IX. STELLA'S BIRTHDAYS X. TO STELLA XI. THE FIRST HE WROTE OCT. 17, 1727. XII. THE SECOND PRAYER WAS WRITTEN NOV. 6, 1727. XIII. THE BEASTS' CONFESSION (1732). XIV. ABOLISHING CHRISTIANITY XV. HINTS TOWARDS AN ESSAY ON CONVERSATION. XVI. THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.
THE PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.
SATIRE is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it. But, if it should happen otherwise, the danger is not great; and I have learned from long experience never to apprehend mischief from those understandings I have been able to provoke: for anger and fury, though they add strength to the sinews of the body, yet are found to relax those of the mind, and to render all its efforts feeble and impotent.