Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/57

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INTRODUCTION
xlix

the Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit, and they are taken from his Defence of 1705 (see below).

It is just possible that the notes which cannot be assigned to Wotton, came from Swift; but after all there is no evidence on the question.

Wotton's 'Defence' (1705)

In 1705 Wotton published a third edition of his Reflections and added a paper,[1] dated May 21, 1705, in which he replied to Temple's Thoughts upon Reviewing the Essay of Ancient and Modern Learning (see p. xxxv.), issued by Swift in 1701. The last twenty pages of Wotton's Defence are occupied with a very hostile commentary upon Swift's volume of 1704 (see p. xxxviii.), and in them are to be found the explanations which, with cool effrontery, were added as notes to the fifth edition of the Tale of a Tub, etc. (1710). Wotton's reference to the Battle of the Books has already been quoted (p. xliv.).

  1. 'A Defense of the Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, In Answer to the Objections of Sir W. Temple, and Others. With Observations upon The Tale of a Tub.'