Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/303

Rh But let us hear some of these axioms, as he has involved them. "We cannot possess our souls with pleasure and satisfaction, except we preserve in ourselves that inestimable blessing, which we call liberty. By liberty I desire to be understood to mean the happiness of men's living, &c. The true life of man consists in conducting it according to his own just sentiments and innocent inclinations  man's being is degraded below that of a free agent, when his affections and passions are no longer governed by the dictates of his own mind.  Without liberty our health (among other things) may be at the will of a tyrant, employed to our own ruin, and that of our fellow-creatures." If there be any of these maxims, which are not grossly defective in truth, in sense, or in grammar, I will allow them to pass for uncontrollable. By the first, omitting the pedantry of the whole expression, there are not above one or two nations in the world, where any one man can possess his soul with pleasure and satisfaction. In the second, he desires to be understood to mean; that is, he desires to be meant to mean, or to be understood to understand. In the third, the life of man consists in conducting his life. In the fourth he affirms, that men's beings are degraded, when their passions are no longer governed by the dictates of their own minds; directly contrary to lessons of all moralists and legislatures; who agree unanimously, that the passions of men must be under the government of reason and law; neither are the laws of any other use, than to correct the irregularity of our affections. By the last, our health is ruinous to ourselves, and other men, when a tyrant pleases; which I leave to him to make out. Rh