In placing this tract second in chronological order I am following
Forster and Craik. All the collected editions of Swift's works,
including the "Miscellanies" of 1711, begin with "The Sentiments of a
Church of England Man," continue with the "Argument," and then the
"Project." But the short intervals which separated the publication of
all three tracts and the "Letter on the Sacramental Test," make a strict
chronological order of less value than the order of development of the
subject-matter with which they deal, granting even that the "Project"
appeared after "The Sentiments." There seems, however, nothing
improbable in the suggestion made by Forster, that Swift planned the
writing of both the "Argument" and the "Project" while on a visit to the
Earl of Berkeley, at Cranford, in 1708; and his dedication of the latter
to Lady Berkeley lends this suggestion added weight. That the original
edition of the "Project" is dated 1709 is nothing to the point, since it
is well-known that the booksellers often antedated their publications,
as publishers do now, when the issue occurred towards the end of a year.
Moreover, the letter of the Earl of Berkeley to Swift, which Scott
misdates 1706-1707, but which should be 1708, makes special reference to
this very tract, showing that it was certainly published in 1708. "I
earnestly entreat you," writes the earl, "if you have not done it
already, that you would not fail of having your bookseller enable the
Archbishop of York [Dr. Sterne] to give a book to the queen; for, with
Mr. Nelson, I am entirely of opinion, that Her Majesty's reading of that
book on the Progress for the Increase of Morality and Piety, may be of
very great use to that end." I have never seen a copy of the first
edition of "The Sentiments," and I cannot fix the exact date of its
publication; but it was certainly not written before the "Project." The
"Project," therefore, must be considered in the light of a preliminary
essay to the fuller and more digested statement of "The Sentiments of a