the wags
proceeded to what they called "roasting" him. This is roasting a subject
with a vengeance. The Dean had a native genius for it. As the "Almanach
des Gourmands" says, _On nait rotisseur_.

And it was not merely by the sarcastic method that Swift exposed the
unreasonableness of loving and having children. In Gulliver, the folly
of love and marriage is urged by graver arguments and advice. In the
famous Lilliputian kingdom, Swift speaks with approval of the practice of
instantly removing children from their parents and educating them by the
State; and amongst his favourite horses, a pair of foals are stated to be
the very utmost a well-regulated equine couple would permit themselves.
In fact, our great satirist was of opinion that conjugal love was
unadvisable, and illustrated the theory by his own practice and
example--God help him--which made him about the most wretched being in
God's world.

The grave and logical conduct of an absurd proposition, as exemplified in
the cannibal proposal just mentioned, is our author's constant method
through all his works of humour. Given a country of people six inches or
sixty feet high, and by the mere process of the logic, a thousand
wonderful absurdities are evolved, at so many stages of the calculation.
Turning to the first minister who waited behind him with a white staff
near as tall as the mainmast of the "Royal Sovereign," the King of
Brobdingnag observes how contemptible a thing human grandeur is, as
represented by such a contemptible little creature as Gulliver. "The
Emperor of Lilliput's features are strong and masculine" (what a
surprising humour there is in this description!)--"The Emperor's
features," Gulliver says, "are strong and masculine, with an Austrian
lip, an arched nose, his complexion olive, his countenance erect, his
body and limbs well proportioned, and his deportment majestic. He is
taller _by the breadth of my nail_ than any of his court, which alone is
enough to strike an awe into beholders."

What a surprising humour there is in these descriptions! How noble the
satire is here! how just and honest! How perfect the image! Mr.
Macaulay has quoted the charming lines of the poet, where the king of the
pigmies is measured by the same standard. We have all read in Milton of
the spear that was like "the mast of some tall admiral," but these images
are surely likely to come to the comic poet originally. The subject is
before him. He is tu