nt. The correspondence of Swift with Gay begins on sheet N,
which is the letter of the alphabet that answers to page 89 in a quarto
volume, and this keeping between the letters and the figures is
preserved throughout. But there is a second coincidence which is
absolutely fatal to the idea that the confusion in the paging was an
error of the press. The quarto edition was accompanied by an edition in
folio, which was the same impression with the matter parcelled out into
pages of greater length, and with the requisite changes in the numbering
of the pages and the signatures of the sheets. In spite of the change
there is the identical peculiarity that distinguishes the quarto. The
numbers run on unbroken from 1 to 108, when we arrive at the letters to
Gay. Here we recommence with page 85, and starting from this new basis
the figures proceed in regular succession to the end. The sheet at page
85 is marked Y, the proper letter for the folio size, and as in the
quarto the signatures, in every instance, correspond with the pages. The
defect cannot be explained by the supposition that the work had been
divided into portions, which were printed separately for the sake of
expedition. With the text of the Dublin copy to guide his calculations,
no compositor could have committed the error of pronouncing that matter
which covers 115 pages could he contained in 88. The evident cause of
the anomaly is that, after the quarto in its original form had passed
through the press, Pope saw reason to cancel the opening part of the
volume which preceded Swift's correspondence with Gay. The materials in
their second form occupied more space than in their first, and instead
of filling only 88 pages in the quarto, and 84 in the folio, run on to
115 in the one, and 108 in the other. The consequence is that the pages
in excess bear the same numbers with the succeeding uncancelled pages
which could not be altered. The process is rendered further apparent by
the signatures to the sheets. In both folio and quarto, those on the
surplus pages, in the cancelled division of the volume, have an asterisk
affixed to denote that the signatures had been already employed;[151]
but though the sheets have this mark of repetition, they are placed in
the volume before the uncancelled sheets which retain the primitive
signatures, and which did not admit of any change. In the quarto, again,
a half sheet precedes the letters to Gay, which could not have happened
unless