Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/21

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present the world with the Life of Dr. Swift: a man, whose original genius, and uncommon talents, have raised him, in the general estimation, above all the writers of the age. But, from causes to be hereafter explained, his character as a man, has hitherto been very problematical; nor shall I find it easy, notwithstanding the most convincing proofs, to persuade mankind, that one who flourished in the beginning of this century, in times of great corruption, should afford in himself a pattern of such perfect virtue, as was rarely to be found in the annals of the ancient republick of Rome, when virtue was the mode. Yet if it can be shown that even at this day, when corruption seems to have arrived at its utmost pitch, when prostitution is openly avowed, and publick spirit turned into a jest; if in such times as these in fæce Romuli, there lives a man fully equal to Swift in all the moral virtues attributed to him; the improbability of the existence of such a character at a former period, will be much lessened. In the following history has been represented as a man of the most disinterested principles, regardless of self, and constantly employed in doing good to others. In acts of charity and liberality, in proportion to his means, perhaps without an equal, in his days. A warm champion in the cause of liberty, and support of the English  Rh