Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/358

322 Thus when the lover writes,

The word conscious does not at all determine the nature of those loves, whether they were of the chaste or criminal kind, which must be gathered from other circumstances. In like manner, when Cadenus says, "the conscious muse shall not unfold," &c. it can admit or no other meaning, but that the muse, who alone was in the secret, should never disclose it, or tell whether he returned Vanessa's passion or not: and that this passion, if returned, must have been of the purest and most virtuous kind, has, from other circumstances, been already sufficiently proved.

It is evident Cadenus looked upon the declaration made by the lady, in no other light than an overture to marriage; as may be seen in the following couplet, quoted before:

Five thousand guineas in her purse, The doctor might have fancy 'd worse.

But to put an end to a possibility of conceiving that any insinuation of a contrary nature could have dropped from Swift's pen, it will be sufficient to make it known that the poem was not intended for the publick eye; that it was written solely for the use of Vanessa, upon motives already explained; that the only copy of it in being was in her hands, and in all probability it would never have seen the light, but for the injunction to her executors. It may be asked, if this was the case, and that the poem was intended only for Vanessa's inspection, what occasion was there for these lines to her, who, as well as the muse, must already be conscious how matters