ent Workers too; for _Spain_ is a Proof, and
so is _Portugal_, that even Hoards of Money will not enrich a Nation,
unless their Gold is used to promote Industry among the meaner Sort,
and to raise their Thoughts above Sleep, and Rags, and Dirt, and
Inactivity.

SWIFT. Very true, _Tom_, and indeed one wou'd hope unless Heaven has
irrecoverably doom'd us to Destruction, there are sufficient Remains of
common Sense and Honesty left among our Countrymen, to new form our
Manners in these Regards, and improve their ways of Thinking and
Acting. In such Case, they may in two or three Centuries learn to
believe, Frugality and Industry, Arts and Manufactures worth
encouraging, and their Luxury and Debauchery, and an utter Absence of
all Regard to the Publick, worth Reforming. It is a shocking Truth to
say all this wou'd be done, if Men wou'd but own themselves oblig'd,
and wou'd therefore resolve to behave, like reasonable Creatures: And
yet this is a Point as hard to bring about, as if we were arguing with
_Hottentots_, and persuading _Tartars_ to forbear publick Plunders, and
to have some regard to Right and Wrong, and the real Happiness and
Misery of themselves and their Posterity.

PRIOR. I agree with you entirely, Mr. _Dean_, and indeed if we cou'd
cure our national Ailments by Writing and Speaking, as People who
profess removing Disorders, by Words and Charms, what you and I and
some others have Publish'd, might have done the Work: But alas!
pressing Industry and Frugality on many of our People, who have been
train'd up to Sloth and Squandering, is but of equal Efficacy with
preaching up Temperance to Sots, or Cleanliness to Negroes, when their
Habits and Vices are all against you. The Church of _Rome_ has plac'd
_Purgatory_ in the North-West of _Ireland_, which was then one of the
remotest wildest Parts of the Earth; and tho' I have reason to believe,
they now Wish, they had removed it something more out of View, yet I am
sure there is no Part of the Globe, so fit a _Purgatory_ for Sloth as
_Ireland_, or where People so generally pay St. _Paul_'s Penalty for
not Working, by not Eating.

SWIFT. If due Care was taken, this natural Supineness of our lower
People, might be soon turn'd into Activity and Vivacity, by letting
them see and feel the Sweets of Labour, and convincing them by Fact and
Experience, that when once the Poor are made industrious, they turn all
they Touch to Gold, like _Midas_'s Fingers of famous Memory.