No More Learning

Directions to Servants is a good specimen of irony;
it is, however, disfigured to an exceptional extent by coarseness.
The ex-footman who is supposed to be the writer of the piece
furnishes his friends with a set of rules to enable them to cheat
and rob their masters in every set of circumstances. Servants, in
general, must be loyal to each other ; never do anything except
what they are hired for; be out as much as possible ; secure
all the tips' they can, and be rude to guests who do not pay.
The cook is to 'scrape the bottom of the pots and kettles with a
silver spoon, for fear of giving them a taste of copper. ' The
children's maid is to throw physic out of the window : 'the
child will love you the better; but bid it not tell. ' The
6


## p. 108 (#132) ############################################

108
Swift
waiting-maid must extort everything she can from her master,
if he likes her, and, at the end, should secure a husband from
among the chaplain, the steward and my lord's gentleman.
It must be confessed that, after a few pages, this pitiless
cynicism becomes depressing and a little tedious.
In 1708, Swift began a brilliant series of pamphlets on church
questions. The first piece-a masterpiece of irony—was An
Argument against abolishing Christianity, in which he banters
very wittily writers who had attacked religion ; but the banter is
freely mixed with the irony which is never absent from his
works. He begins by saying that no reader will, of course, imagine
that he was attempting to defend real Christianity, such as, in
primitive times, had an influence upon men's beliefs and actions.
That would be a wild project : it would be to destroy at once all
the wit and half the learning of the kingdom; to ruin trade and
to extinguish arts and sciences. All he aimed at was to defend
nominal Christianity; the other having been laid aside by general
consent. He deals with the arguments that the abolishing of
Christianity would be a gain of one day in seven ; that it would
remove the absurd custom by which a set of men were employed
to denounce on Sundays what is the constant practice of all
men on the other six ; that, if the system of the Gospel were
discarded, all religion would be affected and, consequently, those
prejudices of education called virtue, conscience, honour and
justice. If Christianity were abolished, the only topic left for the
wits would be taken away. The spirit of opposition is inera-
dicable in mankind : if sectaries could not occupy themselves with
religion, they would do worse, by contravening the law of the land,
and disturbing the public peace. If Christianity is to be repealed,
let us abolish religion in general; for, of what use is freedom
of thought, if it will not conduce to freedom of action ? Swift's
moral, of course, is that we should both keep and improve our
Christianity.
Another pamphlet, The Sentiments of a Church of England
Man with respect to Religion and Government, was written in a
more serious strain, and contained a warning to both parties.
Swift found himself unable to join the extremists of either without
offering violence to his integrity and understanding; and he
decided that the truest service he could render to his country was
by 'endeavouring to moderate between the rival powers. ' 'I believe
I am no bigot in religion, and I am sure I am none in government.
All positions of trust or dignity should, he felt, be given only to
>


## p. 109 (#133) ############################################

The Sentiments of a Church of England Man 109
those whose principles directed them to preserve the constitution
in all its parts. He could not feel any sympathy for non-con-
formiste.
One simple compliance with the national form of receiving the sacrament
is all we require to qualify any sectary among us for the greatest employ-
ments in the state, after which he is at liberty to rejoin his own assemblies for
the rest of his life.
An unlimited liberty in publishing books against Christian doctrines
was a scandal to government. Party feuds had been carried to
excess. The church was not so narrowly calculated that it could
not fall in with any regular species of government; but, though
every species of government was equally lawful, they were not
equally expedient, or for every country indifferently. A church
of England man might properly approve the plans of one party more
than those of the other, according as he thought they best promoted
the good of church and state ; but he would never be swayed by
passion or interest to denounce an opinion merely because it was
not of the party he himself approved. "To enter into a party as
"
into an order of friars with so resigned an obedience to superiors,
is very unsuitable both with the civil and religious liberties we so
zealously assert. ' Whoever has a true value for church and state
will avoid the extremes of whig, for the sake of the former, and
the extremes of tory, for the sake of the latter. Swift's great
object was to maintain the established constitution in both church
and state.
Another piece, A Project for the advancement of Religion
and the Reformation of Manners (1709), highly praised by Steele
in The Tatler, contained a good many interesting suggestions, some
excellent, others impracticable. Swift said that divines were justi-
fied in their complaint against the wickedness of the age ; hardly
one in a hundred people of quality or gentry appeared to act on
any principle of religion, and great numbers of them entirely
discarded it. Among men were to be found cheating, quarrels
and blasphemies; among women, immorality and neglect of house-
hold affairs. In particular, there was fraud and cozenage in the
law, injustice and oppression. Among the clergy, there was much
ignorance, servility and pragmatism. It was in the power of the
prince to cause piety and virtue to become the fashion, if he would
make them the necessary qualifications for favour. It should be
every man's interest to cultivate religion and virtue. Of course, it
might be urged that, to make religion a necessary step for interest
and favour, would increase hypocrisy ; but, says Swift, if one in


## p. 110 (#134) ############################################

IIO
Swift
6
twenty were brought home to true piety and the nineteen were only
hypocrites, the advantage would still be great. Hypocrisy at least
wears the livery of religion, and most men would leave off vices
out of mere weariness rather than undergo the risk and expense
of practising them in private. 'I believe it is often with religion
as it is with love, which by much dissembling at last grows real. '
The clergy should not shut themselves up in their own clubs,
but should mix with the laity and gain their esteem. “No man
values the best medicine if administered by a physician whose
person he hates or despises. More churches should be provided
'
in growing towns: the printing of pernicious books should be
stopped : taverns and alehouses should be closed at midnight,
and no woman should be suffered to enter any tavern. In brief,
it is the business of everyone to maintain appearances, if nothing
more; and this should be enforced by the magistrates.
The question of the sacramental test, for the repeal of which
there was an agitation in Ireland, was discussed in several pieces.
The first of them, the able Letter concerning the Sacramental
Test (1708), purported to be written by a member of the Irish
parliament, and contained a contemptuous reference to Defoe :
‘One of these authors (the fellow that was pilloried, I have
forgot his name) is indeed so grave, sententious, dogmatical a
rogue that there is no enduring him. The whole body of clergy,
. '
says Swift, were against repealing the test, and, in Ireland,
the clergy were generally loved and esteemed—and rightly so.
It was said that popish interest was so formidable that all
should join together to keep it under, and that the abolishing
of the test was the only way of uniting all protestants ; but there
was not any real ground for fear of papists in Ireland. The
same views were repeated many years afterwards in The Ad-
vantages proposed by repealing the Sacramental Test impartially
examined (1732), and in Reasons humbly offered to the Parlia-
ment of Ireland for repealing the Sacramental Test, &c. in favour
of the Catholics (1733), in which are set out satirically the argu-
ments that could be advanced by Roman catholics, the object
being to show that they could urge as good reasons as could their
brothers the dissenters.
In 1713, bishop Burnet published an introduction which was to
preface the third part of his History of the Reformation of the
Church of England. He was an extreme party man and freely
accused his opponents of sympathy with the pope, the Jacobites
and the French. In A Preface to the B-p of 8-r-m's


## p. 111 (#135) ############################################

a
Pamphlets on Religious Questions III
Introduction, Swift attacked him with a mixture of drollery and
irony which must have had a very damning effect. He was hated,
says Swift, by everyone who wore the habit or followed the profes-
sion of a clergyman. It would be well if he would sometimes hear
what Truth said : he should not charge the opinion of one or two
(and those, probably, non-jurors) upon the whole portion of the
nation that differed from him, and he should not be so outrageous
upon the memory of the dead, for it was highly probable he would
soon be one of the number. In another pamphlet, also published
in 1713, Mr C—ns's Discourse on Free Thinking, put into plain
English, by way of Abstract, for the use of the Poor, Swift
attacked deists by parodying the work of one of their body.
The piece purports to be written by a friend of Collins, and
the object was to represent—very unfairly—that the views of
deists were accepted by the whig party. It seemed to him de-
sirable, he says, that Collins's valuable work should be brought
down to the understanding of the youth of quality and of members
of whig clubs, who might be discouraged by the show of logic and
the numerous quotations in the original.
A Letter to a Young Gentleman, lately entered into Holy
Orders (1721) illustrates Swift's humour when undisturbed by
passion, and its serious portions throw considerable light on his
views. He regrets that his friend had not remained longer at the
university, and that he had not applied himself more to the study
of the English language; the clergy were too fond of obscure
terms, borrowed from ecclesiastical writers. He had no sympathy
with the 'moving manner of preaching,' for it was of little use
in directing men in the conduct of their lives.
Reason and good advice will be your safest guides; but beware of letting
the pathetic part swallow up the rational. . . . The two principal branches of
preaching are first to tell the people what is their duty, and then to convince
them that it is so. The topics for both these, we know, are brought from
Scripture and reason.
It was not necessary to attempt to explain the mysteries of the
Christian religion ; 'indeed, since Providence intended there
should be mysteries, I do not see how it can be agreeable to
piety, orthodoxy or good sense, to go about such a work. The
proper course was to deliver the doctrine as the church holds it,
and to confirm it by Scripture.
I think the clergy have almost given over perplexing themselves and their
hearers with abstruse points of Predestination, Election, and the like; at
least it is time they should.


## p. 112 (#136) ############################################

I I2
Swift
These views are exemplified in Swift's own Sermons, which
contain little rhetoric, and, for the most part, are confined to
straightforward reasoning. The appeal was to the head rather
than to the heart; but it was marked by great common sense, force
and directness. There is no reason for thinking that Swift did not
honestly accept the doctrines of Christianity; Bolingbroke called
him a hypocrite reversed. ' We know that he concealed his
religious observances ; he had family prayers with his servants
without telling his guests, and, in London, he rose early to attend
worship without the knowledge of his friends. His sincerity was
never doubted by those who knew him : when they were ill, they
asked him to pray with them. In his last years, when his mind
had given way, he was seen to pursue his devotions with great
regularity. Outwardly, he performed, in an exemplary manner,
the duties of his deanship, and was a loyal supporter of his
church.
'I am not answerable to God," he says, 'for the doubts that arise in my
own breast, since they are the consequence of that reason which He hath
planted in me, if I take care to conceal those doubts from others, if I use my
best endeavours to subdue them, and if they have no influence on the conduct
of my life. '
He suspected those who made much profession of zeal; but,
within his limits, he had a very real sense of his responsibilities.
'I look upon myself," he said, 'in the capacity of a clergyman, to be one
appointed by Providence for defending a post assigned me, and for gaining
over as many enemies as I can. Although I think my cause is just, yet one
great motive is my submitting to the pleasure of Providence, and to the laws
of my country. '
The series of writings on English politics begins with A
Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles
and the Commons in Athens and Rome (1701), written in defence
of Lord Somers, who had been attacked by a tory House of
Commons on account of the Partition treaty. The feuds between
Lords and Commons were bitter, and, in this soberly written and
weighty pamphlet, Swift showed the dangers of the quarrel for
both parties, and the need of a due balance of power in the
country. If a House of Commons, already possessing more than
its share of power, cramped the hand that held the balance, and
aimed at more power by attacking the nobles, then, said Swift,
the same causes would produce the same consequences among us
as they did in Greece and Rome. Party government, he pointed
out, tends to destroy all individuality. Some said that this piece


## p. 113 (#137) ############################################

Political Pamphlets
113
was by Somers himself, others that it was by Burnet; but, before
long, Swift admitted that he was the author, and his services
naturally earned the gratitude of the whigs.
The political pamphlets which Swift wrote during the closing
years of queen Anne's reign are of interest rather to the his-
torian than to the student of literature; for, in the main, they are
concerned with questions of temporary interest or with personal
quarrels. One of the ablest and most successful was The Conduct
of the Allies and of the late Ministry in beginning and carry-
ing on the present war, which went through many editions
and had a great effect on public opinion. Swift's object was to
show the burden of war on the nation; that submission had
been made to these impositions for the advancement of private
wealth and power or in order to forward the dangerous designs
of a faction; so, the side of the war which would have been
beneficial to us had been neglected; our allies had broken their
promises ; and the wiser course was to conclude peace. This
carefully thought-out pamphlet was followed by Some Remarks
on the Barrier Treaty (1712), which forms a supplement to it,
and, in the same year, by Some Advice humbly offered to the
members of the October Club, intended to appease extreme tories,
who were dissatisfied with Harley.
During the months that followed the death of queen Anne,
Swift wrote several pieces in which he put on record the defence
of the late ministry, and, especially, of Oxford ; denied the
existence of intrigues with Jacobites, of the existence of which
he clearly knew nothing, and explained his own connection with
tories. One of these pieces was entitled Memoirs relating to that
change which happened to the Queen's ministry in the year 1710;
another, Some free thoughts upon the present state of affairs ;
and another, An inquiry into the behaviour of the Queen's last
Ministry, in which he said that
among the contending parties in England, the general interest of Church
and State is more the private interest of one side than the other; so that,
whoever professeth to act upon a principle of observing the laws of his
country, may have a safe rule to follow, by discovering whose particular
advantage it chiefly is that the Constitution should be preserved entire in all
its parts.
Other pamphlets dealt largely in personalities. One of the most
violent is A short character of Thomas Earl of Wharton (1711),
in which the lord lieutenant of Ireland is charged with every
form of vice. He had, says Swift, three predominant passions,
8
E. L. IX.
CH, Iv.


## p. 114 (#138) ############################################

114
Swift
seldom united in the same man : love of power, love of money,
love of pleasure, which rode him sometimes by turns, sometimes
all together. If there were not any visible effects of old age,
either in body or mind, it was ‘in spite of a continual prostitution
to those vices which usually wear out both. ' The Importance of
the Guardian considered (1713), and The Public Spirit of the
Whigs (1714), had their origin in Swift's quarrel with Steele.
However much Steele may be to blame for his part in the
quarrel, Swift's personalities cannot be defended. Swift says that
Steele, being the most imprudent man alive, never followed the
advice of his friends, but was wholly at the mercy of fools or
knaves or hurried away by his own caprices. After reading what
he said of his sovereign, one asked, not whether Steele was (as
he alleged) 'a gentleman born,' but whether he was a human
creature.
The pamphlets relating to Ireland form a very important part
of Swift's works. His feeling of the intolerable wrongs of the
country in which he was compelled to live grew from year to year.
He saw around him poverty and vice, due, as he held, partly to
the apathy of the people, but mainly to the selfishness of the
English government, which took whatever it could get from
Ireland and gave little in return. Swift's concern was mainly
with the English in Ireland; he had little sympathy for the
savage old Irish' or with the Scottish presbyterians in the
north. But his pity for cottagers increased as he understood
the situation more clearly and saw that they were so oppressed
by charges which they had to bear that hardly any, even
farmers, could afford to provide shoes or stockings for their
children or to eat flesh or to drink anything better than sour
milk and water. The manufactures and commerce of the country
were ruined by the laws, and agriculture was crippled by pro-
hibition of exportation of cattle or wool to foreign countries.
No doubt, Swift was influenced by a feeling of hatred towards the
whig government; but he was certainly sincere in the long series
of pamphlets in which he denounced the treatment of Ireland by
the English. This series began in 1720 with A proposal for the
universal use of Irish manufacture, in which Swift puts forth
a scheme for rejecting everything wearable that came from
England. Someone had said that Ireland would never be happy
till a law were made for burning everything received from
England, except their people and their coals: 'Nor am I even
yet for lessening the number of those exceptions. ' Swift quoted
6


## p. 115 (#139) ############################################

Drapier's Letters
115
the fable of Arachne and Pallas. Pallas, jealous of a rival who
excelled in the art of spinning and weaving, turned Arachne into
a spider, ordering her to spin and weave for ever out of her own
bowels in a very narrow compass.
'I confess,' says Swift, 'I always pitied poor Arachne, and could never
heartily love the goddess on account of so cruel and unjust a sentence; which,
however, is fully executed upon us by England, with further additions of
rigour and severity, for the greatest part of our bowels and vitals are ex-
tracted, without allowing us the liberty of spinning and weaving them. '
Before long, the want of small change in the coinage of Ireland
began to be felt acutely, and, in 1722, a new patent was issued
to an English merchant, William Wood; but Wood had to pay
£10,000 to the duchess of Kendal for the job, and the Irish
parliament, which had not been consulted, passed resolutions
protesting against the loss that would be sustained by Ireland.
A committee was appointed to enquire into complaints; wbile
it was sitting, Swift published the first of the brilliant series of
pamphlets known as Drapier's Letters. It was called A Letter
to the shopkeepers, tradesmen, farmers and the common people
of Ireland concerning the brass half-pence coined by Mr. Woods,
and purported to be by ‘M. B. Drapier. ' It was written in the
simplest language, which could be understood by all, and the argu-
ments were such as would appeal to the people. From motives
of prudence, Wood, and not the government, was attacked, and
the main argument was that the coins were deficient in value and
weight. Many of the allegations are baseless, while the reasoning
is sophistical, but they served the purpose of stirring up the people
to a sense of ill-treatment. Swift foretold that the country would
be ruined; that tenants would not be able to pay their rents;
and, alluding to Phalaris, he said that it might be found that
the brass which Wood contrived as a trouble to the kingdom
would prove his own torment and destruction. The committee
of enquiry recommended the reduction in the amount of coin that
Wood was to issue, and Walpole obtained a report from Sir Isaac
Newton, master of the mint, to the effect that the coins were
correct both as to weight and quality. Swift, feeling that any
compromise would amount to defeat, brought out another pamphlet,
A Letter to Mr. Harding the printer, in which he urged that the
people should refuse to take the coins: the nation did not want
them; there was no reason why an Englishman should enjoy the
profit. It was not dishonourable to submit to the lion, but who
'with the figure of a man can think with patience of being devoured
8_2


## p. 116 (#140) ############################################

116
Swift
alive by a rat’? Swift now openly widened the field of the con-
troversy: the grievance of the patent became subordinated to the
question of the servitude of the Irish people. He was afraid that
concessions made by the government might result in the return
of the people to their wonted indifference. The third letter was
called Some Observations upon a paper called the Report of the
Committee of the most honourable the Privy Council in England
relating to Wood's halfpence. ‘Am I,' he asked, a free man in
England and do I become a slave in six hours by crossing the
Channel ? ' The country was now deluged with pamphlets and
ballads, some of which were certainly by Swift, and no jury could
be persuaded to convict the printers. At this point, Swift pro-
duced his Letter to the whole People of Ireland, which was
intended to refresh and keep alive the spirit which he had raised,
and to show the Irish that, alike by the laws of God and man,
they were and ought to be as free a people as their brothers in
England. The affair ended in a triumph for Swift. Bonfires were
lit in his honour and towns gave him their freedom. It is not
necessary to refer in detail to subsequent pamphlets : Wood's
patent was cancelled, and he received a pension.
Swift wrote many other pieces about Irish grievances. In one
of these, The Swearers Bank (1720), he dealt with a proposal to
start a bank to assist small tradesmen. He argued that the scheme
was not needed in a country so cursed with poverty as Ireland,
and his satire was fatal to the project. In The Story of the
injured lady', he again poured forth his wrath against English
misgovernment, and, in the Answer to this pamphlet, he told Ireland
that she ought not to have any dependence on England, beyond
being subject to the same government; that she should regulate
her household by methods to be agreed upon by the two countries;
and that she should show a proper spirit and insist on freedom
to send her goods where she pleased. In A short view of the
state of Ireland (1728), he gives a touching account of the con-
dition of the country: though it was favoured by nature with a
fruitful soil and a temperate climate, there was general desolation
in most parts of the island. England drew revenues from Ireland
without giving in return one farthing value. 'How long we shall
be able to continue the payment I am not in the least certain:
one thing I know, that when the hen is starved to death there will
>
1 This is not known to have been published before 1746, when it appeared in a
collection entitled The Story of the Injured Lady . . . with letters and poems never
before printed. By the Rev. Dr Swift.


## p. 117 (#141) ############################################

117
Pamphlets on Ireland
be no more golden eggs. In another piece, On the present miser-
able state of Ireland, he said,
We are apt to charge the Irish with laziness because we seldom find them
employed : but then we do not consider that they have nothing to do: the
want of trade is owing to cruel restrictions, rather than to any disqualifi-
cation of the people.
The series reached its climax in A Modest Proposal for pre-
venting the children of poor people from being a burden to
their parents or the country, and for making them beneficial to
the public (1729), in which, with terrible irony and bitterness,
Swift suggested, in a spirit of despair at the helplessness of
Ireland, that the poverty of the people should be relieved by
the sale of their children as food for the rich. With the utmost
gravity, he sets out statistics to show the revenue that would
accrue if this idea were adopted. It would give the people some-
thing valuable of their own, and thus help to pay their landlord's
rent; it would save the cost of maintaining very many children;
it would lead to a lessening of the number of papists; it would
be a great inducement to marriage. The remedy, Swift took care
to point out, was only for the kingdom of Ireland, “and for no
other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth';
and it did not involve any danger of disobliging England, ‘for
this kind of commodity will not bear exportation. ' The suggestion
was quite disinterested. 'I have no children by which I can pro-
pose to get a single penny, the youngest being nine years old, and
my wife past child-bearing. '
In An Examination of certain Abuses, Corruptions and
Enormities in the City of Dublin (1732), Swift, writing as a
whig, burlesqued the fashion of charging tories with being in
sympathy with papists and Jacobites, and of finding cause for
suspecting disaffection in the most unexpected quarters. Under
the guise of an attack on the earl of Oxford, he charged Walpole
with avarice, obscurity of birth and profligacy.
One more pamphlet was published in 1733, A serious and
useful scheme to make a hospital for Incurables, in which Swift
dwelt on the necessity of dealing with the number of fools, knaves,
scolds, scribblers, infidels and liars, not to mention the incurably
vain, proud, affected and ten thousand others beyond cure. He
hoped that he would himself be admitted on the foundation as
one of the scribbling incurables; he was happy to feel that no
person would be offended by his scheme, 'because it is natural
to apply ridiculous characters to all the world, except ourselves. '


## p. 118 (#142) ############################################

118
Swift
On literary subjects, Swift wrote little. In 1712, he published
his Proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the
English Tongue, in the form of a letter to Harley. In this tract,
to which he allowed his name to be affixed, he urged the formation
of an academy, which was to fix a standard for the language.
New words, abbreviations, slang, affectation, phonetic spelling -
of all these Swift complained, and he thought that an academy
could stop improprieties, and find a way for 'ascertaining and
fixing our language for ever. Some time before, he had written
to the same effect in no. 230 of The Tatler, ‘by the hands,' as
he says, 'of an ingenious gentleman (Steele), who, for a long time,
did thrice a week direct or instruct the kingdom by his papers. '
There, he pleaded for the observance in our style of that simplicity
which is the best and truest ornament of most things in life. ' He
ended his Proposal by urging that, in England, as in France, the
endowments of the mind should occasionally be rewarded, either
by a pension or, where that was unnecessary, by some mark of
distinction.
Nine years later, Swift published in Dublin an amusing satire,
A Letter of Advice to a young Poet ; together with a Proposal
for the encouragement of Poetry in this Kingdom (1721). The
professional poet, he says, would be embarrassed if he had any
religion, for poetry, of late, had been 'altogether disengaged from
the narrow notions of virtue and piety. But the poet must be
conversant with the Scriptures, in order to be 'witty upon them
or out of them. Scholarship was now quite unnecessary to the
poet; and, if we look back, Shakespeare ‘was no scholar, yet was
an excellent poet. ' Swift was for every man's working upon his
own materials, and producing only what he can find within him-
self. Taking part in games will often suggest similes, images or
rimes : and coffeehouse and theatre must be frequented. The
profession was in a sorry plight in Dublin, though poetic wit
abounded. The city had no Grub street, set apart as a safe
repository for poetry, and there was much need for a playhouse,
where the young could get rid of the natural prejudices of religion
and modesty, great restraints to a free people.
In the rather patronising Letter to a very young Lady on her
Marriage (1727), Swift advises his friend to listen to the talk of
men of learning; it is a shame for an English lady not to be able
to relish such discourses, but few gentlemen's daughters could be
brought to read or understand their own native tongue; they
could not even be brought to spell correctly. Elsewhere, Swift


## p. 119 (#143) ############################################

His Poetry
119
combated the general view that it was not prudent to choose a
wife with some taste of wit and humour, able to relish history and
to be a tolerable judge of the beauties of poetry. There were,
however, so few women of this kind that half the well educated
nobility and gentry must, if they married, take a wife for whom
they could not possibly have any esteem.
Swift's poetry has the merits of his prose, but not many other
merits. He began by writing frigid 'Pindaric' odes, after the
fashion of Cowley, and, from his letters, we know that he set con-
siderable value on them, and that they underwent much revision? .
But Dryden was right when, after perusing some of these verses,
he said, 'Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet. ' This comment
caused much annoyance to Swift, as we may conclude from the
hostile references to Dryden in several of his writings.
It was,
how-
ever, taken to heart; for he produced no more stilted odes, but, in
future, confined himself to lighter verse, modelled on Butler, and
generally of a satirical nature. One of the earliest and most
attractive of his playful pieces, the graceful Baucis and Philemon,
was published, with the pretty verses On Mrs Biddy Floyd, in
the last volume of Tonson's Miscellany (1709). In other pieces,
A Description of a City Shower and A Description of the Morning,
published in The Tatler, the subject is treated purely from a
humorous and satirical point of view. Among his later works,
The Grand Question debated (1729), with its studies of Lady
Acheson and of her maid, Hannah, is altogether delightful.
In two pieces written in imitation of Horace (1713–14), Swift
described, in felicitous words, his friendship with Harley, and gave
some account of his own feelings before and after he was appointed
to the deanery of St Patrick's. Harley saw Swift'cheapening old
authors on a stall':
A clergyman of special note
For shunning those of his own coat;
Which made his brethren of the gown
Take care betimes to run him down:
No libertine, nor over nice,
Addicted to no sort of vice;
Went where he pleased, said what he thought;
Not rich, but owed no man a groat.
Harley adopted him as a humble friend, and said that Swift must
be a dean: he need but cross the Irish sea to have power and
ease. Swift had often wished that he had 'for life, six hundred
1 Hist. MSS Comm. , Seventh Report, p. 680.


## p. 120 (#144) ############################################

I 20
Swift
pounds a year, with a garden, and a good house for a friend.
Now he had all this and more, and would have been content,
could he have lived nearer London.
The famous Cadenus and Vanessa (1713) gives, in a mock
classical settings Swift's account of his acquaintance with Hester
Vanhomrigh, and of his surprise and distress at finding her in love
with him. Vanessa scorned fops and fine ladies; at length, she
met the dean,
Grown old in politics and wit,
Caress'd by ministers of state,
Of half mankind the dread and hate.
His fame led her to forget his age; but he did not understand
what love was; his feelings were those of a father and a tutor.
After a time, he found that her thoughts wandered, and, at length,
she confessed that his lessons had
found the weakest part,
Aimed at the head, but reached the heart.
Cadenus was ashamed and surprised. He knew that the world
would blame him, especially as she had 'five thousand guineas
in her purse. ' But Vanessa argued well, and, to his grief and
shame, Cadenus could scarce oppose her. After all, it was flatter-
ing to be preferred to a crowd of beaux. He told her it was
too late for him to love, but he offered friendship, gratitude,
esteem. Vanessa took him at his word, and said she would now
be the tutor. What success she had was yet a secret; whether
he descended to ‘less seraphic ends' or whether they decided 'to
temper love and books together' must not be told.
As this poem was preserved by Hester Vanhomrigh, we may
assume that she did not think Swift had done her injustice in
the clever apology for his own conduct. As in the case of the
correspondence, it is pleasant to turn from the verses about
Vanessa to the pieces which Swift wrote year by year on Stella's
birthday. With laughing allusions to her advancing years (when
she was thirty-eight, he wrote ‘Stella this day is thirty-four (We
shan't dispute a year or more)'), he dwells on her wit and the lustre
of her eyes. Hers was an angel's face a little cracked,' with an
angel's mind. He 'ne'er admitted Love a guest'; having Stella
for his friend, he sought no more. She nursed him in his illness,
coming to his relief ‘with cheerful face and inward grief. '
When out my brutish passions break,
With gall in every word I speak,
She with soft speech my anguish cheers,
Or melts my passions down with tears.
6
6


## p. 121 (#145) ############################################

Savage Satirical Verse
I 21
If her locks were turning grey, his eyes were becoming dim, and
he would not believe in wrinkles which he could not see. On
her last birthday, when she was sick and Swift grown old, he wrote
that, though they could form no more long schemes of life, she
could look with joy on what was past. Her life had been well
spent, and virtue would guide her to a better state. Swift would
gladly share her suffering,
Or give my scrap of life to you,
And think it far beneath your due;
You, to whose care so oft I owe
That I'm alive to tell you so.
Swift is at his best in these pieces of sincere affection for the
woman whom he loved throughout her life.
It is strange to pass to some of his satires on woman, which
are among the bitterest and most savage of his verses, and exhibit
a physical loathing which suggests mental defect. In The Pro-
gress of Beauty, he dwells on physical decay; in The Progress
of Marriage, he describes a union where “the swain is old, the
nymph coquette. ' In The Journal of a Modern Lady, he satirises
the woman whose life is given to cards. In The Lady's Dressing
Room, Strephon and Chloe, and other pieces written about
1730—1, we see the increasing disease of mind which could find
nothing but what was loathsome. It is unnecessary to dwell on
these melancholy and savage things, or on the coarse or foolish trifles
which Swift and the cronies of his later years bandied to and fro.
They had their origin in an attempt to escape from the deepening
gloom. Nor need we do more than glance at the political ballads
and skits—Sid Hamet's Rod, The W—ds—r Prophecy, The Fable
of Midas, Dennis's Invitation to Steele and the like-in which Swift
attacked his opponents while engaged in the political warfare of
1710–13; or at those of later years relating to Ireland. The Epistle
to Mr Gay contains a violent attack on Walpole. It is enough
to mention the inhuman onslaught on Lord Allen in Traulus (1730),
and The Last Judgment and The Legion Club (1736), two of his
last pieces, where savage wrath has the fullest sway. In The Legion
Club, an attack on the Irish parliament, he pictures it as a mad-
house, and gives us the keeper's description of the various members.
If he could destroy the harpies' nest with thunder, how would
Ireland be blessed! They sold the nation, they raved of making
laws and they scribbled senseless heads of bills:
See, the Muse unbars the gate;
Hark, the monkeys, how they prate!


## p. 122 (#146) ############################################

I 22
Swift
Would Hogarth were there, so that every monster might be painted!
At length, he could not bear any more of it:
Keeper, I have seen enough.
Taking then a pinch of snuff,
I concluded, looking round them,
May their god, the devil, confound them!
In the fable called The Beasts Confession to the Priest (1732),
Swift dwells on the universal folly of mankind of mistaking their
talents. ' When the land was struck with plague, their king ordered
the beasts to confess their sins. The ass confessed that he was a
wag; the ape claimed strict virtue, but said his zeal was sometimes
indiscreet; the swine said his shape and beauty made him proud,
but gluttony was never his vice. Similarly, the knave declares
he failed because he could not flatter; the chaplain vows he cannot
fawn; the statesman says, with a sneer, that his fault is to be too
sincere. Swift's conclusion is that he had libelled the four-footed
6
race, since
Creatures of ev'ry kind but ours
Well comprehend their nat'ral powers
though
now and then
Beasts may degen’rate into men.
On Poetry: a Rhapsody (1733) was thought by Swift to be
his best satire. In this very powerful piece, he describes the
difficulty of the poet's art, and the wane of public encouragement.
After much satirical advice, he tells the writer who has had to put
aside all thoughts of fame to seek support from a party:
A pamphlet in Sir Bob's defence
Will never fail to bring in pence.
Praise of a king will always be acceptable, and, with change of
names, will serve again in the following reign. Or, the poet may
live by being a puny judge of wit at Will's: he must read Rymer
and Dennis, and Dryden's prefaces, now much valued,
Though merely writ at first for filling,
To raise the volume's price a shilling.
Jobbers in the poet's art were to be found in every alley, gene-
rally at war with each other. As naturalists have observed, a flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.
Who can reach the worst in Grub street ?
the height we know;
'Tis only infinite below.
And then the piece ends with satirical adulation of king and
minister, such as poetasters loved.


## p. 123 (#147) ############################################

On the Death of Dr Swift
123
The poem On the Death of Dr Swift (1731), with its mixture
of humour, egotism and pathos, is, in many respects, the best and
most interesting of Swift's verse. An incomplete pirated version
appeared in 1733, and an authorised copy in 1739; the poem was
finally revised before its issue by Faulkner in 1743. Swift begins
with comments on our dislike to be excelled by our friends, and
then pictures his own coming death and what his acquaintances
would say of him—his vertigo, loss of memory, oft told stories,
which could be borne only by younger folk, for the sake of his
wine. At last, their prognostications came true: the dean was
dead. Who was his heir ? When it was known he had left all
to public uses, people said that this was mere envy, avarice and
pride. The town was cloyed with elegies, and Curll prepared to
treat me as he does my betters,
Publish my will, my life, my letters,
Revive the libels, born to die,
Which Pope must bear, as well as I.
Friends shrugged their shoulders, and said, 'I'm sorry—but we all
must die. ' Ladies received the news, over their cards, in doleful
dumps :
The Dean is dead (pray what are trumps ? )
Then Lord have mercy on his soul.
(Ladies; I'll venture for the vole. )
In a year, he was forgotten; his wit was out of date. But, some-
times, men at a club would refer to him and discuss his character.
This gives Swift the opportunity for a defence of himself. He had
aimed at curing the vices of mankind by grave irony: 'What he
writ was all his own. He never courted men of rank, nor was he
afraid of the great. He helped those in distress, and chose only
the good and wise for friends. “Fair Liberty was all his cry. '
He valued neither power nor wealth. He laboured in vain to
reconcile his friends in power, and, finally, left the court in despair.
In Ireland, he defeated Wood;
Taught fools their interest how to know
And gave them arms to ward the blow.
Perhaps the dean had too much satire in his veins :
Yet malice never was his aim,
He lashed the vice, but spared the name.
True genuine dulness moved bis pity
Unless it offered to be witty.
He gave the little wealth he had
To build a house for fools and mad,
And showed by one satiric touch
No nation needed it so much.


## p. 124 (#148) ############################################

124
Swift
It will be seen, from what has been said, that Swift's verse has
very little imagination or sentiment. It is merely witty prose put
into fluent verse, with clever rimes. There is no chivalry, no real
emotion, except the fierce passion of indignation. If 'poet' con-
notes the love of beauty, the search after ideals, the preaching
of what is ennobling, then Swift is not a poet. But his verse is an
admirable vehicle for the expression of his passion and irony;
and it is excellent of its kind, simple, sincere, direct, pointed,
without any poetic ornament or show of learning.
Of Swift's correspondence, by far the most interesting, of
course, is that with Esther Johnson, afterwards to be known as
the Journal to Stella. The latter part of these journal-letters
were first printed in Hawkesworth's 1766 edition of Swift ; but
Hawkesworth suppressed most of the little language,' and made
other changes in the text. The publishers, however, presented
the manuscript, with the exception of one letter, to the British
Museum, and we now can read the letters as they were written,
subject to difficulties due to deciphering and to numerous abbre-
viations, and to the fact that Swift, in later years, ruled out
many words and sentences. The remainder of the Journal, con-
sisting of the first forty letters, was published by Deane Swift in
1768. Unfortunately, the originals, with one exception, have
been lost; but it is clear that Deane Swift took even greater
liberties than Hawkesworth.
The Journal to Stella affords the most intimate picture of
Swift that we possess, while, at the same time, it is an historical
document of the greatest value. It throws much light on the
relations between the pair, and it brings vividly before us Swift's
fears and hopes during the two years and a half covered by the
letters. His style, always simple and straightforward, is never
more so than in this most intimate correspondence. He mentions
casually the detailed incidents of his life and alludes to the
people he met; he never describes anyone at length, but con-
stantly summarises in a sentence the main characteristics of the
man, or, at least, his estimate of his character. Bolingbroke, the
thorough rake'; Oxford, the ‘pure trifler’; Marlborough, 'as
covetous as hell and as ambitious as a prince of it'; Congreve,
now nearly blind; the lovable Arbuthnot; Steele, who hardly
ever kept an appointment ; queen Anne, who found very little to
say to those around her; Mrs Masham, and other ladies of the
court-of all these we are allowed a glance which seems to furnish
us with a real knowledge of them.
6


## p. 125 (#149) ############################################

Journal to Stella
I 25
Mr Addison and I are as different as black and white, and I believe our
friendship will go off, by this damned business of party. . . but I love him
still as well as ever, though we seldom meet.
Day by day, we are told of party intrigues and of promises held
out to Swift: The Tories drily tell me I may make my fortune
'
if I please,' he noted in 1710, 'but I do not understand them, or
rather I do understand them. A few weeks later, he wrote
To say the truth, the present ministry have a difficult task, and want me.
Perhaps they may be as grateful as others: but, according to the best judg-
ment I have, they are pursuing the true interest of the public; and therefore
'I am glad to contribute what is in my power. '
And, in February 1711,
They call me nothing but Jonathan, and I said I believed they would leave
me Jonathan, as they have found me; and that I never knew a ministry
do anything for those whom they make companions of their pleasures; and I
believe you will find it so; but I care not.
Swift's financial troubles constantly come to light in these letters.
'People have so left town,' he says, 'that I am at a loss for a
dinner. . . it cost me eighteenpence in coach-hire before I could
find a place to dine in. ' When he first came to London, he took
rooms at eight shillings a week: ‘Plaguy dear, but I spend
nothing for eating, never go to a tavern, and very seldom in a
coach. ' In another place, he says, 'This rain ruins me in coach
hire. ' How much exaggeration there was in these protests against
expense, it is not easy to say. The Journal abounds in arrogant
references to great ladies and others; but the arrogance was
partly affected and partly the result of a fear of being patronised.
Once, when he was to have supped with Lady Ashburnham, he
says: “The drab did not call for me in her coach as she promised
but sent for us, and so I sent my excuses. When the duchess
of Shrewsbury expostulated with him for not dining with her,
Swift said he expected more advances from ladies, especially
duchesses. Swift's genuine kindness to, and love of, those who
were his friends is constantly appearing. When William Harrison,
whom he had assisted to start a continuation of The Tatler, was
ill, Swift was afraid to knock at the door; when he found that
Harrison was dead, he comforted the mother.
When Lady
Ashburnham died, he wrote,
She was my greatest favourite and I am in excessive concern for her loss. . . .
I hate life when I think it exposed to such accidents; and to see so many
thousand wretches burdening the earth, while such as her die, makes me
think God did never intend life for a blessing.
6


## p. 126 (#150) ############################################

1 26
Swift
Swift took much interest in a small poet called Diaper, a young
fellow who had written some Eclogues : 'I hate to have any new
wits rise, but when they do rise I will encourage them : but they
tread on our heels and thrust us off the stage. When his friend
Mrs Anne Long died, Swift said he was never more afflicted. Mrs
Long had 'all sorts of amiable qualities and no ill ones, except
but the indiscretion of too much neglecting her own affairs. ' For
his servant, Patrick, to whom there are constant references, he
showed the greatest forbearance. Patrick had good points, but
he drank, and sometimes stopped out at night; he was, however,
a favourite both of Swift and Mrs Vanhomrigh.
The 'little language' which Swift employed in writing to Stella
had probably been used between them ever since they were at
Moor park together. He constantly addressed Stella and Mrs
Dingley as 'sirrahs,' girls,' 'dearest lives, and so on ; but we can
generally distinguish references intended for Stella only. There
are frequent references to Stella's weak eyes. What shall we
do to cure them, poor dear life? ' 'It is the grief of my soul to
think you are out of order. ' 'I will write plainer for Dingley to
read from, henceforth, though my pen is apt to ramble when
I think who I am writing to. Nothing gave him any sort of
dream of happiness, but a letter now and then from
his own dearest M. D. . . . Yes, faith, and when I write to M. D. , I am happy
too; it is just as if methinks you were here, and I prating to you, and telling
you where I have been.
In another place, he says to Stella:
I can hardly imagine you absent when I am reading your letter or writing
to you: No, faith, you are just here upon this little paper, and therefore I
see and talk with you every evening constantly, and sometimes in the morning.
Besides the personal interest, the Journal throws valuable
light on the social life of the day, both in Dublin and in London.
There are constant allusions to Stella's life in Ireland and to the
friends with whom she mixed. There was a club, with ombre,
claret and toasted oranges; there are descriptions of Stella's
rides and walks ; of dinners at three or four o'clock; of London
sights; of the Mohocks and other terrors; of the polite ways of
society, and of snuff taken by ladies and of jokes which they
indulged in. We hear, too, of the dangers of robbers at night
across the fields of Chelsea and of the risk of French privateers
in the Irish channel. The Journal is a mine of information for
the historian and the student of manners, and of absorbing interest
as a picture of character.


## p. 127 (#151) ############################################

Character of Swift's Life and Work 127
Swift's general correspondence is remarkable, like his other
writings, for the ease with which he could always find apt words
to express the exact meaning which he wished to convey. He
also has the merit, essential in a good correspondent, that he
can adapt himself readily to the character and point of view of
the person to whom he is writing. In his letters, we have not
only a graphic picture of Swift's own feelings and character, but
clear indications of the nature of the men with whom he was in
communication. In the letters to Pope, there is something of the
artificiality of the poet; in those to King, the dignity and state-
liness befitting a dignitary of the church ; and, in those to
Arbuthnot, the sincere affection which was a marked charm in
the doctor. Unfortunately, when Swift wrote to the companions
who occupied too much of his time in the period of his decay, he
condescended to jests unworthy of him. In writing to his friends,
he never leaned on his elbow to consider what he should write. '
There is evidence that letters of importance were often carefully
revised and considered before they were despatched; but, ordi-
narily, he wrote ‘nothing but nature and friendship,' as he said to
Pope, without any eye to the public.
Various interpretations have been placed on Swift's life and
work. Much has been written in his defence since the unsym-
pathetic studies of Macaulay, Jeffrey and Thackeray appeared ;
but he remains somewhat of a mystery. It is not easy to reconcile
his contempt for mankind with his affection for his friends and
their affection for him; or his attacks on woman with his love for
one, and the love which two women felt for him. It is, again,
difficult, in view of the decorum of his own life and his real, if
formal, religion, to explain the offensiveness of some of his writings.
Probably, this was due to a distorted imagination, the result of
physical or mental defect; and it must be remembered that it is
only here and there that coarseness appears. Sterne remarked,
'Swift has said a thousand things I durst not say. But there is
no lewdness in Swift's work, and no persistent strain of indecency,
as in Sterne.
Some have suggested that Swift's avoidance of the common
ties of human life was due to fears of approaching madness ;
others have supposed that the explanation was physical infirmity;
others, again, have found the key in his coldness of temperament
or in bis strong desire for independence. He appears to have
hungered for human sympathy, but to have wanted nothing more.
From the passion of love, he seems to have turned with disgust.


## p. 128 (#152) ############################################

128
Swift
The early years of poverty and dependence left an indelible mark
on him, and he became a disappointed and embittered man. His
mind, possessed by a spirit of scorn, turned in upon itself, and his
egotism grew with advancing years. Cursed with inordinate pride
and arrogance, he became like a suppressed volcano. His keen-
ness of vision caused him to see with painful clearness all that
was contemptible and degrading in his fellow men; but he had
little appreciation for what was good and great in them. The
pains and giddiness to which Swift was subject left their impression
upon his work ; 'at best,' he said, 'I have an ill head, and an
aching heart. ' His misanthropy was really a disease, and his life
of loneliness and disappointment was a tragedy, calling for pity and
awe, rather than for blame.
Swift's style is very near perfection. Clear, pointed, precise,
he seems to have no difficulty in finding words to express exactly
the impression which he wishes to convey. The sentences are not
always grammatically correct, but they come home to the reader,
like the words of a great orator or advocate, with convincing
force. He realizes so clearly what he is describing that the reader
is, of necessity, interested and impressed. There are no tricks of
style, no recurring phrases ; no ornaments, no studied effects ; the
object is attained without apparent effort, with an outward gravity
marking the underlying satire or cynicism, and an apparent
calmness concealing bitter invective. There is never any doubt
of his earnestness, whatever may be the mockery on the surface.
For the metaphysical and the speculative, he had no sympathy.
Swift was a master satirist, and his irony was deadly. He
was the greatest among the writers of his time, if we judge
them by the standard of sheer power of mind; yet, with some few
exceptions, his works are now little read. Order, rule, sobriety
,
—these are the principles he set before him when he wrote,
and they form the basis of his views on life, politics and religion.
Sincerity is never wanting, however much it is cloaked with
humour; but we look in vain for lofty ideals or for the prophetic
touch which has marked the bearers of the greatest names in our
literature. That which is spiritual was strangely absent in Swift.
He inveighs against folly and evil; but be seems to have no hope
for the world.