A Tale of a Tub

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A Tale of a Tub

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Title: A Tale of a Tub
Author: Jonathan Swift
Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4737] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of
schedule] [This file was first posted on March 10, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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Transcribed by Stephen Rice. Additional proofing by David Price, email

[email protected]. From the 1889 George Routledge and Sons "Tale of a Tub and
Other Works" edition.

A TALE OF A TUB

Contents The Tale of a Tub: Advert To the Right Honourable John Lord Somers The
Bookseller to The Reader The Epistle Dedicatory The Preface Section I.--The
Introduction Section II. Section III.--A Digression Concerning Critics Section IV.--A
Tale Of A Tub Section V.--A Digression In The Modern Kind Section VI.--A Tale Of A
Tub Section VII--A Digression In Praise Of Digressions Section VIII.--A Tale Of A Tub
Section IX.--A Digression Concerning The Original . . . Section X.--A Farther Digression
Section XI.--A Tale Of A Tub The Conclusion The History Of Martin The History of
Martin A Digression On The Nature . . . The History Of Martin--Continued A Project For
The Universal Benefit Of Mankind

ADVERT

Treatifes writ by the fame Author, moft of them mentioned in the following Discourfes;
which will be fpeedily publifhed.
A Character of the prefent Set of Wits in this Ifland. A Panegyrical Effay upon the
Number THREE. A Differtation upon the principal productions of Grub-ftree. Lectures
upon the Diffection of Human Nature. A Panegyrick upon the World. An Analytical
Difcourfe upon Zeal, Hiftori-theo-phyfi-logically confidered. A general Hiftory of Ears.
A modeft Defence of the Proceedings of the Rabble in all Ages. A Defcription of the
Kingdom of Abfurdities. A Voyage into England, by a Perfon of Quality in Terra
Auftralis incognita, tranflated from the Original. A Critical Effay upon the Art of Canting,
Philofophically, Phyfically, and Mufically confidered.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN LORD SOMERS.

My LORD,
Though the author has written a large Dedication, yet that being addressed to a Prince
whom I am never likely to have the honour of being known to; a person, besides, as far as
I can observe, not at all regarded or thought on by any of our present writers; and I being
wholly free from that slavery which booksellers usually lie under to the caprices of
authors, I think it a wise piece of presumption to inscribe these papers to your Lordship,
and to implore your Lordship's protection of them. God and your Lordship know their

faults and their merits; for as to my own particular, I am altogether a stranger to the
matter; and though everybody else should be equally ignorant, I do not fear the sale of the
book at all the worse upon that score. Your Lordship's name on the front in capital letters
will at any time get off one edition: neither would I desire any other help to grow an
alderman than a patent for the sole privilege of dedicating to your Lordship.
I should now, in right of a dedicator, give your Lordship a list of your own virtues, and at
the same time be very unwilling to offend your modesty; but chiefly I should celebrate
your liberality towards men of great parts and small fortunes, and give you broad hints
that I mean myself. And I was just going on in the usual method to peruse a hundred or
two of dedications, and transcribe an abstract to be applied to your Lordship, but I was
diverted by a certain accident. For upon the covers of these papers I casually observed
written in large letters the two following words, DETUR DIGNISSIMO, which, for aught
I knew, might contain some important