Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/363

Rh laid down, yet, pro solitâ humanitate sua, he has done it only with a view to place him in a more odious light. As the account he has given of this affair, affords one of the strongest instances of the blindness of malice, and how far, in search of its gratification, it may overshoot itself, I shall here present part of it to the reader, that he may judge, from that specimen, what credit is due to the rest of the author's malevolent remarks on Swift. I shall begin with his extraordinary comments on the following lines in the poem of Cadenus and Vanessa; where in a conversation between them, the author gives the following account of her sentiments, as delivered by her:

She well remember'd, to her cost, That all his lessons were not lost. Two maxims she could still produce, And sad experience taught their use: "That virtue pleas'd by being shown, Knows nothing which it dares not own: Can make us, without fear, disclose Our inmost secrets to our foes: That common forms were not design'd Directors to a noble mind." Now, said the nymph, to let you see, My actions with your rules agree; That I can vulgar forms despise, And have no secrets to disguise, I knew, by what you said and writ, What dangerous things were men of wit; You caution'd me against their charms, But never gave me equal arms: Your lessons found the weakest part, Aim'd at the head, and reach'd the heart. Now