s I judge too hastily; there
being several of them in whose writings I have made very little
progress, and in others none at all. For I perused only such as were
recommended to me, at a time when I had more leisure and a better
disposition to read, than have since fallen to my share.[8]

[Footnote 8: Swift must refer here to the years he spent at Moor Park,
in the house of Sir William Temple. The "Tale of a Tub," however, shows
that he had not idled his time, and that his acquaintance with the
writings of the fathers was fairly intimate. [T, S.] ]

To return then to the heathen philosophers, I hope you will not only
give them quarter, but make their works a considerable part of your
study: To these I will venture to add the principal orators and
historians, and perhaps a few of the poets: by the reading of which, you
will soon discover your mind and thoughts to be enlarged, your
imagination extended and refined, your judgment directed, your
admiration lessened, and your fortitude increased; all which advantages
must needs be of excellent use to a divine, whose duty it is to preach
and practise the contempt of human things.

I would say something concerning quotations, wherein I think you cannot
be too sparing, except from Scripture, and the primitive writers of the
Church. As to the former, when you offer a text as a proof of an
illustration, we your hearers expect to be fairly used, and sometimes
think we have reason to complain, especially of you younger divines,
which makes us fear that some of you conceive you have no more to do
than to turn over a concordance, and there having found the principal
word, introduce as much of the verse as will serve your turn, though in
reality it makes nothing for you. I do not altogether disapprove the
manner of interweaving texts of scripture through the style of your
sermons, wherein however, I have sometimes observed great instances of
indiscretion and impropriety, against which I therefore venture to give
you a caution.

As to quotations from ancient fathers, I think they are best brought in
to confirm some opinion controverted by those who differ from us: in
other cases we give you full power to adopt the sentence for your own,
rather than tell us, "as St. Austin excellently observes." But to
mention modern writers by name, or use the phrase of "a late excellent
prelate of our Church," and the like, is altogether intolerable, and for
what reason I know not, makes every rati