pray for them, I
must own _Tom_, if Beggars, were to be chusers, I had rather they
should be forgiven after they had been severely punish'd for their
misdeeds, for otherwise, when Oppressors gall Men or Nations too long,
Providence bears half blame.

PRIOR. I shall submit to all you advance _Dean_, provided you quit this
Subject, (which I unluckily started) and go to another, which I came to
talk about, and is of more Importance; I mean our poor Country, and its
present State and Circumstances; when I died, I thought I had left it
in a very improving way, and on the mending hand, by my Writings and my
constant Labours in its Service, and had I liv'd a little longer, I
wou'd have wrote some Tracts, that wou'd have prevented some
Distresses, which I hear, are likely to fall heavy on her.

SWIFT. Dreams! Whims! and Delusions! If you had wrote your self as
blind as _Milton_ did, what Service cou'd you do a Nation that never
thinks. You might as well expect to cure the Deaf by talking to them;
Idiots by reasoning with them; or to rouse the Dead as the _Romans_ did
by bawling and weeping for their miserable Condition. If they had been
retrievable by any Writings, I may justly say, they had been retrieved
by mine.

_----Si Pergama dextra,
Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent._

But all such hopes are vain. Preach to Fishes and talk to Wolves like
St. _Anthony_ and St. _Francis_, and try what Change it will make in
them, and be assur'd, just so much and no more, would your Arguments
and Eloquence do, with our heedless Countrymen. I told them of their
Danger, and every impending Ruin in Print, Winter after Winter, as
regularly as Men wish People a good Year, every first of _January_; for
let me tell you _Tom_, repetitions of this Sort, are as necessary in a
Nation, that will not readily mind good Advice, as crying Fire! Fire!
in a City in Flames, where all are drunk or asleep, and must either
rouse and bestir themselves, or Perish. I cannot help boasting a little
on this Subject, I have a Title to it; these Hands were almost as
useful to the People of _I----d_, as _Moses_'s were to the _Jews_: When
I lifted them up, all went well; when I dropt them, all went wrong.
However, I must own, that as to the bulk of the Nation, tho' I tried
them, and studied them, for half a Century, I ever found that they
wou'd not be at the pain of thinking, for half an hour, to secure their
ease and happiness for half a Year. But