Ch. 5: Preface to B---p of S----m's

A

PREFACE

TO THE

B---P OF S----M'S

INTRODUCTION, &c.

NOTE.

AT the time of writing this scathing piece of invective, Swift was busy dealing out to an old friend a similar specimen of his terrible power of rejoinder. Steele, in the newly established "Guardian," as Mr. Churton Collins well puts it, "drunk with party spirit, had so far forgotten himself as to insert ... a coarse and ungenerous reflection on Swift." Swift sought an explanation through Addison, but Steele's egotism was stronger than the feeling of friendship, and the insult remained for Swift to wipe out in "The Importance of the 'Guardian' Considered." Probably this severance from his friend, due to political differences--for Steele glowed in Whiggism--deepened, if possible, his hatred to Whigs of whatever degree; and in Burnet he found another object for his wit. But apart from such a suggestion, there was enough in the Bishop's attitude towards the Tories to rouse Swift to his task. It was not enough that Burnet should accuse his political opponents of sympathy with the French, Jacobitism, and Popery, but he must needs flaunt his vanity in issuing, in advance, for purposes of advertisement, the introduction to a work which was to come later. This was enough for Swift, and the prelate who "could smell popery at five hundred miles distance better than fanaticism under his nose," became the recipient of one of the most amusing and yet most virulent attacks which even that controversial age produced. "The whole pamphlet," Mr. Collins truly says, "is inimitable. Its irony, its humour, its drollery, are delicious."

It must not, however, be imagined that Swift's opinion of Burnet is only that which can be gathered from this "Preface." He fully appreciated the sterling qualities of scholarship and good nature, since in his "Remarks" on Burnet's "History of My Own Time," he says: "after all he was a man of generosity and good nature, and very communicative; but in his last ten years was absolutely party-mad, and fancied he saw Popery under every bush." Lord Dartmouth has left an excellent sketch of Burnet's character in a note to the "History of My Own Time": "Bishop Burnet was a man of the most extensive knowledge I ever met with; had read and seen a great deal, with a prodigious memory, and a very indifferent judgment: he was extremely partial, and readily took everything for granted that he heard to the prejudice of those he did not like: which made him pass for a man of less truth than he really was. I do not think he designedly published anything he believed to be false. He had a boisterous, vehement manner of expressing himself, which often made him ridiculous, especially in the House of Lords, when what he said would not have been thought so, delivered in a lower voice, and a calmer behaviour.