Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/330

318 to be overcome when strongest, outwitted hating more wit, and baffled having most money?

Whether betwixt two stools the bottom goes to the ground (reverend dean) be not a good old proverb, which may give subject for daily meditation and mortification?

I send the lazy scribbler a letter from the extremities of the earth, where I pass my time, admiring the humility and patience of that power heretofore so terrible; and the new scene which we see, to wit, the most christian king waiting with so much resignation and respect, to know the emperor's pleasure as to peace or war.

Where I reflect with admiration upon the politicks of those, who, breaking with the old allies, dare not make use of the new ones; who, pulling down the old rubbish and structure, do not erect a new fabrick on solid foundations. But this is not so much to the purpose; for, in the world of the moon, provided toasting continue, the church and state can be in no danger.

But, alas! in this unmerry country, where we have time to think, and are under the necessity of thinking, where impiously we make use of reason, without a blind resignation to Providence, the bottle, or chance what opinion think you we have of the present management in the refined parts of the world, where there are just motives of fear? When neither steadiness nor conduct appears, and when the evil seems to come on apace, can it be believed, that extraordinary remedies are not thought of?

Heavens! what is our fate? What might have been our portion, and what do we see in the age we live in? France and England, the kings of Spain and