A warm and, as fome may think, too violent a declaration against the treachery, ingratitude, and wanton cruelty of the Americans." Nor doth Mr. Peter Petit fpare their 'friends and abettors in this country, whom he tells their own, in terms equally loyal and fpirited. ** A Sermon preached in Monckwell-ftreet, on the 10th of February laft, being the Day appointed for a general Faft. By James Fordyce, D. D. 8vo. Is. Cadell. "The greater part of this fermon, fays the preacher, was delivered five and twenty years ago, in the prefence, and by the appointment of a numerous and refpectable body of the Scottish clergy." The late act of Parliament in fayour of the Roman Catholics, and perhaps the recent proofs. of Scotch prejudice in their disfavour, may probably have occafioned its repetition.. There is little init, however, that fhould have prevented its having lain in the oblivion, to which it hath been fo long configned. ** ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. **Our Correfpondents, who, in obliging us with literary information or other, marks. of their approbation and esteem, expect a return of civility by private letter, are begged to excuse our noncompliance, with fo feemingly-reasonable an expectation; as the multiplicity of their epiftolary favours, and the objects of our attention, is fo great, as to put it abfolutely out of our power to make fuch particular returns of our gratitude and refpect. * * * If Mr. Theophilus Lobb will favour us with a printed copy of the book, he fpeaks of, we shall comply with his request. * * * M. B. and Alma Mater, are defired to fend for their manufcripts; as the London Reviewers make it an invariable rule, not to give any opinion about unprinted productions. THE LONDON REVIEW, FOR MAY, 1779. A Supplement to Dr. Swift's Works; Being a Collection of Mif cellanies in Profe and Verfe, by the Dean, Dr. Delany, Dr. Sheridan, Mrs. Johnson, and others, his intimate Friends. Vol. II. with Notes, and an Index by the Editor: 8vo. 6s. Payne. The lovers of wit and whim, lie under great obligations to Mr. Nichols, the ingenious editor of this fupplement, for his indefatigable endeavours to form a complete edition of the works of the celebrated Dean Swift: it is poffible, however, that inen of fenfe and feience, may not think themselves, or the world; un-; der equal obligations to him, for fuch laudable industry. Vive la bagatelle! was the Dean's motto, and it is a moral, that, both in a phyfical and political fenfe, may have its ufe; but matters of ferious concern, and of more important utility, are not, therefore, to be held in an inferior light, or turned into ridicule, as contemptible. We are led to this reflection, This volume forms the twenty-fifth of the collection in large octavo. Equally complete éditions are now alfo printed in fourteen volumes in quarto, twenty-feven vols. fmall octavo, and in twenty-feven volumes in eighteens: the latter volumes, in any of the fizes, to be had feparately, in order to complete fets. + Lord Chesterfield, indeed, tells us, that Dean Swift's bagatelles are much more valuable than other people's. This may be true, for indeed they do not appear to be fo pernicious as thofe of his lordship, and yet they are, after all, but bagatelles. Lord Bacon's remark, cited by our editor, from his tract de Augm. Scient. " that Letters, written by wife men, are, of all the works of man, the beft," is, in our opinion, lefs applicable to the epiftolary correfpondence of Dean Swift, than it would be to most other writers of equal eminence; for, fetting afide the obvious distinction between wifdem and wit, his Lordfhip is there fpeaking of Scientific wifdom, to which Dr. Swift had little or no pretenfions. Indeed, the best reason, and the only tolerable good one, for preferving a number of trifling articles inferted in this collection, is that affigned by the editor, viz. "That it was thought it would be an agreeable entertainment to the curious, to fee how oddly a man of his great wit and humour could now and then defcend to amufe himself with hie particular friends." That the Dean himself, however, did not look upon thefe VOL. IX. PP trifies 1 tion, from this witty writer's taking every occafion that offers, to depreciate the ftudy of the fciences, and that for no other apparent reafon than his own ignorance of them. This ignorance, which appeared early in life to be invincible,✰ feems to have generated in him a kind of malignity toward every thing fcientific; a humour which he gratified to a great degree in his famous voyage to Laputa; but, from whatever hand he borrowed the materials for that fatire, the want of propriety, in their application, renders their farcafm pointless, which of courfe falls to the ground telum imbelle ictu; proving that no man fhould attempt to ridicule falfe fcience, who is ignorant of the true.§ We are warranted on good grounds to infer this to have been the cafe with Dr. Swift: of which the following anecdote, recorded by way of note, in the prefent publication, is an inftance. "When the Dean was at Holyhead, waiting for a wind, one Weldon, an old feafaring man, fent him a letter, that he had found out the longitude, and would convince him of it: to which the Dean answered, in writing, that, if he had found it out, he must apply to the lords of the admiralty, of whom perhaps one might be found who knew fomething of navigation, of which he was totally. ignorant; and that he never knew but two projectors, one of whom (meaning his own uncle Godwin, fee Vol. XVII. p. 537-) ruined himfélf and family, and the other hanged himself; and defired him to defift, left one or other might happen to him." There feems to be a cruelty in this cutting joke, which indicates, that the pride of Swift was mortified by an application, reminding him of that ignorance; of which he affected, nevertheless, through vanity, to make a boaft. To treat an old, and, therefore, no doubt, an experienced mariner, enquiring after the difcovery of the longitude, as one of thofe chimerical projectors, who, proceeding upon falfe and unfcientific principles, merit only ridicule and contempt, was a piece of arrogance or illnature, that we can account for only from the above-men trifles in fo infignificant a light, but had as high opinion of them as his admirer. Chesterfield, is plain, if Dr. Delany was right, in faying, "there are few things he [Dr. Swift] ever wrote, that he did not wish to be published at one time or other." I Witness the disgraceful manner in which he obtained his bachelor-of-art's degree, on a third examination, in the univerfity of Dublin, for want of attaining the neceffary acquaintance with a few of the first principles of geometry. It is not for fuperficial wits and dabblers in literature to fit in judgment, on even pretenders to the arts and Sciences; of which they themselves have no know. ledge. Their ridicule, however heightened by the powers of wit and humour, recoils, on ref.ction, with double force on themfelves. Nay, even in morals wit hath as little to do as in the mathematics. Did the character of the buffoon Arifto phanes, or that of the Jage Socrates, fuffer moft by the theatrical exhibition of the hatter, by the former, in a fituation fimilar to that of boys building caftles in the air, or Sancho Pancha toffed in a blanket? ioned motive, or from his natural difpofition to jeft and trifle; in the indulgence of which, this extraordinary man often facrificed good manners, and sometimes the ties of friendship and humanity, and even the facred interefts of religion. For the honour of the Dean's moral, as well as literary character, · this anecdote fhould be fuppreffed: for, though it is not neceffary, that a divine should be a great mathematician, it is certainly fcandalous, for a man of academical education, a dignitary in the church, and a profeffed politician into the bargain, to be totally ignorant of navigation! We do not believe that there is, at this time, to be found either in England or Ireland, a church dignitary, fo little acquainted with geography, aftronomy, or even geometry, as to be thus totally ignorant of the theory of navigation. In favour of Swift, however, we will for the prefent, allow, that wit, like charity, covereth a multitude of fins. We fhall proceed accordingly to specify the contents of this fecond part of Mr. Nichols's Supplement, in the fame manner as we did the firft. The titles of the feveral pieces, contained in it, are as follow. The prefent State of Wit, [by Mr. Gay.] A modeft Enquiry into the Reasons of the Joy, expreffed by a certain Set of People, upon the spreading of a Report of her Majesty's death, The History and Contents of the "Tale of a Tub." The Right of Precedence between Phyficians and Civilians enquired into. A Defence of English Commodities. Modeft Defence of The Lady's Dreffing-room. The Drapier's Letter to the good People of Ireland, 1745. Epiftolary Correfpondence. I. Mr. Gay and Mr. Pope to Dr. Swift. II. To Mr. Worrall. III. Lord Bolingbroke to Dr. Swift. IV. To John Barber, Efq. V. Mr. Pilkington to Mr. Bowyer. VI. Ditto to ditto. VII. Ditto to ditto. VIII. Ditto to ditto. IX. Mr. Faulkner to Mr. Bowyer. Omiffions and corrections in Vol. XVIII. in Vol. XIX. in Vol. XX. Account of the pen-knife with which Mr. Harley was stabbed, by Deane Swift, Efq. A Narrative of the feveral Attempts, which the Diffenters of Ireland have made for the Repeal of the Sacramental Test. 1 Poems by Dr. Swift and his Friends. Peace and Dunkirk. An excellent new Song, being the intended Speech of a famous Orator against Peace. The Glorious Warrior. Horace, Book I. Ep. V. Dennis's Invitation to Steele. A further Hue and Cry after Dr. Swift. The Widow and her Čat, a Fable. When the Cat's away, the Mice may play, a Fable. An Answer to the Christmas-box, in Defence of Dr. Delany, by Verfes by Lord Carteret, on a Window in Dublin'-castle, under two Lines of Swift. A Friendly Apology for a certain Juftice of Peace. A Riddle, on a Shadow in a Glafs. A Riddle, on a Candle. To Lady Carteret. A well-known Simile parodied. Verfes to Francis Bindon, Efq. Written in the Year 1744, by Deane Swift, Efq. Epitaph for Dr. Swift. Verfes to the Memory of Dr. Swift. Occafional Notices of Dr. Swift. Epigram on two great Men. Biographical Anecdotes of Dr. Swift, Dr. Swift's Remarks on Gibbs's Pfalms. Additions and Corrections to Vols. XXIV. XXV. Of the following letter from Lord Bolingbroke, our editor informs us, that, though fome fragments of it have been before separately printed, they do not nearly make up the whole, which is here preferved entire, from a copy undoubtedly genuine. Indeed the Dean, in his anfwyer, printed in his works, acknowledges the receipt of "a travelling letter of feveral dates, at several stages, and from different nations, languages, and religions." Aix-la-Chapelle, Aug. 30, 1729, N. S. "I took a letter of yours from Pope, and brought it to this place, that I might anfwer at least a part of it. I begin to-day: when I fhall finish I know not; perhaps when I get back to my farm. The waters I have been perfuaded to drink, and those which my friends drink, keep me fuddled or employed all the morning. The afternoons are spent in airings or vifits, and we go to-bed with the chicken. Bruffels, Sept. 27, N. S. "I have brought your French* acquaintance thus far on her way into her own country, and confiderably better in health than fhe was Lady Bolingbroke. |