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Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745

"A Tale of a Tub"

And indeed the conceit was half spoiled by changing the
numbers; that of four being much more cabalistic, and therefore
better exposing the pretended virtue of numbers, a superstition then
intended to be ridiculed."
{62a} "Under the rainy sky, in the meetings of three and of four
ways."
{62b} Lucretius, lib. 2.--S.
{62c} "'Tis certain, then, the voice that thus can wound;
Is all material body, every sound."
{63} To be burnt or worm-eaten.
{64} The Royal Society first met at Gresham College, the resort of
men of science. Will's Coffee-House was the resort of wits and men
of letters.
{65a} Viz., about moving the earth.--S.
{65b} "Virtuoso experiments and modern comedies."--S.
{67a} He lived a thousand.--S.
{67b} Viz., in the year 1697.--S. Dryden died in 1700, and the
publication of the "Tale of a Tub," written in 1697, was not until
1704.
{69a} The title-page in the original was so torn that it was not
possible to recover several titles which the author here speaks of.-
-S.
{69b} See Virgil translated, &c.


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