Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/379



ARTY is the madness of many, for the gain of a few.

There never was any party, faction, sect, or cabal whatsoever, in which the most ignorant were not the most violent; for a bee is not a busier animal than a blockhead. However, such instruments are necessary to politicians; and perhaps it may be with states as with clocks, which must have some dead weight hanging at them to help and regulate the motion of the finer and more useful parts.

To endeavour to work upon the vulgar with fine sense, is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.

Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense: there are forty men of wit to one man of sense; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a loss for want of readier change. Rh