Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/454

402 is so easy and obvious, and some present opportunities so good, that, in order to have this project reduced to practice, there seems to want nothing more than to put those in mind, who by their honour, duty, and interest, are chiefly concerned.

But because it is idle to propose remedies, before we are assured of the disease, or to be in fear, till we are convinced of the danger; I shall first show in general, that the nation is extremely corrupted in religion and morals; and then I will offer a short scheme for the reformation of both.

As to the first, I know it is reckoned but a form of speech, when divines complain of the wickedness of the age: however, I believe upon a fair comparison with other times and countries, it would be found an undoubted truth.

For first, to deliver nothing but plain matter of fact without exaggeration or satire, I suppose it will be granted, that hardly one in a hundred among our people of quality or gentry, appears to act by any principle of religion; that great numbers of them do entirely discard it, and are ready to own their disbelief of all revelation in ordinary discourse. Nor is the case much better among the vulgar, especially in great towns, where the profaneness and ignorance of handicraftsmen, small traders, servants, and the like, are to a degree very hard to be imagined greater. Then, it is observed abroad, that no race of mortals have so little sense of religion, as the English soldiers; to confirm which, I have been often