Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/25

 mediocrity. Yet there are few readers who would not wish (as Swift has said of Sir William Temple) 'to see the first draught of any thing from this author's hand .' And the present editor hopes to escape the imputation of reviving 'libels born to die,' if he expresses a wish that the less valuable parts of the whole collection were removed from the places they now possess, and (by being classed in a separate volume) consigned to whatever fate their respective degrees of merit may deserve."

One very material part of the last-mentioned volume consisted of Swift's "History of the Four last Years of Queen Anne ;" which having been

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