The Works of Dr Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin. In Thirteen Volumes. ...

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John Donadlson [sic], London, 1774

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Page 20 - I'll venture for the vole.) Six deans, they say, must bear the pall : (I wish I knew what king to call.) Madam, your husband will attend The funeral of so good a friend.
Page 19 - Here shift the scene, to represent How those I love, my death lament. Poor Pope will grieve a month; and Gay A week ; and Arbuthnot a day. St John himself will scarce forbear, To bite his pen, and drop a tear. The rest will give a shrug and cry I'm sorry; but we all must die.
Page 21 - To fancy they could live a year ! I find you're but a stranger here. The Dean was famous in his time, And had a kind of knack at rhyme : His way of writing now is past ; The town has got a better taste. I keep no antiquated stuff, But spick and span I have enough.
Page 227 - Let them, when they once get in, Sell the nation for a pin ; While they sit a picking straws, Let them rave at making laws ; While they never hold their tongue, Let them dabble in their dung...
Page 211 - Brutes find out where their talents lie: A bear will not attempt to fly; A founder'd horse will oft debate, Before he tries a five-barr'd gate; A dog by instinct turns aside, Who sees the ditch too deep and wide. But man we find the only creature Who, led by Folly, combats Nature; Who, when she loudly cries, Forbear, With obstinacy fixes there; And, where his genius least inclines, Absurdly bends his whole designs.
Page 15 - He's older than he would be reckon'd, And well remembers Charles the Second. He hardly drinks a pint of wine ; And that, I doubt, is no good sign. His stomach, too, begins to fail : Last year we thought him strong and hale ; But now he's quite another thing : I wish he may hold out till spring...
Page 12 - As Rochefoucault his Maxims drew From Nature, I believe them true ; They argue no corrupted mind In him ; the fault is in mankind. This maxim more than all the rest Is thought too base for human breast, ' In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends, While Nature, kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us.
Page 216 - So geographers, in Afric maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er unhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns.
Page 28 - Envy hath own'd it was his doing, To save that hapless land from ruin, While they who at the steerage stood, And reap'd the profit, sought his blood. ' To save them from their evil fate In him was held a crime of state. A wicked monster on the bench...
Page 30 - The Dean, if we believe report, Was never ill receiv'd at Court: As for his works in verse and prose, I own myself no judge of those: Nor, can I tell what critics thought...

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