The Anatomist Dissected by Lemuel Gulliver

After that long and particular Detail of my self, and of my various Adventures in so many different and remote parts of the Globe, as I have lately entertain'd the Public with, I little thought any private Occurrence, in so small a Spot as the Island of "Great Britain", could have rous'd my Attention, and broke in upon that Repose, in which I hop'd to have spent the Remains of a declining Life. But small and inconsiderable as it is, I consider it is my own Country; the Thought of which, together with that inextinguishable Thirst after Truth and Knowledge, in regard to my self, and an ardent Inclination of communicating it to others, have prevail'd upon me once more to be expos'd in Print, in order to express my Abhorrence of a late diabolical Imposture: propagated, not so much by the Knavery of some, as by the Ignorance and Stupidity of others. I need not say I mean the Rabbit Affair; with which, for some Weeks past, the Minds of the People of this Island have been so seriously and so surprizingly employ'd; so as scarce to leave them any Leisure for Things of a more sublime Nature, and of vastly greater Consequence and Importance.

And tho' I verily believe this to be the real and only Cause, why the Perusal of my Travels has been so neglected of late, which, by the Decay of the Sale, has sensibly affected a worthy and honest Bookseller; yet I declare to the World, that my Motives for entering the Lists against Mr. "St. André" (a Person to me wholly unknown, and unheard of till I saw his Name in the News-Papers, upon that unfortunate Accident, which befel him, when he fancied he was poyson'd) are, that little Skill which, by my Education and Experience, I have attain'd in Surgery and Anatomy, and that great Ignorance in both, which he has betray'd upon this Occasion.