the comick should have been put in separate classes; but this is not the method which was taken by the Dean himself, or by Mr. Pope, when they published the Miscellany, in which the transition
'From grave to gay, from lively to severe,'
appears frequently to be the effect rather of choice than accident[1]. However, as the reader will have the whole in his possession, he may pursue either the grave or the gay with very little trouble, and without losing any pleasure or intelligence which he would have gained from a different arrangement.
"Among the Miscellanies is the history of John Bull, a political allegory, which is now farther opened by a short narrative of the facts upon which it is founded, whether supposititious or true, at the foot of the page.
"The notes which have been published with former editions have for the most part been retained, because they were supposed to have been written, if not by the Dean, yet by some friend who knew his particular view in the passage they were intended to illustrate, or the truth of the fact which they asserted.
"The notes which have been added to this edition contain, among other things, a history of the author's works, which would have made a considerable part of his life; but, as the occasion on which particular pieces were written, and the events which they produced, could not be related in a series, without frequent references and quotations, it was
- ↑ "Our Miscellany is now quite printed. I am prodigiously pleased with this joint volume, in which methinks we look like friends side by side, serious and merry by turns—diverting others just as we diverted ourselves." Pope to Swift, March 8, 1726-7.
