Of the works now enumerated, the Spiritual Quixote has been by far the most popular. Independent of the design, which at the time of publication, was an object of some importance, the execution of it made it soon be ranked among those productions which are chiefly admired for ingenuity of fiction. By occasionally introducing real characters and authenticated narratives, he has also diffused a charm over the whole, by which curiosity is excited and gratified in the most pleasing manner. PREFATORY ANECDOTE, BY THE EDITOR. GOING lately into the shop of a little upholsterer, not far from the celebrated haunt of the Muses, called Grub-street, I observed him with a bunch of small keys in his hand, with one of which he had just opened a black leather port-folio, or travelling letter-case. The poor man shaking his head with an air of disappointment, I enquired into the cause of his chagrin; upon which he gave me the following account: Some years ago, says he, a jolly plump gentleman, with a very serious countenance, came to lodge at my house, and rented an apartment up three pair of stairs backwards. It is not usual, continues he, to give any long credit to lodgers of that kind. But the gentleman in question looked like a very honest man. By his dress, indeed, I should have taken him for a country clergyman; but that he never drank ale or smoked tobacco. I was unwilling, therefore, after the first time, to give him the trouble of a weekly payment; so had let his rent run on for near six weeks; at which time, one Friday morning, before any one was stirring, he suddenly decamped; leaving nothing behind him, but an old Bible, an old pair of shoes, and an old grizzled periwig. I did not think it worth while to advertise my lodger. I made enquiries after him at the coffeehouse, however, which he frequented, and at the chop-house where he dined; but have heard nothing of him to this day. The upholsterer, it seems, was in hopes that this letter-case (which, upon removing the bedstead, he had found thrust over the tester) might have contained a bank-bill, or something of value. But, to his utter confusion, he found nothing in it except the manuscript of the following history; which he considered as waste paper, and, prophetically of its fate, perhaps, said it was good for nothing but to line trunks and band boxes. Upon casting my eyes, however, over two or three different pages, I thought it might suit the taste of the present age; in which also the subject appeared by no means unseasonable. I, therefore, offered the honest man an equivalent for his six weeks' rent; and, after drinking half a pint of mountain together at the next tavern, we finished our contract. Upon examining my purchase, I found the following rough draft of the author's preface; which, notwithstanding the sagacious upholsterer's argument to the contrary, makes it probable that the history was written by a clergyman. THE APOLOGY, OR A WORD TO THE WISE. THE first romance that we read of (called The Loves of Theagenes and Chariclea) was written by Heliodorus, a Thracian bishop. The prelate was called before a synod for this indecorum; and having his choice.given him, either to suppress his romance or to quit his preferment, he is said to have preferred the literary fame of that juvenile performance to the revenues of a bishopric. But though the good man may be blamed for his conduct, I think the synod were too severe in their censure; for I can see no more harm in a fable of this kind (if properly conducted) than in any other, either mythological or parabolical representation of the truth. Nay, I am convinced that Don Quixote or Gil Blas, Clarissa or Sir Charles Grandison, will furnish more hints for correcting the follies and regulating the morals of young persons, and impress them more forcibly on their minds, than volumes of severe precepts seriously delivered and dogmatically enforced. The following narrative was intended to expose a species of folly which has frequently disturbed the tranquillity of this nation. The author, indeed, by no means considers ridicule as a proper test of religious opinions. But they are the practices, rather than the principles, of the people in question, which he thinks exceptionable. And the following work is so far from ridiculing religion (as, perhaps, may be objected), that, he flatters himself, it has a direct tendency to prevent religion becoming ridiculous, by the absurd conduct of such irregular teachers of it. And he does not see how the honour of God is any more concerned in an attempt to expose the illjudged zeal of a frantic enthusiast, than the authority of the king would be in our laughing at the absurdities of some pragmatical country justice or a petty constable. Thus far the author. In a blank leaf, next to the title-page, I found an odd instance of the author's peculiar turn: for he had there written this whimsical parody upon Shakespeare's whimsical epitaph; Reader! for goodness' sake, forbear To change one word that's written here. Accordingly, as I found the language tolerably correct, and the whole piece as highly finished as this species of writing is thought to deserve, I have given it to the public just as I found it; though I |