heir Fund was
enlarg'd, the Good they wou'd do wou'd be proportionably encreased with
it, and that little Wonders might be wrought in _Ireland_, by
enlivening the Arts, by Feeding the Hungry, by giving Feet and Hands to
the Lame and Lazy, Eyes to the Blind or dim-sighted, and raising the
Dead and the Drousy, to Life and Activity.

SWIFT. Go on, dear _Tom_, go on, with your Raptures and Enthusiastical
Reveries; but pray allow me to ask you one plain Question, what (if all
you affirm be true) cou'd possibly hinder, this necessary, and indeed
this important Enlargement of their Fund.

PRIOR. Why really, Mr. _Dean_, I cannot answer your Enquiry, without
throwing one of the heaviest Imputations on a Nation, which I wou'd
have Died to serve effectually, and which I spent my Life in labouring
to serve, in too narrow and stinted a Manner. It must be confest, too
few of our Nobility or Gentry, shew'd that Generosity of Soul to
encrease the annual Income of the Society, by their Contributions, as
might have been expected, from the Numbers of worthy Men among us, who
do us real Honour. It is certain his Majesty set the Nation a noble
Example, by Assigning them a Charter, and allowing them an handsome
annual Revenue out of his Treasury; and what shou'd hinder Crowds of
our worthiest Noblemen and Gentlemen, of large Fortunes and Minds
proportioned to them, to Subscribe Ten or Twenty Pounds a Year, to so
noble and so successful a Scheme, is hard and perhaps painful to say: I
am the more amaz'd at it, as they cou'd not but say, it wou'd have
raised _Ireland_ from Idleness to Industry, from Ignorance to
Knowledge; from Contempt and Disregard, to Honour and Credit; and wou'd
not have left us in fifty Years, an Idler or a Beggar, (which are but
synonimous Terms) in the whole Kingdom. A Dish or two sav'd from their
Tables, or a Bottle or two from their Revellings, an Horse or two left
out of their Stables, nay even a lac'd Coat, or a lac'd Livery sunk: a
Night of Gaming, a trifling Frolick, a Jaunt of Pleasure deducted from
their usual Expences; or what is still better, a Winter or two spent in
doing Good on their own Estates, wou'd more than answer all: It is
certain, that it is absolutely incumbent on every Gentleman, I will not
say that loves _Ireland_, but that loves himself and his Family, to do
his best to assist so happy a Scheme, so distinguish'd a Society, with
his Purse, his Head and his Hands, if he knows how to use any of the