Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/332

320 a consideration of the depravity of mankind, that you could do no better, nor keep up virtue in the world without calling this passion, or this direction of self love, into your aid. Tacitus has crowded this excuse for you, according to his manner, into a maxim, Contemptu famæ contemni virtutes. But now, whether we consider fame as a useful instrument in all the occurrences of private and publick life, or whether we consider it as the cause of that pleasure which our self love is so fond of, methinks our entrance into life, or, to speak more properly, our youth, not our old age, is the season when we ought to desire it most, and therefore when it is most becoming to desire it with ardour. If it is useful it is to be desired most when we have, or may hope to have, a long scene of action open before us, toward our exit, this scene of action is, or should be, closed; and then methinks it is unbecoming to grow fonder of a thing, which we have no longer occasion for. If it is pleasant, the sooner we are in possession of fame, the longer we shall enjoy this pleasure; when it is acquired early in life, it may tickle us on till old age; but when it is acquired late, the sensation of pleasure will be more faint, and mingled with the regret of our not having tasted it sooner.

FROM MY FARM, OCT. 5, O. S.

I am here; I have seen Pope, and one of my first inquiries was after you. He tells me a thing I am sorry to hear: you are building, it seems, on a piece of land you have acquired for that purpose, in