Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/121

N° 26. into a hat, to be drawn as fortune pleased, by the junto and their friends. There Crassus drew liberality and gratitude; Fulvia, humility and gentleness; Clodius, piety and justice: Gracchus, loyalty to his prince; Cinna, love of his country and constitution; and so of the rest. Or, to quit this allegory, I have often seen of late, the whole set of discarded statesmen, celebrated by their judicious hirelings, for those very qualities which their admirers owned they chiefly wanted. Did these heroes put off and lock up their virtues, when they came into employment; and have they now resumed them, since their dismissions? If they wore them, I am sure it was under their greatness, and without ever once convincing the world of their visibility or influence.

But, why should not the present ministry find a pen to praise them as well as the last? This is what I shall now undertake; and it may be more impartial in me, from whom they have deserved so little. I have, without being called, served them half a year in quality of champion; and, by help of the queen, and a majority of nine in ten of the kingdom, have been able to protect them against a routed cabal of hated politicians, with a dozen of scribblers at their head: yet, so far have they been from rewarding me suitably to my deserts, that to this day they never so much as sent to the printer to inquire who I was; although I have known a time and ministry, where a person of half my merit and consideration, would have had fifty promises; and, in the mean time, a pension settled on him, whereof the first quarter should be honestly paid. Therefore my resentments shall so far prevail, that in praising those who are. III.