to insinuate that all would have been right if our
destinies had been reversed?

_Swift_.--Yes, I do. You would have made an excellent bishop, and I
should have governed Great Britain, as I did Ireland, with an absolute
sway, while I talked of nothing but liberty, property, and so forth.

_Addison_.--You governed the mob of Ireland; but I never understood that
you governed the kingdom. A nation and a mob are very different things.

_Swift_.--Ay, so you fellows that have no genius for politics may
suppose; but there are times when, by seasonably putting himself at the
head of the mob, an able man may get to the head of the nation. Nay,
there are times when the nation itself is a mob, and ought to be treated
as such by a skilful observer.

_Addison_.--I don't deny the truth of your proposition; but is there no
danger that, from the natural vicissitudes of human affairs, the
favourite of the mob should be mobbed in his turn?

_Swift_.--Sometimes there may, but I risked it, and it answered my
purpose. Ask the lord-lieutenants, who were forced to pay court to me
instead of my courting them, whether they did not feel my superiority.
And if I could make myself so considerable when I was only a dirty Dean
of St. Patrick's, without a seat in either House of Parliament, what
should I have done if Fortune had placed me in England, unencumbered with
a gown, and in a situation that would have enabled me to make myself
heard in the House of Lords or of Commons?

_Addison_.--You would undoubtedly have done very marvellous acts! Perhaps
you might then have been as zealous a Whig as my Lord Wharton himself;
or, if the Whigs had unhappily offended the statesman as they did the
doctor, who knows whether you might not have brought in the Pretender?
Pray let me ask you one question between you and me: If your great
talents had raised you to the office of first minister under that prince,
would you have tolerated the Protestant religion or not?

_Swift_.--Ha! Mr. Secretary, are you witty upon me? Do you think,
because Sunderland took a fancy to make you a great man in the state,
that he, or his master, could make you as great in wit as Nature made me?
No, no; wit is like grace, it must be given from above. You can no more
get that from the king than my lords the bishops can the other. And,
though I will own you had some, yet believe me, my good friend, it was no
match for mine. I think you have not vanity enough in your natur