Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/38

xxxii "The first time that any of his straggling pieces were collected together, with his own consent, was so late as the year 1726, when he was far advanced in life. These were published by Mr. Pope in some volumes of Miscellanies, interspersed with works of his own, preceded by a Preface to which both their names were subscribed.

"Seven or eight years after this, the first collection of his Works, unmixed with those of others, of the first publisher of a certain sum paid for that work. But this entry does not say to whom it was paid; and I shall here produce a certain proof that it was neither to Swift nor his order. That the first edition was made without his privity or consent, appears clearly from the following passages in the Apology prefixed to his own edition in 1709, where Swift, speaking of himself, says,  "He was then a young gentleman much in the world, and wrote to the taste of those who were like himself; therefore, in order to allure them, he gave a liberty to his pen, which might not suit with maturer years, or graver characters; and which he could easily have corrected, with a very few blots, had he been master of his papers for a year or two before their publication. How the Author came to be without his papers, is a story not proper to be told, and of very little use, being a private fact: of which the reader would believe as little, or as much, as he thought good. He had, however, a blotted copy by him, which he intended to have written over with many alterations, and this the publishers were well aware of, having put it into the Bookseller's Preface, that they apprehended a surreptitious copy, which was to be altered, &c. This, though not regarded by readers, was a real truth, only the surreptitious copy was rather that which was printed; and they made all the haste they could, which indeed was needless, the Author not being at all prepared: but he has been told the bookseller was much in pain, having given a good sum of money for the copy." From the above passage it is evident that the first edition was printed, without the Author's privity, from a surreptitious copy, and the money was paid to the possessor of that copy; who certainly, under such circumstances, must wish to be concealed, and therefore no name is annexed to the entry in the Bookseller's account book mentioned before.  was