Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/330

318 his rhapsodies: to tell you my reasons would be to write an essay, and I shall hardly have time to write a letter; but, if you will come over and live with Pope and me, I will show you in an instant why those two things should not aller de pair, and that forced retrenchments on both may be made, without making us uneasy. You know that I am too expensive, and all mankind knows that I have been cruelly plundered; and yet I feel in my mind the power of descending, without anxiety, two or three stages more. In short, Mr. dean, if you will come to a certain farm in Middlesex, you shall find that I can live frugally without growling at the world, or being peevish with those whom fortune has appointed to eat my bread, instead of appointing me to eat theirs; and yet I have naturally as little disposition to frugality as any man alive. You say you are no philosopher, and I think you are in the right to dislike a word which is so often abused; but I am sure you like to follow reason, not custom (which is sometimes the reason, and oftener the caprice of others, of the mob of the world). Now, to be sure of doing this, you must wear your philosophical spectacles as constantly as the Spaniards used to wear theirs. You must make them part of your dress, and sooner part with your broad brimmed beaver, your gown, scarf, or even that emblematical vestment your surplice. Through this medium you will see few things to be vexed at, few persons to be angry at.

OSTEND, OCT. 5.

And yet there will frequently be things which we ought to wish altered, and persons whom we ought