The inclosed unpublished note of Dean Swift will, I hope, be deemed
worthy of a place in your columns. It was written by him in his
Herodotus, which is now in the library of Winchester College,
having been presented to it in 1766, by John Smyth de Burgh, Earl
of Clanricarde. The genuineness of the handwriting is attested by a
certificate of George Faulkner, who, it appears, was well qualified
to decide upon it. The edition is Jungerman's, folio, printed by Paul
Stephens, in 1718.

W.H. GUNNER.

"_Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus relicto_:--

"Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit, exceptis
paucissimis (ut mea fert sententia) omnimodo excusandum.
Cæterum diverticulis abundans, hic pater Historicorum, filum
narrationis ad tædium abrumpit; unde oritur (ut par est)
legentibus confusio, et exinde oblivio. Quin et forsan ipsæ
narrationes circumstantiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad
cætera, hunc scriptorem inter apprimè laudandos censeo, neque
Græcis, neque barbaris plus æquo faventem, aut iniquum: in
orationibus fere brevem, simplicem, nec nimis frequentem:
Neque absunt dogmata, e quibus eruditus lector prudentiam,
tam moralem, quam civilem, haurire poterit.

"Julii 6: 1720. J. SWIFT"

"I do hereby certify that the above is the handwriting of the
late Dr. Jonathan Swift, D.S.P.D., from whom I have had many
letters and printed several pieces from his original MS.