Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/476

424, who takes all your fortune to dispose of, when he has beforehand resolved to break the following day, do surely deserve the gallows, much better than the wretch, who is carried thither for stealing a horse.

It cannot easily be answered to God or man, why a law is not made for limiting the press; at least so far as to prevent the publishing of such pernicious books, as under pretence of freethinking endeavour to overthrow those tenets in religion, which have been held inviolable, almost in all ages, by every sect that pretend to be christian; and cannot therefore, with any colour of reason, be called points in controversy,, or matters of speculation, as some would pretend. The doctrine of the trinity, the divinity of Christ, the immortality of the soul, and even the truth of all revelation, are daily exploded and denied in books openly printed; though it is to be supposed, neither party will avow such principles, or own the supporting of them to be any way necessary to their service.

It would be endless to set down every corruption or defect, which requires a remedy from the legislative power. Senates are likely to have little regard for any proposals, that come from without doors; though, under a due sense of my own inabilities, I am fully convinced that the unbiassed thoughts of an honest and wise man, employed on the good of his country, may be better digested, than the results of a multitude, where faction and interest too often prevail; as a single guide may direct the way better than five hundred,