author of the first. I easily foresee, that as soon as I lay down my pen, this nimble operator will have stolen it, and treat me as inhumanly as he has already done Dr. Blackmore, Lestrange, and many others, who shall here be nameless; I therefore fly for justice and relief, into the hands of that great rectifier of saddles[1], and lover of mankind, Dr. Bentley; begging he will take this enormous grievance into his most modern consideration: and if it should so happen, that the furniture of an ass, in the shape of a second part, must, for my sins, be clapped by a mistake upon my back, that he will immediately please, in the presence of the world, to lighten me of the burden, and take it home to his own house, till the true beast thinks fit to call for it.
In the mean time I do here give this publick notice, that my resolutions are, to circumscribe within this discourse, the whole stock of matter, I have been so many years providing. Since my vein is once opened, I am content to exhaust it all at a running, for the peculiar advantage of my dear country, and for the universal benefit of mankind. Therefore hospitably considering the number of my guests, they shall have my whole entertainment at a meal; and I scorn to set up the leavings in the cupboard. What the guests cannot eat, may be given to the poor; and the dogs[2] under the table may gnaw the bones. This I understand for a more generous proceeding, than to turn the company's
- ↑ Alluding to the trite phrase, 'place the saddle on the right horse.'
- ↑ By dogs, the author means common injudicious criticks, as he explains it himself before in his Digression upon Criticks.
