Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/531

Rh mind receives and retains whatever is imprest on it. Thus it happens, that when one man murders another to gratify his lust, we shudder at it; but when one man murders a million to gratify his vanity, we approve and admire, we envy and applaud. If, when this and the preceding pages are read, we discover with astonishment, that when the same events have occurred in history, we felt no emotion, and acquiesced in wars which we could not but know to have been commenced for such causes, and carried on by such means; let not him be censured for too much debasing his species, who has contributed to their felicity and preservation, by stripping off the veil of custom and prejudice, and holding up, in their native deformity, the vices by which they become wretched, and the arts by which they are destroyed."

Such is the construction which will be put by all men of candour, taste, and judgment, upon these, and all other passages in Swift of a similar kind. But if there are still any who will persist in finding out their own resemblance in the Yahoo, in the name of God, if the cap fits, let them wear it, and rail on. I shall only take my leave of them with an old Latin sentence, Qui capit ille facit.

There is another writer, at present of gigantick fame in these days of little men, who has pretended to scratch out a life of Swift, but so miserably executed, as only to reflect back on himself that disgrace, which he meant to throw upon the character of the dean. I promised in the preface to make some strictures on this work, which I shall now perform. At his setting out, Dr. Johnson shows, which is scarcely credible, that he held this VOL. I.