"For, it is the opinion of choice <EM>virtuosi</EM>, that the brain is only a crowd of little animals, but with teeth and claws extremely sharp, and therefore cling together in the contexture we behold, like the picture of Hobbes's <EM>Leviathan</EM>, or like bees in perpendicular swarm upon a tree, or like a carrion corrupted into vermin, still preserving the shape and figure of the mother animal; that all invention is formed by the morsure of two or more of these animals, upon certain capillary nerves, which proceed from thence, whereof three branches spread into the tongue, and two into the right hand."
A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. In a Letter to a Friend. A Fragment
More than 40 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1704, 1705, 1710, 1711, 1720, 1724, 1726, 1727, 1733, 1734, 1739, 1741, 1743, 1747, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1753, 1754, 1756, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1766, 1768, 1769, 1771, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1781, 1784, 1798).<br>
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Reading Jonathan Swift, <u>A Tale of a Tub and Other Works</u>, eds. Angus Ross and David Woolley. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986). Some text drawn from <a href="http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/swift/jonathan/s97t/complete.html">ebooks@Adelaide</a>.<br>
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Note, the textual history is complicated. First published May 10, 1704. The second edition of 1704 and the fifth of 1710 include new material. Ross and Woolley's text is an eclectic one, based on the three authoritative editions.<br>
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See <u>A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind. To Which Is Added, an Account of a Battel Between the Antient and Modern Books in St. James's Library</u>, 2nd edition, corrected (London: Printed for John Nutt, 1704). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T49833">Link to ESTC</a>&gt;