The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D. - Volume IX; Contributions to The Tatler, The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Intelligencer
The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D. - Volume IX; Contributions to The Tatler, The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Intelligencer
By Jonathan Swift
23 Sep, 2019
FROM THE INTRODUCTION..........Swift has been styled the Prince of Journalists. Like most titles whose aim is to express in modern words the character and achievements of a man of a past age, this phrase is not of the happiest. Applied to so extraord
... Read more
FROM THE INTRODUCTION..........Swift has been styled the Prince of Journalists. Like most titles whose aim is to express in modern words the character and achievements of a man of a past age, this phrase is not of the happiest. Applied to so extraordinary a man as Jonathan Swift, it is both misleading and inadequate. At best it embodies but a half-truth. It belongs to that class of phrases which, in emphasizing a particular side of the character, sacrifices truth to a superficial cleverness, and so does injustice to the character as a whole. The vogue such phrases obtain is thus the measure of the misunderstanding that is current; so that it often becomes necessary to receive them with caution and to test them with care. Less