John Bull | Page 4

part followed, entitled "John
Bull in his Senses;" the third part was called "John Bull still in his
Senses;" and the fourth part, "Lewis Baboon turned Honest, and John
Bull Politician." The four parts were afterwards arranged into two, as
they are here reprinted, and published together as "The History of John
Bull," with a few notes by the author which sufficiently explain its
drift.
The author was John Arbuthnot, a physician, familiar friend of Pope
and Swift, whom Pope addressed as
"Friend to my life, which did not you prolong, The world had wanted
many an idle song;"
and of whom Swift said, that "he has more wit than we all have, and his
humanity is equal to his wit." "If there were a dozen Arbuthnots in the
world," said Swift, "I would burn 'Gulliver's Travels.'"
Arbuthnot was of Swift's age, born in 1667, son of a Scotch Episcopal
clergyman, who lost his living at the Revolution. His sons--all trained
in High Church principles--left Scotland to seek their fortunes; John
came to London and taught mathematics. He took his degree of Doctor
of Medicine at St. Andrews in 1696; found use for mathematics in his
studies of medicine; became a Fellow of the Royal Society; and being
by chance at Epsom when Queen Anne's husband was taken ill,
prescribed for him so successfully that he was made in 1705 Physician
Extraordinary, and upon the occurrence of a vacancy in 17O9 Physician
in Ordinary, to the Queen. Swift calls him her favourite physician. In
171O he was admitted Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. That
was Arbuthnot's position in 1712-13 when, at the age of forty-five, he
wrote this "History of John Bull." He was personal friend of the
Ministers whose policy he supported, and especially of Harley, Earl of
Oxford, the Sir Roger of the History.

After Queen Anne's death, and the coming of the Whigs to power,
Arbuthnot lost his office at Court. But he was the friend and physician
of all the wits; himself without literary ambition, allowing friends to
make what alterations they pleased in pieces that he wrote, or his
children to make kites of them. A couple of years before his death he
suffered deeply from the loss of the elder of his two sons. He was
himself afflicted then with stone, and retired to Hampstead to die. "A
recovery," he wrote to Swift, "is in my case and in my age impossible;
the kindest wish of my friends is euthanasia." He died in 1735.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
When I was first called to the office of historiographer to John Bull, he
expressed himself to this purpose:--"Sir Humphrey Polesworth,* I
know you are a plain dealer; it is for that reason I have chosen you for
this important trust; speak the truth and spare not." That I might fulfil
those his honourable intentions, I obtained leave to repair to, and attend
him in his most secret retirements; and I put the journals of all
transactions into a strong box, to be opened at a fitting occasion, after
the manner of the historiographers of some eastern monarchs: this I
thought was the safest way; though I declare I was never afraid to be
chopped** by my master for telling of truth. It is from those journals
that my memoirs are compiled: therefore let not posterity a thousand
years hence look for truth in the voluminous annals of pedants, who are
entirely ignorant of the secret springs of great actions; if they do, let me
tell them they will be nebused.***
* A Member of Parliament, eminent for a certain cant in his
conversation, of which there is a good deal in this book. ** A cant
word of Sir Humphrey's. *** Another cant word, signifying deceived.
With incredible pains have I endeavoured to copy the several beauties
of the ancient and modern historians; the impartial temper of Herodotus,
the gravity, austerity, and strict morals of Thucydides, the extensive
knowledge of Xenophon, the sublimity and grandeur of Titus Livius;
and to avoid the careless style of Polybius, I have borrowed
considerable ornaments from Dionysius Halicarnasseus, and Diodorus
Siculus. The specious gilding of Tacitus I have endeavoured to shun.
Mariana, Davila, and Fra. Paulo, are those amongst the moderns whom
I thought most worthy of imitation; but I cannot be so disingenuous, as

not to own the infinite obligations I have to the "Pilgrim's Progress" of
John Bunyan, and the "Tenter Belly" of the Reverend Joseph Hall.
From such encouragement and helps, it is easy to guess to what a
degree of perfection I might have brought this great work, had it not
been nipped in the bud by some illiterate people in both Houses of
Parliament, who envying the great figure I was to make in future