Complete and unabridged, with 60 full-page plates by William Hogarth, Thomas Gibson and Thomas Gainsborough. The ancient books and the modern books fight a pitched battle in the King's library, and a spider and a bee argue the case - Swift's contribution to a scholarly quarrel, together with the shorter pieces. Written in the 1690s while he was secretary to Sir William Temple, who was on the losing side. This edition is bound with 60 plates of paintings by Hogarth, Poussin, Gainsborough Dupont and Joseph Wright of Derby, dating from 1648 to 1800.