Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/22

xvi of expectation, the hurry of business, the jollity of their social meetings, and the sport of their fancy in the sweet intervals of leisure and retirement; we see the scene gradually change; hope and expectation are at an end; they regret pleasures that are past, and friends that are dead; they complain of disappointment and infirmity; they are conscious that the sands of life which remain are few; and while we hear them regret the approach of the last, it falls, and we lose them in the grave. Such as they were, we feel ourselves to be; we are conscious to sentiments, connexions, and situations like theirs; we find ourselves in the same path, urged forward by the same necessity, and the parallel in what has been is carried on with such force to what shall be, that the future almost becomes present, and we wonder at the new power of those truths, of which we never doubted the reality and importance.

"These letters will therefore contribute to whatever good may be hoped from a just estimate of life; and for that reason, if for no other, are by no means unworthy the attention of the publick."

Three similar volumes succeeded in 1767, with the following epistle from, esq.

Rh

" I gave you my reasons, some time ago, for not troubling either the publick or myself with any Preface to these volumes of Dr. Swift's writings, you still press for some kind of Advertisement, by way of ushering them into the world. But what