It is very probable, that the beggarly knavish Crew will be this year also printing Prophecies and Predictions in my name, to cheat the country as they used to do. This is therefore to give notice, that if there is anything of that kind done in my name besides this Almanack printed by the Company of Stationers, you may be certain it is not mine, but a cheat, and therefore refuse it.
[15] The quotations here, are said to be a parody of those of BENTLEY in his controversy with BOYLE.
[16] Vide Dr. S[WI]FT.
THE PRESENT STATE OF WIT,
IN A LETTER TO A
Friend in the Country.
LONDON:
Printed in the Year, MDCCXI.
(Price 3_d_.)
THE Present State OF WIT, &c.
SIR,
You acquaint me in your last, that you are still so busy building at ——, that your friends must not hope to see you in Town this year: at the same time, you desire me, that you may not be quite at a loss in conversation among the beau monde next winter, to send you an account of the present State of Wit in Town: which, without further preface, I shall endeavour to perform; and give you the histories and characters of all our Periodical Papers, whether monthly, weekly, or diurnal, with the same freedom I used to send you our other Town news.
I shall only premise, that, as you know, I never cared one farthing, either for Whig or Tory: so I shall consider our Writers purely as they are such, without any respect to which Party they belong.