ick of your Patriotism, when you was so often branded and
asperst by such Crowds of Pamphlets and Scriblers.

SWIFT. Dr. _Tom_, they never gave me a moment's Pain, for the Truth is,
I was too proud to be affronted, and had too high a Spirit to be
humbled, by such Insults, or else indeed I had met with Opportunities
enough to make me pass my Time very uneasily. But in the next place
those who Writ against me, were mere toothless Animals, or at least a
Sort of _Irish_ Vipers, that tho' they lov'd to Bite, yet they wanted
the pungent Venom which gives the Torment. Many of their Tracts were
the poorest Productions that ever disgraced the Press; without Style,
or Wit, or Sense, or Argument. I remember one of them, where both I,
and the Subject he writ on, were equally ill-treated, begun like a
_Hebrew_ Book at the wrong End, with an Apology for the Author's
inability to handle such weighty Points as they deserved; and indeed
_Tom_, that single Confession was the only Thing that look'd like Truth
or Modesty in the whole Performance. How could I be affronted by such
miserable Efforts of Malice? and above all, if the natural elevation of
my Mind, had not enabled me to look down on them with Disdain, the
Dignity and usefulness of my Life, help'd me to smile on them as
impotent and harmless. I was so far from being mortified by their base
revilings, that I think, I wrote the better for them, and with higher
Spirit, as a well mettled Horse moves the brisker for being lashed.
Besides, as I often wrote for the service of the World; and the
Interests of Mankind, I always appeared with every Advantage, that
Candour, Honesty, and Courage, cou'd give me against Injustice,
Oppression, and Tyrany. I wrote for Truth and Reason, for Liberty, and
the Rights of my Country and Fellow-Subjects; and it gave me Joy, to
see the Minions of a Court, and the Slaves of Power, stare at the
dextrous boldness of my Pen, as I fancy a Cuckold does at a Deer, when
he sees it cast its Horns.

PRIOR. Why dear _Dean_, I will not oppose you too obstinately; but I am
sure, you will not deny, that you were sufficiently mortified, with
other Things, if you were not with the Sarcasms of your Rival Writers.

SWIFT. What other Things pray?

PRIOR. Why your not being perferr'd, nor advanc'd in the Church.

SWIFT. I renounce it! I deny it! I lost nothing by not being preferred,
but an enlarged Power of doing Good; and the Day is coming (much sooner
than the Feeder