Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/391

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OF SARUM’S INTRODUCTION.
383

tises in the gazette, that he intends to publish the third. This is exactly in the method and style of Marten: "the seventh edition (many thousands of the former editions having been sold off in a small time) of Mr. Marten's book concerning secret diseases," &c.

Does his lordship intend to publish his great volume by subscription, and is this introduction only by way of specimen? I was inclined to think so, because in the prefixed letter to Mr. Churchill, which introduces this introduction, there are some dubious expressions: he says, the advertisements he published were in order to move people to furnish him with materials, which might help him to finish his work with great advantage. If he means half a guinea upon the subscription, and the other half at the delivery, why does he not tell us so in plain terms?

I am wondering how it came to pass, that this diminutive letter to Mr. Churchill, should understand the business of introducing, better than the introduction itself; or why the bishop did not take it into his head to send the former into the world, some months before the latter, which would have been a greater improvement upon the solemnity of the procession?

Since I writ these last lines, I have perused the whole pamphlet, (which I had only dipped in before) and found I have been hunting upon a wrong scent; for the author has, in several parts of his piece, discovered the true motives, which put him upon sending it abroad at this juncture; I shall therefore consider them as they come in my way.

My lord begins his introduction with an account

of