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TRUTH Afferted,

OR, A

DEMONSTRATION That the Relations in Capt. GULLIVER'S Voyages are no Fictions.

Being an ANSWER to fome Objections made by a Student at OXFORD.

Pererignantis eft, ut ne quid veri dicere audeat, ne quid falfi non audeat.

I

By J. WAGSTAFFE, Efq; M. D.

CICERO.

The SECOND EDITION, revis'd and enlarg'd

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T may be expected that I should fpeak fomething concerning this new Edition of Mr. Gulliver's Vindication. I had no fooner publifh'd my Demonftration of his Veracity, than it was taught to speak almoft all the Languages of the European World, which I am far from imputing to any Excellence in my Performance, but to the univerfal Reputation which Mr Gulliver had obtain'd in foreign Countries: my Enemies may, perhaps, fay that I have wifely chosen to join my Name to fo celebrted an Author, and that I had no other chance to be tranfmitted to Pofterity. I fhall give no answer to fuch Objectors; let the many learned Men, who have favour'd me with their Teftimonies, be my only Ad

vocates.

No Man living has a stronger averfion to Flattery than myself, yet I am not infenfible, when I am prais'd by the Worthy: Tully, who was never fufpected of Vanity, confeffes quod ea laus vera eft que a laudata proficifcitur viro; fuch Praife is an Incense that wife Men may offer, and modelt Men receive, with Decency; but be the Confequence as it may, and let me be accounted vain, yet I rather chufe to be fo accounted, than fupprefs the excellent Compofitions of to many Persons of eminent Veracity and equal Learning, who have honour'd me with their Approbation : My Friends will find a lofter name than Vain-glory for my Conduct, and perhaps, may ftile it Gratitude, and an act of Juftice: At the Worst,

Malice itself muft confefs that I lay an Obligation on the World, tho' at my own Expence, by publishing fuch excellent Poetry.

The firft Teftimonial comes from the learned Hand of Mr Guldensberg Profeffor of the Greek Tongue in the University of Frankfort: I return him Thanks for his pious Pray'r.

Ουαςαυρίῳ, μεγάλῳ Βρεταννιδος Θάυματι, ευχαίρειν.
Πᾶσαν ἀληθῶαν Σητες ύψισε Βρεταννῶν,
Νῦν Σιβαρῶς κῦδος τολινεροίο μένει :

Δῆθ ̓ ἐπὶ γῆς ζώσον δῆθα μεγάλυνε Βρετάννες
Γράμμασι, καὶ θνήσκων ἀμβροτον ἔχε φάος.

Αμήν.

The next Veries I pronounce incomparable. It is fashionable to deery Dutch Poetry as mean and inharmonious; but I believe the World will hereafter lay afide a Prejudice fo injurious to that polite Nation; they were written by Minbeer Vander Hoot Heerbordt, Profeffor of the Belles Lettres in Leiden.

Icb tandt deiners Herenz gnads die

Dant notcht autder Watders Zoot jie ;
Undt donfanat Botders Botchaz Ich gadt
Gelt radtz vitzen baltzortzen Stadt.

Wonderful Poetry! the Smoothness of the Verfes is inimitable! How they charm the Ear? Our Countryman Mr Girdler, who Latinizing, or rather Grecizing his name, is better known to the learned World, by the Title of Perizonius fent me the following Tranflation: I wonder how he kept up to the Spirit of the Original, in fo literal a Verfion.

Excellent Man! tby Lines more fweet appear

Than Water-Souchee, or than Herrings, far:
A thousand Butter-boxes lo! I fend,

And mayft thou deign acceptance, learned Friend!

They are written in the Tafte of the Country, the Figures are natural to it; If Virgil had been alive, and difpos'd to have pay'd me a Com pliment, he would have drawn his Images from Italy, as this Gentleman does from Holland. He would probably have faid

O! beav'nly Writer! fuch thy Lines appear,

As murmuring Waters to the ravish'd Ear!
As to the weary Swain, with toil oppreft
Beneath the fylvan Shade, refrefbing Reft, &c,

I ought to be proud of the Eulogy of Monf. de Verdean the Language will fhew from what Academy it comes.

A cette heure un te peut louer fans flatterie,

Placer ton nom fameuse entre le plus grands noms,
La Gloire on mettant l'aile a cette belle vie

Confacre les encens, que nous te prefentons, &c.

I fhuuld be tedious if I publifh'd all the acknowledgments I have re Ceiv'd. I would willingly have pleasur'd the Reader with these from the famous Wildernouski of Petersburg, to fhow how greatly those People are refin'd, and how polite a Tafte prevails among them; but I cannot gratify his Curiofity for want of Sclavonic Types.

The DEDICATION.

To the Right Honourable the Lord DERMAT MACAHOON! of Garra Jedagh in Irelana.

My Lord,

A

SI know the great Value you have long fet upon Mr Gulliver's accurate Voyages, and chiefly for their Veracity, I am affured no Prejent can be more acceptable to your Lordship, than this Defence of them: 1 plead the Caufe of Truth against Prejudice and Calumny. And it is with the utmoft Satisfaction, and Repose of Mind, that I have vindicated the Character of an innocent Gentleman, and delivered it down unspotted to the latest Pofterity.

I bave often lamented the hard Fate of all Travellers; they waste their Days in Hardships by Sea and Land, in Storms and Deferts, and when they return and publish their Obfervations to the World, they are generally charg'd with Impofture: And who are the Perfons moft liberal in bestowing thefe Favours? Truly a parcel of idle, fedentary People, who were Searce ever out of the Sight of the Smoke of their own Chimnies! Competent Fudges indeed! Who contract a narrow Way of thinking by living, as it avere, imprifon'd in their own Closets: And imagine, like the Clown in Virgil, that their own Country Village is comparable to Rome! Is not this the Way to difcourage all noble Adventures, when we fee an exact and laborious Traveller, after all his Toils and Re-fearches, rewarded with Ingratitude? Imfelf have been no small Traveller, and have gone thro' as many Dangers and Difficulties as most Men living, and, if I may believe many Gentlemen of excellent Judgment in both Universities, fome of them Profeflors, to whom I have communicated my Obfervations, they would be a great Ornament and Advantage to my native Country, and no fmall Honour to their Author. But the Spirit of Ingratitude and Defamation, which is now abroad, deters me from thinking of an immediate Publication. Ibave been in (1) Regions,where the Sun fets at Mid-day,and rifes at Mid-night. I bave feen Men walking with their Heads downwards like Flies under a Cieling: I have (3) eat Offers growing on Trees; feen (4) Hogs with Navels on their Backs; (5) been in the Regions of Thunder, and washed my Hands in the Clouds of Heaven. I have feen (6) the Devil's Arje, and a frightful one it is; and a (7) mighty Ditch thrown up by him and his infernal Agents: I have frequently caught him peeping over a certain learned (9) Society, and could easily, like St Dunftan, bave taken him by the Nofe with a Pair of Pincers: or like St Dominick, have burnt his Claws with a Flambeau : I bave feen many (8) Edifices of bis Erection, all built in the. Gothic Tafte. He is but a clumfy Architect, his Ruins, or Points of View are most remarkable, and I am apt to believe that most of our late Connoiffeurs in that Way build after his Plans, at leaf, they greatly refemble bis Stile. I have failed in (b) Veffels that in the Compass of one Year have left the Sun behind, the Space of a whole Day; and in others, that notwithstanding his incredible Speed, were di

Ranced

Stanced but a fingle Day. But the Account of all these wonderful Occurrences is like to be buried in Oblivion, unless the Importunity of Friends to whom I can deny nothing, exterts it from me, and prevents such an irre. parable lafs to the curious and learned World.

I have made it my business to enquire into the Character of Mr. Gulliver, from his Neighbours, Friends and Relations, and all in general allow him to have been a plain, downright, fincere moral Man, and one that always abbor'd a Lye: And indeed be feems to be Juch by bis Writings; his faithfulness appears thro' the whole Wark, which is but a Transcript of his Life, and a picture of the fimplicity of Manners, for which he was fo remarkable.

1 bave nothing more, my Lord, to add, but to request the Student in Oxford, whofe Prejudices I bere combat, and whofe Name 1 fupprefs, out of the great regard I pay his Family, that if be, or any other Perfon of that learned Society, fall think fit to reply, they do it with Candour and So briety, and then they shall not want an Anfwer. Railing is ever a fign of a bad Caufe and worje Heart, and has been the Averfion of My Lord, &c.

Inner-Temple, May 1.1739.

Jonathan Wagstaffe, M D.

(1,2) Antipodes. (3) In the Weft-Indies, Oysters in plenty stick upon Trees which have been cover'd by the Sea.

(4) Pecaries in America.

(6) Peak (10) This

(8) Lincoln College

(s) Peak of Teneriff, where the Clouds fly below the top of it. in Derbyshire. (7) Devil's Dike by Newmarket. in Oxford. (9) Stonehenge, &c. faid to be built by the Devil. happens in failing round the World by the East or West Indies, in which Voyages a Day is loft or gain'd.

M

TRUTH Aerted, &c.

Y whole Life being spent in a continual fearch after Truth, think myself oblig'd to defend it against all Invasions, esteeming it a fhame that Ignorance should find Arguments that Wisdom cannot anfwer: I expect the Thanks of all the Learned in England, I might fay of all Europe, into whofe Languages this Defence will foon be tranflated, for filencing certain Objections against a plain matter of Fact, establish'd by the almost universal Confent of the prefent Age. I was lately in Company with many Ladies of the first Rank and Beauty, one of whom had brought with her a young Oxonian her Brother, who was pleas'd to entertain the Company by affirming that Mr. Gulliver was a meer Ideal Author, his Voyages ingenious Fictions, the amufements of an idle Hours and that the whole Univerfity of Oxford was of the fame Opinion. I confefs I was mov'd to hear that learned Body thus injur'd; had he fupprefs'd this laft Circumftance, he might have enjoy'd his Errors in tranquility I had never before heard the leaft doubt of the reality of Mr.Gulliver's Voyages, and I could not perfw: de myself that he should receive his firft Wound from that famous feat of Learning; of which I acknowledge myself an unworthy Member. I told him, it might feem Ingratitude to aim thus at once at his Integrity and Existence, and that it was, as far as in him lay, to annihilate a Perfon who had fo highly delighted and improv'd the Age; and I earnestly requefted him to acquaint me with the Reasons which had deceiv'd him into this unaccountable Incredulity. He was pleas'd to offer only four Objections, viz.

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First,

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First, That the diminitive Size of the Lilliputians, and,

Secondly, That the exceffive Stature of the Brobdingnagians outraged all Probability.

Thirdly, That Mr. Gulliver's Deliverance from that Nation by the affiftance of Eagles, tranfgrefs'd all bounds of Credibility.

And, Laftly, That the Story of Clavileno, the wooden flying Horse, in the Romance of Don Quixote, was as credible as the account of the Houjbnbnms.

I told him I was before fatisfied, that no Objection of any weight could be brought against the Truths related in those exact Voyages, but was now fully convinc'd of it, fince fo bright an Ornament of our learned Academy was able to make no ftronger Oppofition; I intreated him to hear my Answer without Interruption, and fubmitted my Defence to the Judgment of that agreeable Affembly.

I fhall not, Ladies, trouble you with a learned or philofophical Differtation about the diminutive Size of the Lilliputians: I might observe that the hand of Nature is as admirable in the structuse of a Fly, as of an Elephant, and with many famous Philofophers, both antient and modern, folve the Objection by calling the Lilliputians a Lufus Nature, or a fport of Nature, a Solution that has always been highly reverenc'd in the Aca'demies of all Ages, and unty'd the moft knotty Intricacies: But as one Proof is better than a thousand Conjectures, and as Matters of Fact are undeniable, to these I appeal, and let Perfons of the greatest Genius that ever liv'd in the World decide the Dispute: I begin with Homer; this ancient and venerable Author, a Person of uncontested Reputation, speaks of Nations or People almost of the fame Size with the Lilliputians, they had their Policies, Arts, Sciences and Wars, as well as the Lilliputians; and I am ftrongly perfwaded, that the prefent Inhabitants of Lilliput are a branch of thofe People, tranfplanted into that newly-difcover'd Country. The Stature of the two Nations fhews them to be nearly related, and a few Inches will make but a finall Inequality. Thus, Iliad the Third in our excellent English Homer:

So when inclement Winters vex the Main
With piercing Frofts, or thick-defcending Rain,
To warmer Sens the Cranes embodied fly,
With Noife and Order, thro' the mid-way Sky;
To Pygmy Nations Wounds and Death they bring,
And all the War defcends upon the Wing.

Methinks I fee Mr. Gulliver's Lilliputians in the Perfonages of this an tient Nation of Pygmies! with equal Importance they reason, they bustle they love, they fight. A mighty Nation drawn in miniature :

Gens cubito, pede vel non altior uno.

Very few Fragments of the Pygmaan History have come down to our Age, a Lofs greatly to be lamented! but those few inform us, that they were a People in the extremity of India, and liv'd like the Troglodytes in Caves of the Earth. Pliny in his Natural History, lib 7. cap. 2. gives us the dimenfions of this famous People, the mott gigantick amongit them

were

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