on

Dr. _Swift_'s

LETTER

to the

Earl of _OXFORD_,

About The

_English_ Tongue.

_LONDON:_

Sold by _A. Baldwin_ at the _Oxford Arms_ in
_Warwick-Lane_. (Price Six Pence.)

THE PREFACE

_The Bold Manner of publishing the +Letter+ for +correcting, improving+,
and +ascertaining the+ English +Tongue+, made me conclude there was
something very extraordinary in it, and more than any one could expect
from Persons that were never thought to trouble themselves much about
+Fine Language+. But upon dipping into it, I found there was nothing
worthy the Character the Author acquir'd by other Ingenious Pieces in
our Tongue, tho' I confess, it was not so much for the Beauty of his
Style as for other Qualities, some of which a Divine need not brag of._

_'Tis probable, our late Correspondence with +France+ put such a Whim
into some Folks Heads, and because they have an +Academy+ for the same
Use at +Paris+, we forsooth must have one at +London+. The Foreign News,
which sometimes tells us more Truth of our doings here than our own, has
the very Names of the Members of the +Academy+ which the Doctor speaks
of. I do not find that it is come to any thing more yet than meeting
over a Bottle once a Week, and being Merry. At which Times People mind
talking much, more than talking well. I shou'd have taken what is
printed in the +Amsterdam+ Gazette to have been only a dull +Dutch+ Jest
upon those Men, if this +Letter+ had not been written, and some broad
Hints given, that we are to be happier than we thought of, and to be
surpriz'd with a Society that shall make us as Polite as that of
+Reformation+ has made us +Godly+; and I wish it may answer the Ends of
it with all my Heart. But the more I reflected upon this +Project+ and
the +Projectors+, the more I was diffident of it, for the Reasons
mention'd in the following Pages._

_I know very well the Epistle has but a sorry Reputation, even with the
Writer's own +Party+, that it is looked upon as a silly superficial
Performance, and to be design'd only for an Opportunity to shew what a
+Nack+ he has at +Panegyrick+. Be that as it will, after I had
consider'd the Subject he writes more leisurely than I was won't to do,
I was loth to lose those Considerations; and having put 'em into this
Form, I flatter'd my self