Selections from the Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift: With a Preface and NotesD. Appleton, 1896 - 284 pages |
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able Æsop ancient better Betty Brobdingnag carcase Cercopithecus Christianity Church coin colonel conversation court discourse Drapier's Letters employed England English eyes farther favour friends genius gentlemen give half halfpence hands head heard honour hope Houyhnhnms humour hundred Ireland Irish king kingdom kingdom of Ireland labour Lady language Laputa learning least Leslie Stephen Lilliput lord LORD HIGH TREASURER lord-lieutenant lord-lieutenant of Ireland lordship madam majesty manner matter ment method Miss modern nation nature never Neverout oaths observed opinion parliament party peace perhaps persons Peter Annet Phalaris Pindar polite Pray present pretend prince proposed prorogation reader reason religion satire side Spark struldbrugs style swearing Swift taste things thought tion tongue Tory town true wherein whereof Whig whole wholly wonder Wood Wood's words Wotton writings
Popular passages
Page 134 - And this invention would certainly have taken place, to the great ease as well as health of the subject, if the women, in conjunction with the vulgar and illiterate...
Page 133 - We next went to the School of Languages, where three Professors sat in Consultation upon improving that of their own Country. The first Project was to shorten Discourse by cutting Polysyllables into one, and leaving out Verbs and Participles; because in Reality all things imaginable are but Nouns.
Page 89 - Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage at first was very prosperous. It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform him that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the northwest of Van Diemen's Land.
Page 94 - I could not sufficiently wonder at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk upon my body, while one of my hands was at liberty, without trembling at the very sight of so prodigious a creature as I must appear to them.
Page 229 - Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for fine gentlemen. As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers, we may be assured, will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs.
Page 220 - The Remedy is wholly in your own Hands; and therefore I have digressed a little, in order to refresh and continue that Spirit so seasonably raised amongst you; and to let you see, that by the Laws of GOD, of NATURE, of NATIONS, and of your own Country, you ARE and OUGHT to be as FREE a People as your Brethren in England.
Page 230 - Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty; and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his Imperial Majesty's prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court, in joints...
Page 226 - But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars: it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little a.ble to support them, as those who demand our Charity in the streets.
Page 85 - ... his green boughs, and left him a withered trunk : he then flies to art and puts on a periwig, valuing himself upon an unnatural bundle of hairs (all covered with powder) that never grew on his head. But now should this our broomstick pretend to enter the scene, proud of those birchen spoils it never bore, and all covered with dust, though the sweepings of the finest lady's chamber, we should be apt to ridicule and despise its vanity.
Page 227 - ... children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, How this number shall be reared and provided for? which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country), nor cultivate land...