Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/325



P. lxiii, The Bookseller to the Reader; this account of the Ancient and Modern Learning Controversy was probably written just before the Battle of the Books was published (see note on l. 13, below). It is generally agreed that it was not written by Swift. In this preface the story of the quarrel is carried down to the year 1699: in the Battle itself the account ends with Boyle's attack on Bentley and Wotton (1698).

P. lxiii., l. 3. the former, the Tale of a Tub. The Tale and the Battle were first published in 1704, and appeared in one volume, along with A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit.

P. lxiii., l. 3. I mean the year 1697, as reference to the dates of the pamphlets published in the controversy will show, the years 1698 and 1699, rather than 1697, were those in which the 'dispute was on foot' (see Bibliography). Swift wished to make it appear that the 1704 volume was written long before publication (cf. p. xxxviii.), and the dates he gives are everywhere as early as possible. In this case, of course, he may not have been responsible for the text; but he would almost certainly see it before publication.

P. lxiii., l. 6. The essay of Sir William Temple's is that on