, which is
one of the signatures used by Addison. See, however, Swift's "Journal,"
quoted above. [T.S.]]

* * * * *

[The following paragraph in "The Spectator," No. 575
Monday, August 2. 1714. is believed to have been contributed
by Swift.]

"The following question is started by one of the schoolmen. Supposing the
whole body of the earth were a great ball or mass of the finest sand, and
that a single grain or particle of this sand should be annihilated every
thousand years. Supposing then that you had it in your choice to be happy
all the while this prodigious mass of sand was consuming by this slow
method till there was not a grain of it left, on condition you were to be
miserable for ever after; or, supposing that you might be happy for ever
after, on condition you would be miserable till the whole mass of sand
were thus annihilated at the rate of one sand in a thousand years: Which
of these two cases would you make your choice?"

CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE INTELLIGENCER."

NOTE.

"THE INTELLIGENCER" was published in Dublin, commencing May 11th, 1728,
and continued for nineteen numbers. On June 12th, 1731, Swift, writing to
Pope, gives some account of its inception, and the amount of writing he
did for it: "Two or three of us had a fancy, three years ago, to write a
weekly paper, and call it an 'Intelligencer.' But it continued not long;
for the whole volume (it was reprinted in London, and I find you have
seen it) was the work only of two, myself, and Dr. Sheridan. If we could
have got some ingenious young man to have been the manager, who should
have published all that might be sent him, it might have continued
longer, for there were hints enough. But the printer here could not
afford such a young man one farthing for his trouble, the sale being so
small, and the price one halfpenny; and so it dropped. In the volume you
saw, (to answer your questions,) the 1, 3, 5, 7, were mine. Of the 8th I
writ only the verses, (very uncorrect, but against a fellow we all hated
[Richard Tighe],) the 9th mine, the 10th only the verses, and of those
not the four last slovenly lines; the 15th is a pamphlet of mine printed
before, with Dr. Sheridan's preface, merely for laziness, not to
disappoint the town: and so was the 19th, which contains only a parcel of
facts relating purely to the miseries of Ireland, and wholly useless and
unentertaining" (Scott's edition, xvii. 375-6).

Of the c