Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/43

Rh "In the sixteenth volume are thrown together all his Sketches and unfinished Pieces.

"The seventeenth volume consists of Martinus Scribleras, John Bull, and various other Pieces in prose and verse, published in Pope's Miscellanies. As these Pieces are admirable in themselves, and as it is well known that Swift had a great share in some of the most capital, though, according to his usual practice, he never claimed any, but let his friends Arbuthnot and Pope enjoy the whole reputation as well as profit arising from them; and as these have always made a part of Swift's Works, where only they are now to be found collected, it was thought proper to add this volume to the rest.

"As Swift has been universally allowed to write the purest and most correct English, of any of our Authors, I thought it might be of publick benefit, to point out all grammatical errours, solecisms, or inaccuracies, that might occur in his style. For

This I have done throughout, as occasion offered, in notes; except in his more familiar letters, where, some degree of negligence is allowable, and the use of colloquial phrases, not consistent perhaps with strict propriety, is permitted, as giving them a more natural air. Nor have I taken notice of many inaccuracies of a similar kind in his Gulliver's Travels; where he sometimes purposely makes use of phrases and expressions not strictly grammatical, in order that the style might seem more in character, as coming from a seafaring man. The not adverting to this, has been the reason that several criticks, who have taken upon them to point out Swift's Rh