Dryden is ridiculed by an imitator of Rabelais, for the recurrence of the phrase by which he usually prefaces his own defensive criticism: "_If it be allowed me to speak so much in my own commendation;--_ see Dryden's preface to his Fables, or to any other of his works that you please." The full title of this whimsical tract, from which Sterne borrowed several hints, is "An Essay towards the theory of the intelligible world intuitively considered. Designed for forty-nine parts. Part Third, consisting of a preface, a postscript, and a little something between, by Gabriel Johnson; enriched by a faithful account of his ideal voyages, and illustrated with poems by several hands, as likewise with other strange things not insufferably clever, nor furiously to the purpose; printed in the year 17," etc. [The phrase mentioned first is perhaps less remarkable than Scott's apparent forgetfulness of its Biblical origin.--ED.] [25] Introduction to Book Fifth of "Tom Jones." END OF VOLUME FIRST. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dramatic Works of John Dryden Vol. I., by Sir Walter Scott