English 108    World Literature     Mr. Teich

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) On Satire

from the Preface to The Battle of the Books (1704):

Satyr is a sort of Glass, wherein Beholders do generally discover every body's Face but their Own; which is the chief Reason for that kind of Reception it meets in the World, and that so very few are offended with it. But if it should happen otherwise, the Danger is not great; and I have learned from long Experience never to apprehend Mischief from those Understandings I have been able to provoke; For Anger and Fury, though they add Strength to the Sinews of the Body, yet are found to relax those of the Mind, and to render all its Efforts feeble and impotent.

from Tale of a Tub (1704)

IX. Happiness . . . this short definition: That it is a perpetual Possession of being well Deceived. . . . Credulity is a more peaceful Possession of the Mind, than Curiosity. . . . This is the sublime and refined Point of Felicity, called the Possession of being well deceived: the Serene Peaceful State of being a Fool among Knaves.

from letter to Alexander Pope. 29 Sept. 1725

. . . . I have employed my time . . . ,in finishing, correcting, amending, and transcribing my Travels, in four parts complete . . . and intended for the press, when the world shall deserve them, or rather when a printer shall be found brave enough to venture his ears . . . . the chief end I propose to myself in all my labours is to vex the world rather than divert it; . . . when you think of the world give it one lash the more at my request. I have ever hated all nations, professions, communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor Such-a-one: . . . But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, but do not tell, and so I shall go on till I have done with them. I have got materials toward a treatise proving the falsity of that definition animal rationale, and to show it would be only rationis capax. Upon this great foundation of misanthropy, though not in Timon s manner, the whole of my Travels is erected; and I never will have peace of mind till all honest men are of my opinion. By consequence you are to embrace it immediately . . . .