disposed to marry; and consequently there is no reason for complaint on either side. The forms by which a husband and wife are to live, with regard to each other and to the world, are sufficiently known and fixed, in direct contradiction to every precept of morality, religion, or civil institution; it would be therefore an idle attempt to aim at breaking so firm an establishment. But, as it sometimes happens, that an elder brother dies late enough to leave the younger at the university, after he has made some progress in learning: if we suppose him to have a tolerable genius, and a desire to improve it, he may consequently learn to value and esteem wisdom and knowledge wherever he finds them, even after his father's death, when his title and estate come into his own possession. Of this kind, I reckon, by a favourable computation, there may possibly be found, by a strict search among the nobility and gentry throughout England, about five hundred. Among those of all other callings or trades, who are able to maintain a son at the university, about treble that number. The sons of clergymen, bred to learning with any success, must, by reason of their parents' poverty, be very inconsiderable, many of them being only admitted servitors in colleges, and consequently proving good for nothing: I shall therefore count them to be not above fourscore. But, to avoid fractions, I shall suppose there may possibly be a round number of two thousand male human creatures in England; including Wales, who have a tolerable share of reading and good sense. I include in this list all persons of superior abilities, or great genius, or true judgement and taste, or of profound literature, who, I am confident, we may reckon to be at least five-and-twenty. I am very glad to have this opportunity of doing an honour to my country, by a computation which I am afraid foreigners may conceive to be partial; when, out of only fifteen thousand families of lords and estated gentlemen, which may probably be their number, I suppose one in thirty to be tolerably educated, with a sufficient share of good sense. Perhaps the censure may be just. And therefore, upon cooler thoughts, to avoid all cavils, I shall reduce them to one thousand, which, at least, will be a number sufficient to fill both houses of parliament. The daughters of great and rich families, computed after the same manner, will hardly amount to above half the number of the male: because the care of their education is either left entirely to their mothers, or they are sent to boardingschools, or put into the hands of English or French governesses, and generally the worst that can be gotten for money. So that, after the reduction I was compelled to, from two thousand to one, half the number of well-educated nobility and gentry must either continue in a single life, or be forced to couple themselves with women for whom they can possibly have no esteem, I mean fools prudes, coquettes, gamesters, saunterers, endless talkers of nonsense, splenetic idlers, intriguers, given to scandal and censure, CHARACTER OF ARISTOTLE. ARISTOTLE, the disciple of Plato, and tutor to Alexander the Great. His followers were called peripatetics, from a Greek word which signifies to walk, because he taught his disciples walking. We have not all his works, and some of those which are imputed to him are supposed not genuine. He writ upon logic, or the art of reasoning; upon moral and natural philosophy; upon oratory, poetry, &c. and seems to be a person of the most comprehensive genius that ever lived. This fragment is preserved in the Essay of Deane Swift, Esq. who tells us, "he transcribed it without any variation: and that he found it by accident in a little book of instructions, which Dr Swift was pleased to draw up for the use of a lady, enjoining her to get it all by heart.” CHARACTER OF HERODOTUS. THE underwritten is copied from Dr Swift's handwriting, in an edition of Herodotus, by Paul Stephens, the gift of the earl of Clanricard to the library of Winchester college. "Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus relecto. "Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit, exceptis paucissimus (ut mea fert sententia), omnimodo excusandum. Cæterum diverticulis abundans hic pater historicorum filum narrationis ad tædium abrumpit: unde oritur (ut par est) legentibus confusio, et exindè oblivio. Quin et forsan ipsæ narrationes circumstantiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad cætera, hunc scriptorem inter apprimè laudandos censeo, neque Græcis neque Barbaris plus æquo faventem aut iniquum: in orationibus ferè brevem, simplicem, nec nimis frequentem. Neque absunt dogmata e quibus eruditus lector prudentiam tam moralem quam civilem haurire poterit. "Julii 6, 1720. J. SWIFT."* "I do hereby certify, that the above is the hand-writing of the late Dr Jonathan Swift, D. S. P. D. from whom I have had many letters, and printed several pieces from his original MSS, GEORGE FAULKNER." CHARACTER OF PRIMATE MARSH. * MARSH has the reputation of most profound and universal learning; this is the general opinion, * Dr Narcissus Marsh, successively Bishop of Ferns, Dublin, and Armagh. He was promoted to the last see in 1702, and died in 1713. He founded a public library in Dublin, and distinguished himself by other acts of munificence. But he was at variance with archbishop King, to whom Swift at this time looked up as a patron. The following character is engraved on his tomb-stone. The truth probably lies somewhere between the epitaph and the satire. Now take the talents of his mind, As Provost, Prelate, and Governour, By defending his fellow-citizens. To the study of mathematics and natural philosophy, In the knowledge of languages, especially the oriental:. The truth and beauty of the Christian Religion Dear, worthy, and useful to all, A Man born For his country, the church, and the world. |