PREFACE.

THE causes which inclined Pope and Swift, or rather Pope with the concurrence of Swift, to publish, in an authenticated shape, the various small pieces contained in the following miscellanics, are stated by him in the following preface, which Dr Johnson justly terms querulous and apologetic. Swift, who had withdrawn into another sphere of action, and of hostility, could not be supposed to feel great interest in the desultory warfare sustained by his friend against the effrontery of Curl, and the crowd of obscure authors whom his satire or his success had irritated. It is also certain that he abandoned to Pope any advantages which might be derived from the sale of these miscellanies, of which the bard of Twickenham accordingly availed himself.

In reading the preface, it is impossible to suppress a wish that Pope, in the pre-eminence of his talents, had despised the petty malice of his enemies, and disdained to imitate them in the poor stratagems by which they sought to undermine his impregnable reputation.

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PREFACE.

Twickenham, May 27, 1727.

THE papers that compose the first of these volumes were printed about sixteen years ago, to which there are now added two or three small tracts; and the verses are transferred into a volume apart, with the addition of such others as we since have written. The second (and perhaps a third) will consist of several small treatises in prose, in which a friend or two is concerned with us.

Having both of us been extremely ill treated by some booksellers (especially one Edmund Curl), it was our opinion that the best method we could take for justifying ourselves, would be to publish whatever loose papers, in prose and verse, we have formerly written; not only such as have already stolen into the world (very much to our regret, and perhaps very little to our credit), but such as in any probability hereafter may run the same fate; having been obtained from us by the importunity, and divulged by the indiscretion of friends, although restrained by promises, which few of them are ever known to observe, and often think they make us a compliment in breaking.

But the consequences have been still worse: we have been entitled, and have had our names prefixed at length, to whole volumes of mean productions,

equally offensive to good manners and good sense, which we never saw nor heard of till they appeared in print.

For a forgery in setting a false name to a writing, which may prejudice another's fortune, the law punishes the offender with the loss of his ears; but has inflicted no adequate penalty for such, as prejudice another's reputation in doing the same thing in print; though all and every individual book, so sold under a false name, are manifestly so many several and multiplied forgeries.

Indeed we hoped, that the good nature, or at least the good judgment of the world, would have cleared us from the imputation of such things, as had been thus charged upon us by the malice of enemies, the want of judgment of friends, the unconcern of indifferent persons, and the confident assertions of booksellers. *

We are ashamed to find so ill a taste prevail, as to make it a necessary work to do this justice to ourselves. It is very possible for any author to write below himself: either his subject not proving so fruitful, or fitted for him, as he at first imagined; or his health, his humour, or the present disposition of his mind, unqualifying him at that juncture: however, if he possessed any distinguishing marks

* Curl had the effrontery to print, in his occasional miscellanies, whatever manuscript pieces the voice of the public ascribed to literary characters of eminence, although some of them were never intended for the public eye. In one of his collections he inserted a profane and indecent parody on the first psalm, with the name of Pope prefixed to it. There is too much reason to suppose the piece genuine; but this neither diminishes the infamy, nor apologizes for the impudence of the bookseller, in giving to the public what the author, on his better reflection, probably repented of having ever written.

of style, or peculiarity of thinking, there would remain in his least successful writings some few tokens, whereby persons of taste might discover him.

But, since it hath otherwise fallen out, we think we have sufficiently paid for our want of prudence, and determine for the future to be less communicative : or, rather, having done with such amusements, we are resolved to give up what we cannot fairly disown, to the severity of critics, the malice of personal enemies, and the indulgence of friends.

We are sorry for the satire interspersed in some of these pieces upon a few people, from whom the highest provocations have been received, and who, by their conduct since, have shewn, that they have not yet forgiven us the wrong they did. It is a very unlucky circumstance to be obliged to retaliate the injuries of such authors, whose works are so soon forgotten, that we are in danger already of appearing the first aggressors. It is to be lamented, that Virgil let pass a line, which told posterity he had two enemies called Bavius and Mævius. The wisest way is not once to name them, but (as the madman advised the gentleman, who told him he wore a sword to kill his enemies) to let them alone and they will die of themselves. And according to this rule we have acted throughout all those writings, which we designed for the press: but in these, the publication whereof was not owing to our folly, but that of others, the omission of the names was not in our power. At the worst, we can only give them that liberty now for something, which they have so many years exercised for nothing, of railing and scribbling against us. And it is some commendation, that we have not done it all this while, but avoided publickly to characterize any person without long experience. Nonum prematur in annum is a good rule for all writers of characters; be

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