Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/424

416 reader with a plentiful crop; but I refer him to every page and line of the pamphlet itself.

Secondly, I would most humbly advise his lordship to examine a little into the nature of truth, and sometimes to hear what she says. I shall produce two instances among a hundred. When he asserts, that we are now in more danger of popery, than toward the end of king Charles the Second's reign; and gives the broadest hints that the Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the ministry, the parliament, and the clergy, are just going to introduce it; I desire to know whether he really thinks truth is of his side, or whether he be not sure she is against him? If the latter, then truth and he will be found in two different stories; and which are we to believe? Again, when he gravely advises the tories not to light the fires in Smithfield, and goes on in twenty places, already quoted, as if the bargain was made for popery and slavery to enter; I ask again whether he has rightly considered the nature of truth? I desire to put a parallel case. Suppose his lordship should take it into his fancy to write and publish a letter to any gentleman, of no infamous character for his religion or morals; and there advise him, with great earnestness, not to rob or fire churches, ravish his daughter, or murder his father; show him the sin and the danger of these enormities; that if he flattered himself he could escape in disguise, or bribe his jury, he was grievously mistaken; that he must in all probability forfeit his goods and chattels, die an ignominious death, and be cursed by posterity: would not such a gentleman justly think himself highly injured, although his lordship did not affirm, that the said gentleman had picklocks or combustibles ready; that