Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/310

302 his personal qualities are all derived into the most minute parts of his administration. If this be just, prudent, regular, impartial, intent upon the publick good, prepared for present exigencies, and provident of the future; such is the director himself in his private capacity: if it be rapacious, insolent, partial, palliating long and deep diseases of the publick, with empirical remedies, false, disguised, impudent, malicious, revengeful; you shall infallibly find the private life of the conductor, to answer in every point: nay, what is more, every twinge of the gout or gravel, will be felt in their consequences by the community: as the thief-catcher, upon viewing a house broke open, could immediately distinguish, from the manner of the workmanship, by what hand it was done.

It is hard to form a maxim against which an exception is not ready to start up; so, in the present case, where the minister grows enormously rich, the publick is proportionably poor; as, in a private family, the steward always thrives the fastest, when his lord is running out. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *