"Dr. Friend was with me, and pulled out a twopenny pamphlet just published, called the State of Wit[1], giving a character of all the papers that have come out of late. The author seems to be a whig; yet he speaks very highly of a paper called The Examiner, and says he supposes the author of it is Dr. Swift. But above all things he praises the Tatlers and Spectators; and I believe Steele and Addison were privy to the printing of it. Thus one is treated by those impudent dogs!"
- ↑ The light thrown by this little tract on the various periodical papers of the time when it was written will, we doubt not, be deemed a sufficient reason for having preserved it in this Collection. It is somewhat remarkable, that it was advertised at the end of the original Examiner of May 17, and not at all in the Spectator. Though published anonymously; from the initials J. G. being placed at the conclusion, and from its singular impartiality; there is great reason to suppose it the production of Mr. Gay.
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