For this being bestowed only upon one or a few perfons at a time, is fure to raife envy, and confequently ill words, from the reft, who have no fhare in the bleffing. But fatire, being levelled at all, is never resented for an offence by any ; fince every individual perfon makes bold to understand it of others, and very wifely removes his particular part of the burthen upon the fhoulders of the world, which are broad enough, and able to bear it. To this purpose, I have fometimes reflected upon the difference between Athens and England, with respect to the point before us. In the Attic commonwealth *, it was the privilege and birthright of every citizen and poet, to rail aloud, and in public; or to expofe upon the ftage by name, any perfon they pleafed, though of the greatest figure, whether a Creon, an Hyperbolus, an Alcibiades, or a Demofthenes. But, on the other fide, the leaft reflecting word let fall against the people in general, was immediately caught up, and revenged upon the authors, however confiderable for their quality or their merits. Whereas in England it is just the reverse of all this. Here, you may fecurely display your utmost rhetoric against mankind, in the face of the world: Tell them, That all are gone aftray; that there is none that doth good, no not one; that we live in the very dregs of time; that knavery and atheifm are epidemic as the pox; that honefty is fled with Aftraa; with any other common places, equally U 3 new * Vid. Xenoph. new and eloquent, which are furnished by the Splendida bilis*. And when you have done, the whole audience, far from being offended, fhall return you thanks, as a deliverer of precious and ufeful truths. Nay farther, it is but to venture your lungs, and you may preach in Covent-garden against foppery and fornication, and fomething elfe; against pride, and diffimulation, and bribery, at Whitehall: You may expofe rapine and injuftice in the inns of court chapel; and in a city-pulpit, be as fierce as you please against avarice, hypocrify, and extortion. It is but a ball bandied to and fro; and every man carries a racket about him, to strike it from himself among the reft of the company. But, on the other fide, whoever fhould mistake the nature of things, fo far as to drop but a single hint in public, how fuch a one ftarved half the fleet, and half-poisoned the reft; how fuch a one, from a true principle of love and honour, pays no debts but for wenches and play; how fuch a one has got a clap, and runs out of his eftate; how Paris, bribed by Juno and Venus †, loth to offend either party, flept out the whole caufe on the bench; or, how fuch an orator makes long speeches in the fenate with much thought, little fenfe, and to no purpose: Whoever, I fay, should venture to be thus particular, must expect to be imprisoned * Hor. Spleen. † Juno and Venus, are money and a mistress; very powerful bribes to a judge, if fcandal fays true. I remember fuch reAuctions were caft about that time, but I cannot fix the perfon Fateaded here. imprifoned for fcandalum magnatum; to have challenges fent him; to be fued for defamation; and to be brought before the bar of the house. But I forgot that I am expatiating on a fubject wherein I have no concern, having neither a talent nor an inclination for fatire. On the other fide, I am so entirely fatisfied with the whole prefent procedure of human things, that I have been fome years preparing materials towards A panegyric upon the world, to which I intended to add a fecond part, intituled, A modeft defence of the proceedings of the rabble in all ages. Both these I had thoughts to publish, by way of appendix to the following treatise; but, finding my common-place book fill much flower than I had reafon to expect, I have chofen to defer them to another occafion. Befides, I have been unhappily prevented in that defign, by a certain domestic misfortune: In the particulars whereof, though it would be very feasonable, and much in the modern way, to inform the gentle reader, and would also be of great affistance towards extending this preface into the fize now in vogue, which by rule ought to be large, in proportion as the fubfequent volume is fmall; yet I fhall now difmifs our impatient reader from any farther attendance at the porch; and, having duly prepared his mind by a preliminary difcourfe, fhall gladly introduce him to the fublime myfteries that enfue. A TALE OF A TUB.* SECT. I. THE INTRODUCTION.+ WH HOEVER hath an ambition to be heard in a crowd, muft prefs, and fqueeze, and thruft, and climb, with indefatigable pains, till he has exalted himself to a certain degree of altitude *The Tale of a Tub has made much noife in the world. It was one of Swift's earliest performances, and has never been excelled in wit and fpirit by his own, or any other pen. The cenfures that have paffed upon it are various. The moft material of which, were fuch as reflected upon Dr Swift, in the character of a clergyman, and a Christian. It has been one of the misfortunes attending Christianity, that many of her fons, from a mistaken filial piety, have indulged themselves in too restrained and too melancholy a way of thinking. Can we wonder then, if a book, compofed with all the force of wit and humour, in derision of facerdotal tyranny, in ridicule of grave hypocrify, and in contempt of flegmatic stiffness, should be wilfully mifconftrued by fome perfons, and ignorantly miftaken by others, as a farcasm and reflection upon the whole Chriftian church? Swift's ungovernable fpirit of irony has fometimes carried him into very unwarrantable flights of wit. In the style of truth, I must look upon the Tale of a Tub, as no intended infult against Christianity, but as a fatire against the wild errors of the church of Rome, the flow and incomplete reformation of the Lutherans, and the abfurd and affected zeal of the Prefbyterians. Orrery. + The Introduction abounds with wit and humour. But the author never lofes the least opportunity of venting his keenest |