Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/125

Rh converts by the same arguments. Thus was the ministry indebted to Swift, not only for their immediate preservation, from a destruction which seemed inevitable; but for such a solid establishment in future, as could neither be undermined nor shaken by the arts or violence of their enemies; and they had nothing to fear, but from their own dissensions among themselves. After so signal a service, it is no wonder that he grew into the deepest confidence with them, and that they ever after cherished him in their bosoms.

As the ministry were now at full liberty to pursue their political plan with security, and to take all proper measures toward bringing about a peace; Swift, whose active spirit seems to have known no rest at that juncture, and who was eager to make use of the ifluence [sic] he had obtained, toward doing some great publick good, laid hold of this opportunity to press his plan of an academy. In a letter to the archbishop of Dublin, March 29, 1712, he says, "I lately wrote a letter of about thirty pages to lord treasurer, by way of proposal for an academy, to correct, enlarge, and ascertain the English language: and he and I have named above twenty persons of both parties to be members. I will shortly print the letter, and I hope something of it. Your grace sees I am a projector too." In a subsequent one, he says, upon the same subject, "My lord treasurer has often promised he will advance my design of an academy, so have my lord keeper, and all the ministers; but they are now too busy to think of any thing beside what they have upon the anvil. My lord treasurer and I have already pitched