being himself so modest, that he would by no means hear of printing what was drawn up in so much haste." If the thing be not worth publishing, either the author is a fool, or his friend a knave. Besides, the apology seems very needless for one that has so often been complimented upon his productions; of which we have seen several without either art or care, though published with this famous doctor's consent. A good argument, indeed, is not the worse for being without art or care; but an ill one is nothing without both. If plainness and honesty made amends for every hasty foolish Rh