Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/286

278 be manifest from some obvious reflexions upon the several parts of it; wherein the follies, the falsehoods, or the absurdities, appear so frequent, that they may boldly contend for number with the lines.

When the hawker holds this pamphlet toward you, the first words you perceive are, The Crisis; or, A discourse, &c. The interpreter of Suidas gives four translations of the word Crisis, any of which may be as properly applied to this author's letter to the bailiff of Stockbridge. Next, what he calls a discourse, consists only of two pages, prefixed to twenty-two more, which contain extracts from acts of parliament; for, as to the twelve last pages, they are provided for themselves in the title, under the name of some seasonable remarks on the danger of a popish successor. Another circumstance worthy our information in the titlepage, is, that the crown has been settled by previous acts. I never heard of any act of parliament that was not previous to what it enacted, unless those two, by which the earl of Strafford and sir John Fenwick lost their heads, may pass for exceptions. A Discourse, representing from the most authentick Records, &c. He has borrowed this expression from some writer, who probably understood the words; but this gentleman has altogether misapplied them; and, under favour, he is wholly mistaken; for a heap of extracts from several acts of parliament, cannot be called a discourse; neither do I believe he copied them from the most authentick records, which, as I take it, Rh