[21] The term is suggested by Ian Gordon (The Movement of English Prose, London, 1966, p. 136) in his discussion of the simple, clear, journalistic style practiced by L'Estrange, Defoe, and Swift in their political writings.
[22] On English Prose, p. 70.
[23] The symbol "T" and accompanying numbers refer to the entries in Morris Palmer Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverb in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Ann Arbor, 1950).
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The sources for the parts of the Observator in Dialogue reprinted here are Volume I of the first collected edition published in 1684, and Volume III, published and bound together with Volume II in 1687, both in the collection of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The pieces reprinted from Volume I consist of the prefatory "To the Reader," and Observator Nos. 1, 13, and 110; the papers reprinted from Volume III consist of Observator Nos. 88 and 202. In this edition the following editorial changes have been made: black letter type is indicated by underlining; inverted letters have been corrected; obvious compositor's errors have been corrected; and inconsistencies in font due to compositors' carelessness have been normalized. The frontispiece to this facsimile reprint is reproduced from the Clark copy and measures approximately 13-7/16" x 8-5/8" in the original.
THE
OBSERVATOR
To the READER.
Most Prefaces are, (Effectually) Apologies; and neither the Book, nor the Author, one Jot the Better for them. If the Book be Good, it will not Need an Apology; If Bad, it will not Bear One: For where a man thinks, by Calling himself Noddy, in the Epistle, to Atone, for Shewing himself to be one, in the Text; He does (with Respect to the Dignity of an Author) but Bind up Two Fools in One Cover: But there's no more Trusting some People with Pen, Ink, and Paper, then the Maddest Extravagants in Bedlam, with Fire, Sword, or Poyson. He that Writes Ill, and Sees it, why does he Write on? And, with a kind of Malice Prepense, Murder the Ingenious part of Mankind? He that Really Believes he Writes Well; why does he pretend to Think Otherwise? Now take it which way you please, a man runs a Risque of his Reputation, for want, either of Skill, and Judgment, the One way; Or of Good Faith, and Candor the Other. Beside a Mighty Oversight, in Imagining to bring himself off, from an Ill Thing, Done, or Said, by Telling the World that he did it for This or That Reason. When a Book has once past the Press into the Publique; there's no more Recalling of it, then of a Word Spoken, out of the Air again. And a man may as well hope to Reverse the Decree of his Mortality, as the Fate of his Writings. In short: When the Dice are Cast, the Author must stand his Chance.