Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/200

186 they are below the thoughts of a man of quality. He pretends not to know what by-laws, or private compacts of precedency, there may be between goldsmiths and grocers, vintners and shoemakers.

I have now before me a table of precedence, given me by the same noble hand, reaching down from a prince of the blood to a country squire, and regarding every branch of their families in the minutest manner; which I reserve for my own use, and am envious enough to deny it to the worlds and the rather, that it is to be found in Mackenzie and Gwillim, and may be had for half a crown in the office.

The case being so, there can be no other way, as I conceive, of deciding a question of precedency between the two faculties of law and physick, but by inquiring into their antiquity and dignity; and whichsoever of them shall appear to be most ancient and most useful to the world, I presume, the world will, injustice, think fit to have the greater honour for, and give the precedence to.

I take it for granted, that priority of time, cæteris paribus, gives a preference of place; and this naturally, or by common consent; for that I take to be the meaning of nature in most cases, viz. what is found reasonable in itself, and has been always agreed to by mankind, and is confirmed by constant and uninterrupted practice; and this I desire some young preachers to take good notice of, and get by rote. I likewise, by the way, take upon me, now I think of it, to advise a certain deacon of my acquaintance, to read doctor Cumberland all through, and twice before

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