Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/12

iv in question. The real character of these great men was not what the low idolatry of the one faction, or the malignity of the other, would represent it. They were men, who, with great virtues and great talents, mixed with some human infirmities, did their country much service and honour. Their talents were a publick benefit, their failings such as only affected their private character. The display of this mixture had been a very proper task for an impartial historian; and had proved equally agreeable and instructive to the reader, in such hands. But these characters before us have all the signs of being written, as Tacitus calls it, recentibus odiis. In all other respects, the piece seems to be a work not unworthy of its author; a clear and strong, though not an elevated style; an entire freedom from every sort of affected ornament; a peculiar happiness of putting those he would satirize in the most odious and contemptible light, without seeming directly to intend it. These are the characteristicks of all Swift's works; and they appear as strongly in this as in any of them. If there be any thing different in this performance, from the manner of his works published in his lifetime, it is, that the style is in this thrown something more backwards, and has a more antique cast. This probably he did designedly, as he might think it gave a greater dignity to the work. He had a strong prejudice in favour of the language, as it was in queen Elizabeth's reign; and he rated the style of the authors of that time a little above its real value. Their style was indeed sufficiently bold and nervous, but deficient in grace and elegance."

March 25, 1775.