1738 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1738. Events April 11 – Robert Blair marries Isabella Law. July 10 – Richard Dawes is appointed Master of the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. August – Laurence Sterne is ordained a priest, and in the autumn becomes vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest, Yorkshire. August 8 – Jonathan Swift writes to Alexander Pope describing the deterioration in his mental condition; Swift will eventually be given into the care of a legal guardian. September 18 – Samuel Johnson composes his first solemn prayer (published 1785). New books Prose James Anderson – The Constitutions of the Free-Masons, 2nd ed. Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens – Jewish Letters (published anonymously) John Banks – Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten – De ordine in audiendis philosophicis per triennium academicum quaedam praefatus acroases proximae aestati destinatas indicit Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten Louis de Beaufort – Dissertation sur l'incertitude des cinq prèmiers siècles de l'histoire romaine Robert Dodsley – The Art of Preaching Marie Huber – Lettres sur la religion essentielle à l'homme (Letters Concerning the Religion Essential to Man) David Hume (anonymously) – A Treatise of Human Nature (dated 1739) Pierre Louis Maupertuis – Sur la figure de la terre Margareta Momma – Samtal emellan Argi Skugga och en obekant Fruentimbers Skugga (Conversation between the Shadow of Argus and the Unfamiliar Shadow of a Female) Francis Moore – Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa Abbé Prévost – Memoirs of a Man of Quality (anonymous English translation) Thomas Shaw – Travels in Barbary and the Levant Jonathan Swift The Beasts Confession to the Priest A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation William Warburton The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated A Vindication of the author of the Divine Legation of Moses George Whitefield – A Journal of a Voyage from London to Savannah in Georgia Diego de Torres Villarroel Anatomía de todo lo visible e invisible Vida ejemplar de la venerable madre Gregoria Francisca de Santa Teresa