;
Where like a Muse of quality she'd die,
And thou thyself shalt make her elegy,
In the same strain thou writ'st thy comedy.

JOHN ARBUTHNOT.

(1667-1735.)

XXIII. PREFACE TO JOHN BULL AND HIS LAW-SUIT.

First published as a political pamphlet, this piece had an
extraordinary run of popularity. It was originally issued in four
parts, but these afterwards were reduced to two, without any
omission, however, of matter. They appeared during the years
1712-13, and the satire was finally published in book form in 1714.
The author was the intimate friend of Swift, Pope, and Gay. The
volume was exceedingly popular in Tory circles. The examples I have
selected are "The Preface" and also the opening chapters of the
history, which I have made to run on without breaking them up into
the short divisions of the text.

When I was first called to the office of historiographer to John Bull,
he expressed himself to this purpose: "Sir Humphrey Polesworth[166], 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[167] 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.[168]

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 disingenuo