Informers, the most accurfed, and prostitute, and abandoned Race, that God ever permitted to plague Mankind.

It is true the Romans had a Custom of chufing a Dictator, during whofe Administration, the Power of other Magiftrates was fufpended; but this was done upon the greatest Emergencies; a War near their Doors, or fome civil Diffention; For Armies must be governed by arbitrary Power; But when the Virtue of that Commonwealth gave Place to Luxury and Ambition, this very Office of Dictator became perpetual in the Perfons of the Cæfars and their Succeffors, the most infamous Tyrants that have any where appeared in Story.

Thefe are fome of the Sentiments I had relating to publick Affairs while I was in the World; what they are at present, is of little importance either to that or my felf; neither can I truly fay I have any at all, or if I had, I dare not venture to publish them: For however orthodox they may be while I am now writing, they may become criminal enough to bring me into Trouble before Midfummer. And indeed I have often wished for fome Time paft, that a political Catechifm might be published by Authority, four Times a Year, in order to inftruct us how we are to speak and write, and act during the current Quarter. I have by Experience felt the Want of fuch an Inftructor: For intending to make my Court to fome People on the prevailing Side, by advancing certain old whiggith

whiggish Principles, which it feemeth had been exploded about a Month before, I have paffed for a difaffected Perfon. I am not ignorant how idle a Thing it is for a Man in Obscurity to attempt defending his Reputation as a Writer, while the Spirit of Faction hath fo univerfally poffeffed the Minds of Men, that they are not at Leisure to attend to any Thing elfe. They will juft give themselves Time to libel and accufe me, but cannot fpare a Minute to hear my Defence, So in a Plot-discovering Age, I have often known an innocent Man feized and imprisoned, and forced to lie feveral Months in Chains, while the Minifters were not at Leifure to hear his Petition, until they had profecuted and hanged the Number they propofed.

All I can reasonably hope for by this Letter, is to convince my Friends and others who are pleafed to with me well, that I have neither been fo ill a Subject nor fo ftupid an Author, as I have been represented by the Virulence of Libellers, whofe Malice hath taken the fame Train in both, by fathering dangerous Principles in Government upon me, which I never maintained, and infipid Productions which I am not capable of writing. For, however I may have been fowered by perfonal ill Treatment, or by melancholy Profpects for the Publick, I am too much a Politician to expose my own Safety by offenfive Words: and, if my Genius and Spirit be funk by encreafing Years, I have at least enough Difcretion left, not to mistake the Measure of

my

my own Abilities, by attempting Subjects where thofe Talents are neceffary, which perhaps I may have loft with my Youth.

LETTER V.

Dr. SWIFT to Mr, GAY.

Dublin, Jan, 8, 1722-3. Oming home after a fhort Christmas Ramble, I found a Letter upon my Table, and little expected when I opened it to read your Name at the Bottom. The best and greatest Part of my Life, until these last eight Years, I fpent in England, there I made my Friendships, and there I left my Defires: I am condemned for ever to another Country; what is in Prudence to be done? I think, to be * oblitufque meorum oblivifcendus & illis. What can be the Design of your Letter but Malice, to wake me out of a fcurvy Sleep, which however is better than none. I am towards nine Years older fince I left you, yet that is the leaft of my Alterations; my Business, my Diverfions, my Converfations, are all entirely changed for the worse, and so are my Studies and my Amusements in Writing; yet after all, this humdrum Way of Life might be paffable enough, if you would let me alone. I fhall

* Both forgetting my Friends, and to be for gotten by them.

fhall not be able to relish my Wine, my Par ions, my Horses, nor my Garden, for three Months, until the Spirit you have raised shall be difpoffeffed. I have fometimes wondered that I have not vifited you, but I have been stopt by too many Reasons, befides Years and Laziness, and yet these are very good ones. Upon my Return after half a Year amongst you, there would be to me* Defiderio nec pudor nec modus. I was three Years reconciling my felf to the Scene, and the Business, to which Fortune hath condemned me, and Stupidity was that I had Recourse to, Besides, what a Figure should I make in London, while my Friends are in Poverty, Exile, Distress, or Imprisonment, and my Enemies with Rods of Iron? Yet I often threaten my self with the Journey, and am every Summer practising to ride and get Health to bear it: The only Inconvenience is, that I grow old in the Experiment. Although I care not to talk to you as a Divine, yet I hope you have not been Author of your Cholick: do you drink bad Wine, or keep bad Company? Are you not as many Years older as I ? it will not be always & Et tibi quos mihi demp§ ferit apponet annos. I am heartily forry you have any Dealings with that ugly Diftemper, and I believe our Friend Arbuthnot will recommend

you

* No measure in my concern for having left уси. § Time fhall add to you thofe Years it taketh from me.

of my old Acquaint

you to Temperance and Exercife. I wish they could have as good an Effect an Effect upon the Giddinefs I am fubject to, and which this Moment I am not free from. I should have been glad if you had lengthened your Letter by telling me the prefent Condition of many ance, Congreve, Arbuthnot, Lewis, &c. but you mention only Mr. Pope, who I believe is lazy, or else he might have added three Line, of his own. I am extremely glad he is not in your Cafe of needing great Mens Favour, and could heartily with that you were in his. I have been confidering why Poets have fuch ill Succefs in making their Courts, fince they are allowed to be the greatest and best of all flatterers: The Defect is, that they flatter only in Print or in Writing, but not by Word of Mouth: They will give Things under their Hand which they make a Conscience of Speaking; befides they are too libertine to haunt Anti-chambers, too poor to bribe Porters and Footmen, and too proud to cringe to fecond-hand Favourites in a great Family. Tell me, are you not under original Sin by the Dedication of your Eclogues to Lord Bolingbroke? I am an ill Judge at this Distance; and befides, am, for my Eafe, utterly ignorant of the commoneft Things that pafs in the World; but if all Courts have a Sameness in them (as the Parfons phrafe it) Things may be as they were in my Time, when all Employments went to Parliament-mens Friends, who had been useful in Elections, and there was always a huge

Lift