Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8.djvu/411



EST my modesty should be called in question, for venturing to appear in print, in an age so famous for politeness and ingenuity: I think I am bound to say this in my own defence. That these few sheets were not designed to be made publick, as being written for my own private use: but what will not the importunity of friends conquer? They were no sooner discovered in my study, but my merry friend George Rochfort, my learned acquaintance Patrick Delany, and my much honoured patron Jonathan Swift, all unanimously agreed, that I should do my own reputation and the world that justice, as to send "such a Treasure of Knowledge" (as they were pleased to express themselves) to the press. As for the work itself, I may venture to say, it is a work of time and experience, and entirely unattempted before. For which reason, I hope, the candid reader will be favourable in his judgment upon it, and consider, that all sciences in their infancy have been weak and feeble. The next age may supply where I have been defective; and the next perhaps may produce a sir Isaac in Punning. We know that logicians first spun out reason in catagories, predicaments, and enunciations; and at last they came to wind up their bottoms in syllogisms, which is the completing of that science. . VIII.