Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/46

 'The Battle of the Books'—(a) Date

The Battle of the Books was the second of three of Swift's works issued together in one volume in 1704. The first was A Tale of a Tub; the third was A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. For reasons not now very evident, Swift was anxious to make it appear that all these works were written while he was still a young man. The publication of the volume undoubtedly destroyed his chances of a bishopric; and he may have anticipated some such result when the book was first issued. In any case it is noticeable that the same desire to give an early date for its composition is shown in the first edition as in the fifth edition of 1710, in which Swift pleads the rashness and inexperience of youth in palliation of any offence the book might have given.

Leaving out of account the notice from the Bookseller to the Reader (see p. 251), the date of the composition of the Battle of the Books may be set down as 1697–1698. The first part deals with the