Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/433

Rh which an authentick and impartial deduction of facts will assign to us. I will endeavour to write so as no man could write who had not been a party in those transactions, and as few men would write who had been concerned in them. I believe I shall go back, in considering the political interests of the principal powers in Europe, as far as the Pyrenean treaty; but I shall not begin a thread of history till the death of Charles the second of Spain, and the accession of queen Anne to the throne of England. Nay, even from that time downward, I shall render my relations more full, or piu magra, the word is father Paul's, just as I have, or have not, a stock of authentick materials. These shall regulate my work, and I will neither indulge my own vanity, nor other men's curiosity, in going one step farther than they carry me. You see, my dear Swift, that I open a large field to myself: with what success I shall expatiate in it, I know as little, as I know whether I shall live to go through so great a work; but I will begin immediately, and will make it one principal business of the rest of my life. This advantage, at least, I shall reap from it, and a great advantage it will be, my attention will be diverted from the present scene, I shall grieve less at those things which I cannot mend: I shall dignify my retreat; and shall wind up the labours of my life in serving the cause of truth.

You say, that you could easily show, by comparing my letters for twenty years past, how the whole system of my philosophy changes by the several gradations of life. I doubt it. As far as I am able to recollect, my way of thinking has been uniform enough for more than twenty years. True it is, to Rh