Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

An anecdote of Dean Swift imitated.

DEAN Swift in his writings compliments himself, with having the good opinion and approbation of Lord Bolingbroke and the Earl of Bath, relative to his performances in prose, in the two following lines.

St. John as well as Pultney knows,
That I have some repute for prose.

And I presume, (I hope without much arrogance) to flatter myself with a similar compliment, in these lines.

Pickering as well as Sewall knows,
That I have some repute for prose:
Whipple and Humphreys can tell.
That with just cause I write well:
Sherburne and all the bar, I trow,
Are friends express or incognito:
(those,
And with impeach'd, condemn'd, disgrac'd, all
Who have been my knavish, sharping, cruel foes.
Such foes my happiness or life would end;
My faithful friends would both from harms defend.
Such sterling friends my harden'd foes surpass,
As purest gold excels the vilest brass:
Such cordial friends my flagging spirits raise,
High as St. John's or Pultney's praise;
In whom I place a stronger faith,
T
Than Swift, in Bolingbroke or Bath.

N. B. Besides what I have already published on the subject of my complaint, I have by me in manuscript, many sheets of paper, not a chip of which will be lost; but even the smallest and meanest berries on the outermost branches, shall be saved and preserved; shall be collected and gathered, and brought into the fold of freedom, if occasion requires; I mean the liberty of the press (which ought to be the fountain of truth and honour, impartiality, justice and equity) in this free and independent state.

Seneca injute ac crudele læus; ed nemo me impune læssit. Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno, alboque corvo; vel phœnice rarior

HONESTUS.