Origen, who was the first Christian that had any learning, has left a
noble testimony of his freethinking; for a general council has
determined him to be damned; which plainly shews he was a freethinker,
and was no saint; for people were only sainted because of their want of
learning and excess of zeal; so that all the fathers, who are called
saints by the priests, were worse than atheists.
Minutius Felix[30] seems to be a true modern latitudinarian,
freethinking Christian; for he is against altars, churches, public
preaching, and public assemblies; and likewise against priests; for, he
says, there were several great flourishing empires before there were any
orders of priests in the world.
[Footnote 30: Marcus Minutius Felix is said to have been born in Africa.
He flourished in the third century, and wrote a defence of Christianity,
in dialogue form, entitled, "Octavius." The work has been translated
into English by Lord Hailes. [T.S.]]
Synesius,[31] who had too much learning and too little zeal for a saint,
was for some time a great freethinker; he could not believe the
resurrection till he was made a bishop, and then pretended to be
convinced by a lying miracle.
[Footnote 31: Synesius of Cyrene, born 379, is the Platonic philosopher
who became Bishop of Ptolemais. [T.S.]]
To come to our own country: My Lord Bacon was a great freethinker, when
he tells us, that whatever has the least relation to religion, is
particularly liable to suspicion; by which he seems to suspect all the
facts whereon most of the superstitions (that is to say, what the
priests call the religions) of the world are grounded. He also
prefers atheism before superstition.
Mr. Hobbes was a person of great learning, virtue, and freethinking,
except in the high church politics.
But Archbishop Tillotson is the person whom all English freethinkers own
as their head; and his virtue is indisputable for this manifest reason;
that Dr. Hickes, a priest, calls him an atheist; says, he caused several
to turn atheists, and to ridicule the priesthood and religion. These
must be allowed to be noble effects of freethinking. This great prelate
assures us, that all the duties of the Christian religion, with respect
to God, are no other but what natural light prompts men to, except the
two sacraments, and praying to God in the name and mediation of Christ.
As a priest and prelate, he was obliged to say something of
Christianity; but pray observe, sir, how he brings himself off. He
justly affirms that even these things are of less moment than natural
duties; and because mothers' nursing their children is a natural duty,
it is of more moment than the two sacraments, or than praying to God in
the name and by the mediation of Christ. This freethinking archbishop
could not allow a miracle sufficient to give credit to a prophet who
taught anything contrary to our natural notions: By which it is plain,
he rejected at once all the mysteries of Christianity.
I could name one-and-twenty more great men, who were all freethinkers;
but that I fear to be tedious: For, 'tis certain that all men of sense
depart from the opinions commonly received; and are consequently more or
less men of sense, according as they depart more or less from the
opinions commonly received; neither can you name an enemy to
freethinking, however he be dignified or distinguished, whether
archbishop, bishop, priest, or deacon, who has not been either "a
crack-brained enthusiast, a diabolical villain, or a most profound
ignorant brute."
Thus, sir, I have endeavoured to execute your commands, and you may
print this Letter, if you please; but I would have you conceal my name.
For my opinion of virtue is, that we ought not to venture doing
ourselves harm, by endeavouring to do good.
I am yours, &c.
_I have here given the public a brief, but faithful abstract of this
most excellent Essay; wherein I have all along religiously adhered to
our author's notions, and generally to his words, without any other
addition than that of explaining a few necessary consequences, for the
sake of ignorant readers; for, to those who have the least degree of
learning, I own they will be wholly useless. I hope I have not, in any
single instance, misrepresented the thoughts of this admirable writer.
If I have happened to mistake through inadvertency, I entreat he will
condescend to inform me, and point out the place, upon which I will
immediately beg pardon both of him and the world. The design of his
piece is to recommend freethinking, and one chief motive is the example
of many excellent men who were of that sect. He produces as the
principal points of their freethinking; that they denied the Being of a
God, the Torments of Hell, the Immortality of the Soul, the Trinity,
Incarnation, the history of the creation by Moses, with many other such
"fabulous and blasphemous stories," as he judiciously calls them: And he
asserts, that whoever denies the most of these, is the completest
freethinker, and consequently the wisest and most virtuous man. The
author, sensible of the prejudices of the age, does not directly affirm
himself an atheist; he goes no further than to pronounce that atheism is
the most perfect degree of freethinking; and leaves the reader to form
the conclusion. However, he seems to allow, that a man may be a
tolerable freethinker, though he does believe a God; provided he utterly
rejects "Providence, Revelation, the Old and New Testament, Future
Rewards and Punishments, the Immortality of the Soul," and other the
like impossible absurdities. Which mark of superabundant caution,
sacrificing truth to the superstition of priests, may perhaps be
forgiven, but ought not to be imitated by any who would arrive (even in
this author's judgment) at the true perfection of freethinking._
***** ***** ***** *****
SOME THOUGHTS
ON
FREETHINKING.
WRITTEN IN ENGLAND, BUT LEFT UNFINISHED.
Discoursing one day with a prelate of the kingdom of Ireland, who is a
person of excellent wit and learning, he offered a notion applicable to
the subject we were then upon, which I took to be altogether new and
right. He said, that the difference betwixt a madman and one in his
wits, in what related to speech, consisted in this; that the former
spoke out whatever came into his mind, and just in the confused manner
as his imagination presented the ideas: The latter only expressed such
thoughts as his judgment directed him to choose, leaving the rest to die
away in his memory; and that, if the wisest man would, at any time,
utter his thoughts in the crude indigested manner as they come into his
head, he would be looked upon as raving mad. And, indeed, when we
consider our thoughts, as they are the seeds of words and actions, we
cannot but agree that they ought to be kept under the strictest
regulation; and that in the great multiplicity of ideas which one's mind
is apt to form, there is nothing more difficult than to select those
which are most proper for the conduct of life. So that I cannot imagine
what is meant by the mighty zeal in some people for asserting the
freedom of thinking; because, if such thinkers keep their thoughts
within their own breasts, they can be of no consequence, farther than to
themselves. If they publish them to the world, they ought to be
answerable for the effects their thoughts produce upon others. There are
thousands in this kingdom, who, in their thoughts, prefer a republic, or
absolute power of a prince, before a limited monarchy; yet, if any of
these should publish their opinions, and go about, by writing or
discourse, to persuade the people to innovations in government, they
would be liable to the severest punishments the law can inflict; and
therefore they are usually so wise as to keep their sentiments to
themselves. But, with respect to religion, the matter is quite
otherwise: and the public, at least here in England, seems to be of
opinion with _Tiberius_, that _Deorum injuriae diis curae_. They leave it
to God Almighty to vindicate the injuries done to himself, who is no
doubt sufficiently able, by perpetual miracles, to revenge the affronts
of impious men. And, it should seem, that is what princes expect from
him, though I cannot readily conceive the grounds they go upon; nor why,
since they are God's vicegerents, they do not think themselves at least
equally obliged to preserve their master's honour as their own; since
this is what they expect from those they depute, and since they never
fail to represent the disobedience of their subjects, as offences
against God. It is true, the visible reason of this neglect is obvious
enough: The consequences of atheistical opinions, published to the
world, are not so immediate, or so sensible, as doctrines of rebellion
and sedition, spread in a proper season. However, I cannot but think the
same consequences are as natural and probable from the former, though
more remote: And whether these have not been in view among our great
planters of infidelity in England, I shall hereafter examine.
***** ***** ***** *****
A LETTER
TO
A YOUNG CLERGYMAN,
LATELY ENTERED INTO
HOLY ORDERS.
1719-20.
NOTE.
No stronger proof could be adduced of Swift's genuine and earnest belief
in the dignity of a clergyman of the Church than this letter. In spite
of the sarcasms which here and there are levelled against the mediocre
members of the class, it is evident Swift felt that these might be made
worthy teachers and preachers of the doctrines of an institution
founded, in his opinion, for the best regulation of mankind. The letter
serves also to present us with an outline of a picture of the clergyman
of his day; and if this picture be not flattering, it seems faithfully
to reflect the social conditions which we know to have prevailed at the
time.
The letter was written in the years of quiet which Swift enjoyed between
the pamphleteering crusade against the Whigs, when Harley and St. John
were in power, and the famous social and political troubles which began
with Wood's halfpence.
The text of this letter is practically that of the first edition; but I
have collated this with the texts given by Hawkesworth, Scott, the first
volume of the "Miscellanies" of 1728, and the second volume of the
"Miscellanies" of 1745. In the original edition, and in the reprints
published to the time of Faulkner's collected edition, the title reads
"A Letter to a Young Gentleman," etc.
[T.S.]
A
LETTER
TO A
YOUNG GENTLEMAN,
LATELY ENTER'D INTO
HOLY ORDERS
By a Person of QUALITY.
It is certainly known, that the following Treatise was writ in Ireland
by the Reverend Dr. Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's in that Kingdom.
Dublin, _January the 9th,_ 1719-20.
Sir,
Although it was against my knowledge or advice, that you entered into
holy orders, under the present dispositions of mankind toward the
Church, yet since it is now supposed too late to recede, (at least
according to the general practice and opinion,) I cannot forbear
offering my thoughts to you upon this new condition of life you are
engaged in.
I could heartily wish that the circumstances of your fortune, had
enabled you to have continued some years longer in the university; at
least till you were ten years standing; to have laid in a competent
stock of human learning, and some knowledge in divinity, before you
attempted to appear in the world: For I cannot but lament the common
course, which at least nine in ten of those who enter into the ministry
are obliged to run. When they have taken a degree, and are consequently
grown a burden to their friends, who now think themselves fully
discharged, they get into orders as soon as they can; (upon which I
shall make no remarks,) first solicit a readership, and if they be very
fortunate, arrive in time to a curacy here in town, or else are sent to
be assistants in the country, where they probably continue several
years, (many of them their whole lives,) with thirty or forty pounds
a-year for their support, till some bishop, who happens to be not
overstocked with relations, or attached to favourites, or is content to
supply his diocese without colonies from England, bestows upon them some
inconsiderable benefice, when it is odds they are already encumbered
with a numerous family. I should be glad to know what intervals of life
such persons can possibly set apart for the improvement of their minds;
or which way they could be furnished with books, the library they
brought with them from their college being usually not the most
numerous, or judiciously chosen. If such gentlemen arrive to be great
scholars, it must, I think, be either by means supernatural, or by a
method altogether out of any road yet known to the learned. But I
conceive the fact directly otherwise, and that many of them lose the
greatest part of the small pittance they receive at the university.
I take it for granted, that you intend to pursue the beaten track, and
are already desirous to be seen in a pulpit, only I hope you will think
it proper to pass your quarantine among some of the desolate churches
five miles round this town, where you may at least learn to read and to
speak before you venture to expose your parts in a city congregation;
not that these are better judges, but because, if a man must needs
expose his folly, it is more safe and discreet to do so before few
witnesses, and in a scattered neighbourhood. And you will do well if you
can prevail upon some intimate and judicious friend to be your constant
hearer, and allow him with the utmost freedom to give you notice of
whatever he shall find amiss either in your voice or gesture; for want
of which early warning, many clergymen continue defective, and sometimes
ridiculous, to the end of their lives; neither is it rare to observe
among excellent and learned divines, a certain ungracious manner, or an
unhappy tone of voice, which they never have been able to shake off.
I should likewise have been glad, if you had applied yourself a little
more to the study of the English language, than I fear you have done;
the neglect whereof is one of the most general defects among the
scholars of this kingdom, who seem not to have the least conception of a
style, but run on in a flat kind of phraseology, often mingled with
barbarous terms and expressions, peculiar to the nation: Neither do I
perceive that any person, either finds or acknowledges his wants upon
this head, or in the least desires to have them supplied. Proper words
in proper places, make the true definition of a style. But this would
require too ample a disquisition to be now dwelt on: however, I shall
venture to name one or two faults, which are easy to be remedied, with a
very small portion of abilities.
The first is the frequent use of obscure terms, which by the women are
called hard words, and by the better sort of vulgar, fine language; than
which I do not know a more universal, inexcusable, and unnecessary
mistake, among the clergy of all distinctions, but especially the
younger practitioners. I have been curious enough to take a list of
several hundred words in a sermon of a new beginner, which not one of
his hearers among a hundred could possibly understand, neither can I
easily call to mind any clergyman of my own acquaintance who is wholly
exempt from this error, although many of them agree with me in the
dislike of the thing. But I am apt to put myself in the place of the
vulgar, and think many words difficult or obscure, which they will not
allow to be so, because those words are obvious to scholars, I believe
the method observed by the famous Lord Falkland[1] in some of his
writings, would not be an ill one for young divines: I was assured by an
old person of quality who knew him well, that when he doubted whether a
word was perfectly intelligible or no, he used to consult one of his
lady's chambermaids, (not the waiting-woman, because it was possible she
might be conversant in romances,) and by her judgment was guided whether
to receive or reject it. And if that great person thought such a caution
necessary in treatises offered to the learned world, it will be sure at
least as proper in sermons, where the meanest hearer is supposed to be
concerned, and where very often a lady's chambermaid may be allowed to
equal half the congregation, both as to quality and understanding. But I
know not how it comes to pass, that professors in most arts and sciences
are generally the worst qualified to explain their meanings to those who
are not of their tribe: a common farmer shall make you understand in
three words, that his foot is out of joint, or his collar-bone broken,
wherein a surgeon, after a hundred terms of art, if you are not a
scholar, shall leave you to seek. It is frequently the same case in law,
physic, and even many of the meaner arts.
[Footnote 1: Lucius Cary, second Viscount Falkland (1610-1643), who was
killed at the battle of Newbury in the great Civil War, was a generous
patron of learning and of the literary men of his day. He was himself a
fine scholar and able writer. Clarendon has recorded his character in
the seventh book of his "History of the Great Rebellion": "A person of
such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable
sweetness and delight in conversation, of so flowing and obliging an
humanity and goodness to mankind, that, if there were no other brand
upon this odious and accursed Civil War than that single loss, it must
be infamous and execrable to all posterity." Falkland has been made the
hero of a romance by Lord Lytton. [T. S. ] ]
And upon this account it is, that among hard words, I number likewise
those which are peculiar to divinity as it is a science, because I have
observed several clergymen, otherwise little fond of obscure terms, yet
in their sermons very liberal of those which they find in ecclesiastical
writers, as if it were our duty to understand them; which I am sure it
is not. And I defy the greatest divine to produce any law either of God
or man, which obliges me to comprehend the meaning of _omniscience,
omnipresence, ubiquity, attribute, beatific vision,_ with a thousand
others so frequent in pulpits, any more than that of _eccentric,
idiosyncracy, entity,_ and the like. I believe I may venture to insist
farther, that many terms used in Holy Writ, particularly by St Paul,
might with more discretion be changed into plainer speech, except when
they are introduced as part of a quotation.[2]
[Footnote 2: Swift refers to this point in his "Thoughts on Religion,"
and regrets that the explanation of matters of doctrine, which St. Paul
expressed in the current eastern vocabulary, should have been
perpetuated in terms founded on the same terminology. [T. S.] ]
I am the more earnest in this matter, because it is a general complaint,
and the justest in the world. For a divine has nothing to say to the
wisest congregation of any parish in this kingdom, which he may not
express in a manner to be understood by the meanest among them. And this
assertion must be true, or else God requires from us more than we are
able to perform. However, not to contend whether a logician might
possibly put a case that would serve for an exception, I will appeal to
any man of letters, whether at least nineteen in twenty of those
perplexing words might not be changed into easy ones, such as naturally
first occur to ordinary men, and probably did so at first to those very
gentlemen who are so fond of the former.
We are often reproved by divines from the pulpits, on account of our
ignorance in things sacred, and perhaps with justice enough. However, it
is not very reasonable for them to expect, that common men should
understand expressions which are never made use of in common life. No
gentleman thinks it safe or prudent to send a servant with a message,
without repeating it more than once, and endeavouring to put it into
terms brought down to the capacity of the bearer: yet after all this
care, it is frequent for servants to mistake, and sometimes to occasion
misunderstandings among friends. Although the common domestics in some
gentlemen's families have more opportunities of improving their minds
than the ordinary sort of tradesmen.
It is usual for clergymen who are taxed with this learned defect, to
quote Dr. Tillotson, and other famous divines, in their defence; without
considering the difference between elaborate discourses upon important
occasions, delivered to princes or parliaments, written with a view of
being made public, and a plain sermon intended for the middle or lower
size of people. Neither do they seem to remember the many alterations,
additions, and expungings, made by great authors in those treatises
which they prepare for the public. Besides, that excellent prelate
above-mentioned, was known to preach after a much more popular manner in
the city congregations: and if in those parts of his works he be any
where too obscure for the understandings of many who may be supposed to
have been his hearers, it ought to be numbered among his omissions.
The fear of being thought pedants hath been of pernicious consequence to
young divines. This hath wholly taken many of them off from their
severer studies in the university, which they have exchanged for plays,
poems, and pamphlets, in order to qualify them for tea-tables and
coffee-houses. This they usually call "polite conversation; knowing the
world; and reading men instead of books." These accomplishments, when
applied to the pulpit, appear by a quaint; terse, florid style, rounded
into periods and cadences, commonly without either propriety or meaning.
I have listen'd with my utmost attention for half an hour to an orator
of this species, without being able to understand, much less to carry
away one single sentence out of a whole sermon. Others, to shew that
their studies have not been confined to sciences, or ancient authors,
will talk in the style of a gaming ordinary, and White Friars[3], when I
suppose the hearers can be little edified by the terms _palming,
shuffling, biting, bamboozling_ and the like, if they have not been
sometimes conversant among pick-pockets and sharpers. And truly, as they
say, a man is known by his company, so it should seem that a man's
company may be known by his manner of expressing himself, either in
public assemblies, or private conversation.
[Footnote 3: See note on "Alsatia," p. 100. [T. S.] ]
It would be endless to run over the several defects of style among us; I
shall therefore say nothing of the mean and paltry (which are usually
attended by the fustian), much less of the slovenly or indecent. Two
things I will just warn you against; the first is the frequency of flat
unnecessary epithets, and the other is the folly of using old threadbare
phrases, which will often make you go out of your way to find and apply
them, are nauseous to rational hearers, and will seldom express your
meaning as well as your own natural words.
Although, as I have already observed, our English tongue is too little
cultivated in this kingdom; yet the faults are nine in ten owing to
affectation, and not to the want of understanding. When a man's thoughts
are clear, the properest words will generally offer themselves first,
and his own judgment will direct him in what order to place them, so as
they may be best understood. Where men err against this method, it is
usually on purpose, and to shew their learning, their oratory, their
politeness, or their knowledge of the world. In short, that simplicity
without which no human performance can arrive to any great perfection,
is nowhere more eminently useful than in this.
I have been considering that part of oratory which relates to the moving
of the passions; this I observe is in esteem and practice among some
church divines, as well as among all the preachers and hearers of the
fanatic or enthusiastic strain. I will here deliver to you (perhaps with
more freedom than prudence) my opinion upon the point.
The two great orators of Greece and Rome, Demosthenes and Cicero, though
each of them a leader (or as the Greeks call it a demagogue) in a
popular state, yet seem to differ in their practice upon this branch of
their art; the former who had to deal with a people of much more
politeness, learning, and wit, laid the greatest weight of his oratory
upon the strength of his arguments, offered to their understanding and
reason: whereas Tully considered the dispositions of a sincere, more
ignorant, and less mercurial nation, by dwelling almost entirely on the
pathetic part.
But the principal thing to be remembered is, that the constant design of
both these orators in all their speeches, was to drive some one
particular point, either the condemnation or acquittal of an accused
person, a persuasive to war, the enforcing of a law, and the like; which
was determined upon the spot, according as the orators on either side
prevailed. And here it was often found of absolute necessity to inflame
or cool the passions of the audience, especially at Rome where Tully
spoke, and with whose writings young divines (I mean those among them
who read old authors) are more conversant than with those of
Demosthenes, who by many degrees excelled the other at least as an
orator. But I do not see how this talent of moving the passions can be
of any great use toward directing Christian men in the conduct of their
lives, at least in these northern climates, where I am confident the
strongest eloquence of that kind will leave few impressions upon any of
our spirits deep enough to last till the next morning, or rather to the
next meal.[4]
[Footnote 4: Swift's own sermons rarely appealed to the emotions; they
were, in his own phrase, political pamphlets, and aimed at convincing
the reason. [T. S.] ]
But what hath chiefly put me out of conceit with this moving manner of
preaching, is the frequent disappointment it meets with. I know a
gentleman, who made it a rule in reading, to skip over all sentences
where he spied a note of admiration at the end. I believe those
preachers who abound in _epiphonemas_,[5] if they look about them, would
find one part of their congregation out of countenance, and the other
asleep, except perhaps an old female beggar or two in the aisles, who
(if they be sincere) may probably groan at the sound.
[Footnote 5: _Epiphonema_ is a figure in rhetoric, signifying a
sententious kind of exclamation. [S.] ]
Nor is it a wonder, that this expedient should so often miscarry, which
requires so much art and genius to arrive at any perfection in it, as
any man will find, much sooner than learn by consulting Cicero himself.
I therefore entreat you to make use of this faculty (if you ever be so
unfortunate as to think you have it) as seldom, and with as much caution
as you can, else I may probably have occasion to say of you as a great
person said of another upon this very subject. A lady asked him coming
out of church, whether it were not a very moving discourse? "Yes," said
he, "I was extremely sorry, for the man is my friend."
If in company you offer something for a jest, and nobody second you in
your own laughter, nor seems to relish what you said, you may condemn
their taste, if you please, and appeal to better judgments; but in the
meantime, it must be agreed you make a very indifferent figure; and it
is at least equally ridiculous to be disappointed in endeavouring to
make other folks grieve, as to make them laugh.
A plain convincing reason may possibly operate upon the mind both of a
learned and ignorant hearer as long as they live, and will edify a
thousand times more than the art of wetting the handkerchiefs of a whole
congregation, if you were sure to attain it.
If your arguments be strong, in God's name offer them in as moving a
manner as the nature of the subject will properly admit, wherein reason
and good advice will be your safest guides; but beware of letting the
pathetic part swallow up the rational: For I suppose, philosophers have
long agreed, that passion should never prevail over reason.
As I take it, the two principal branches of preaching are first to tell
the people what is their duty, and then to convince them that it is so.
The topics for both these, we know, are brought from Scripture and
reason. Upon this first, I wish it were often practised to instruct the
hearers in the limits, extent, and compass of every duty, which requires
a good deal of skill and judgment: the other branch is, I think, not so
difficult. But what I would offer them both, is this; that it seems to
be in the power of a reasonable clergyman, if he will be at the pains,
to make the most ignorant man comprehend what is his duty, and to
convince him by argument drawn to the level of his understanding, that
he ought to perform it.
But I must remember that my design in this paper was not so much to
instruct you in your business either as a clergyman or a preacher, as to
warn you against some mistakes which are obvious to the generality of
mankind as well as to me; and we who are hearers, may be allowed to have
some opportunities in the quality of being standers-by. Only perhaps I
may now again transgress by desiring you to express the heads of your
divisions in as few and clear words as you possibly can, otherwise, I
and many thousand others will never be able to retain them, nor
consequently to carry away a syllable of the sermon.
I shall now mention a particular wherein your whole body will be
certainly against me, and the laity almost to a man on my side. However
it came about, I cannot get over the prejudice of taking some little
offence at the clergy for perpetually reading their sermons[6]; perhaps
my frequent hearing of foreigners, who never made use of notes, may have
added to my disgust. And I cannot but think, that whatever is read,
differs as much from what is repeated without book, as a copy does from
an original. At the same time, I am highly sensible what an extreme
difficulty it would be upon you to alter this method, and that, in such
a case, your sermons would be much less valuable than they are, for want
of time to improve and correct them. I would therefore gladly come to a
compromise with you in this matter. I knew a clergyman of some
distinction, who appeared to deliver his sermon without looking into his
notes, which when I complimented him upon, he assured me he could not
repeat six lines; but his method was to write the whole sermon in a
large plain hand, with all the forms of margin, paragraph, marked page,
and the like; then on Sunday morning he took care to run it over five or
six times, which he could do in an hour; and when he deliver'd it, by
pretending to turn his face from one side to the other, he would (in his
own expression) pick up the lines, and cheat his people by making them
believe he had it all by heart. He farther added, that whenever he
happened by neglect to omit any of these circumstances, the vogue of the
parish was, "Our doctor gave us but an indifferent sermon to-day." Now
among us, many clergymen act too directly contrary to this method, that
from a habit of saving time and paper, which they acquired at the
University, they write in so diminutive a manner, with such frequent
blots and interlineations, that they are hardly able to go on without
perpetual hesitations or extemporary expletives: And I desire to know
what can be more inexcusable, than to see a divine and a scholar, at a
loss in reading his own compositions, which it is supposed he has been
preparing with much pains and thought for the instruction of his people?
The want of a little more care in this article, is the cause of much
ungraceful behaviour. You will observe some clergymen with their heads
held down from the beginning to the end, within an inch of the cushion,
to read what is hardly legible; which, besides the untoward manner,
hinders them from making the best advantage of their voice: others again
have a trick of popping up and down every moment from their paper to the
audience, like an idle school-boy on a repetition day.
[Footnote 6: "The custom of reading sermons," notes Scott, "seems
originally to have arisen in opposition to the practice of Dissenters,
many of whom affected to trust to their Inspiration in their _extempore_
harangues." [T. S.] ]
Let me entreat you, therefore, to add one half-crown a year to the
article of paper; to transcribe your sermons in as large and plain a
manner as you can, and either make no interlineations, or change the
whole leaf; for we your hearers would rather you should be less correct
than perpetually stammering, which I take to be one of the worst
solecisms in rhetoric: And lastly, read your sermon once or twice for a
few days before you preach it: to which you will probably answer some
years hence, "that it was but just finished when the last bell rang to
church:" and I shall readily believe, but not excuse you.
I cannot forbear warning you in the most earnest manner against
endeavouring at wit in your sermons, because by the strictest
computation, it is very near a million to one that you have none; and
because too many of your calling have consequently made themselves
everlastingly ridiculous by attempting it. I remember several young men
in this town, who could never leave the pulpit under half a dozen
conceits; and this faculty adhered to those gentlemen a longer or
shorter time exactly in proportion to their several degrees of dulness:
accordingly, I am told that some of them retain it to this day. I
heartily wish the brood were at an end.
Before you enter into the common insufferable cant of taking all
occasions to disparage the heathen philosophers, I hope you will differ
from some of your brethren, by first enquiring what those philosophers
can say for themselves. The system of morality to be gathered out of the
writings or sayings of those ancient sages, falls undoubtedly very short
of that delivered in the Gospel, and wants besides, the divine sanction
which our Saviour gave to His. Whatever is further related by the
evangelists, contains chiefly, matters of fact, and consequently of
faith, such as the birth of Christ, His being the Messiah, His Miracles,
His death, resurrection, and ascension. None of which can properly come
under the appellation of human wisdom, being intended only to make us
wise unto salvation. And therefore in this point nothing can justly be
laid to the charge of the philosophers further than that they were
ignorant of certain facts that happened long after their death. But I am
deceived, if a better comment could be anywhere collected, upon the
moral part of the Gospel, than from the writings of those excellent men;
even that divine precept of loving our enemies, is at large insisted on
by Plato, who puts it, as I remember, into the mouth of Socrates.[7] And
as to the reproach of heathenism, I doubt they had less of it than the
corrupted Jews in whose time they lived. For it is a gross piece of
ignorance among us to conceive that in those polite and learned ages,
even persons of any tolerable education, much less the wisest
philosophers did acknowledge or worship any more than one almighty
power, under several denominations, to whom they allowed all those
attributes we ascribe to the Divinity: and as I take it, human
comprehension reacheth no further: neither did our Saviour think it
necessary to explain to us the nature of God, because I suppose it would
be impossible without bestowing on us other faculties than we possess at
present. But the true misery of the heathen world appears to be what I
before mentioned, the want of a Divine Sanction, without which the
dictates of the philosophers failed in the point of authority, and
consequently the bulk of mankind lay indeed under a great load of
ignorance even in the article of morality, but the philosophers
themselves did not. Take the matter in this light, it will afford field
enough for a divine to enlarge on, by showing the advantages which the
Christian world has over the heathen, and the absolute necessity of
Divine Revelation, to make the knowledge of the true God, and the
practice of virtue more universal in the world.
[Footnote 7: This is in the "Crito" of Plato, where Socrates says it is
wrong to do harm to our enemies. [T. S.] ]
I am not ignorant how much I differ in this opinion from some ancient
fathers in the Church, who arguing against the heathens, made it a
principal topic to decry their philosophy as much as they could: which,
I hope, is not altogether our present case. Besides, it is to be
considered, that those fathers lived in the decline of literature; and
in my judgment (who should be unwilling to give the least offence)
appear to be rather most excellent, holy persons, than of transcendent
genius and learning. Their genuine writings (for many of them have
extremely suffered by spurious editions) are of admirable use for
confirming the truth of ancient doctrines and discipline, by shewing the
state and practice of the primitive church. But among such of them as
have fallen in my way, I do not remember any whose manner of arguing or
exhorting I could heartily recommend to the imitation of a young divine
when he is to speak from the pulpit. Perhaps I judge too hastily; there
being several of them in whose writings I have made very little
progress, and in others none at all. For I perused only such as were
recommended to me, at a time when I had more leisure and a better
disposition to read, than have since fallen to my share.[8]
[Footnote 8: Swift must refer here to the years he spent at Moor Park,
in the house of Sir William Temple. The "Tale of a Tub," however, shows
that he had not idled his time, and that his acquaintance with the
writings of the fathers was fairly intimate. [T, S.] ]
To return then to the heathen philosophers, I hope you will not only
give them quarter, but make their works a considerable part of your
study: To these I will venture to add the principal orators and
historians, and perhaps a few of the poets: by the reading of which, you
will soon discover your mind and thoughts to be enlarged, your
imagination extended and refined, your judgment directed, your
admiration lessened, and your fortitude increased; all which advantages
must needs be of excellent use to a divine, whose duty it is to preach
and practise the contempt of human things.
I would say something concerning quotations, wherein I think you cannot
be too sparing, except from Scripture, and the primitive writers of the
Church. As to the former, when you offer a text as a proof of an
illustration, we your hearers expect to be fairly used, and sometimes
think we have reason to complain, especially of you younger divines,
which makes us fear that some of you conceive you have no more to do
than to turn over a concordance, and there having found the principal
word, introduce as much of the verse as will serve your turn, though in
reality it makes nothing for you. I do not altogether disapprove the
manner of interweaving texts of scripture through the style of your
sermons, wherein however, I have sometimes observed great instances of
indiscretion and impropriety, against which I therefore venture to give
you a caution.
As to quotations from ancient fathers, I think they are best brought in
to confirm some opinion controverted by those who differ from us: in
other cases we give you full power to adopt the sentence for your own,
rather than tell us, "as St. Austin excellently observes." But to
mention modern writers by name, or use the phrase of "a late excellent
prelate of our Church," and the like, is altogether intolerable, and for
what reason I know not, makes every rational hearer ashamed. Of no
better a stamp is your "heathen philosopher" and "famous poet," and
"Roman historian," at least in common congregations, who will rather
believe you on your own word, than on that of Plato or Homer.
I have lived to see Greek and Latin almost entirely driven out of the
pulpit, for which I am heartily glad. The frequent use of the latter was
certainly a remnant of Popery which never admitted Scripture in the
vulgar language; and I wonder, that practice was never accordingly
objected to us by the fanatics.
The mention of quotations puts me in mind of commonplace books, which
have been long in use by industrious young divines, and I hear do still
continue so. I know they are very beneficial to lawyers and physicians,
because they are collections of facts or cases, whereupon a great part
of their several faculties depend; of these I have seen several, but
never yet any written by a clergyman; only from what I am informed, they
generally are extracts of theological and moral sentences drawn from
ecclesiastical and other authors, reduced under proper heads, usually
begun, and perhaps finished, while the collectors were young in the
church, as being intended for materials or nurseries to stock future
sermons. You will observe the wise editors of ancient authors, when they
meet a sentence worthy of being distinguished, take special care to have
the first word printed in capital letters, that you may not overlook it:
Such, for example, as the INCONSTANCY of FORTUNE, the GOODNESS of PEACE,
the EXCELLENCY of WISDOM, the CERTAINTY of DEATH: that PROSPERITY makes
men INSOLENT, and ADVERSITY HUMBLE; and the like eternal truths, which
every ploughman knows well enough before Aristotle or Plato were
born.[9] If theological commonplace books be no better filled, I think
they had better be laid aside, and I could wish that men of tolerable
intellectuals would rather trust their own natural reason, improved by a
general conversation with books, to enlarge on points which they are
supposed already to understand. If a rational man reads an excellent
author with just application, he shall find himself extremely improved,
and perhaps insensibly led to imitate that author's perfections,
although in a little time he should not remember one word in the book,
nor even the subject it handled: for books give the same turn to our
thoughts and way of reasoning, that good and ill company do to our
behaviour and conversation; without either loading our memories, or
making us even sensible of the change. And particularly I have observed
in preaching, that no men succeed better than those who trust entirely
to the stock or fund of their own reason, advanced indeed, but not
overlaid by commerce with books. Whoever only reads in order to
transcribe wise and shining remarks, without entering into the genius
and spirit of the author, as it is probable he will make no very
judicious extract, so he will be apt to trust to that collection in all
his compositions, and be misled out of the regular way of thinking, in
order to introduce those materials, which he has been at the pains to
gather and the product of all this will be found a manifest incoherent
piece of patchwork.
[Footnote 9: Thus in first edition. Scott and Hawkesworth have: "though
he never heard of Aristotle or Plato." [T.S.]]
Some gentlemen abounding in their university erudition, are apt to fill
their sermons with philosophical terms and notions of the metaphysical
or abstracted kind, which generally have one advantage, to be equally
understood by the wise, the vulgar, and the preacher himself. I have
been better entertained, and more informed by a chapter[10] in the
"Pilgrim's Progress," than by a long discourse upon the will and the
intellect, and simple or complex ideas. Others again, are fond of
dilating on matter and motion, talk of the fortuitous concourse of
atoms, of theories, and phenomena, directly against the advice of St
Paul, who yet appears to have been conversant enough in those kinds of
studies.
[Footnote 10: Thus in first edition. Scott and Hawkesworth have "a few
pages" instead of "a chapter" [T. S ]]
I do not find that you are anywhere directed in the canons or articles,
to attempt explaining the mysteries of the Christian religion. And
indeed since Providence intended there should be mysteries, I do not see
how it can be agreeable to piety, orthodoxy or good sense, to go about
such a work. For, to me there seems to be a manifest dilemma in the case
if you explain them, they are mysteries no longer, if you fail, you have
laboured to no purpose. What I should think most reasonable and safe for
you to do upon this occasion is, upon solemn days to deliver the
doctrine as the Church holds it, and confirm it by Scripture. For my
part, having considered the matter impartially, I can see no great
reason which those gentlemen you call the freethinkers can have for
their clamour against religious mysteries, since it is plain, they were
not invented by the clergy, to whom they bring no profit, nor acquire
any honour. For every clergyman is ready either to tell us the utmost he
knows, or to confess that he does not understand them; neither is it
strange that there should be mysteries in divinity as well as in the
commonest operations of nature.
And here I am at a loss what to say upon the frequent custom of
preaching against atheism, deism, freethinking, and the like, as young
divines are particularly fond of doing especially when they exercise
their talent in churches frequented by persons of quality, which as it
is but an ill compliment to the audience; so I am under some doubt
whether it answers the end.
Because persons under those imputations are generally no great
frequenters of churches, and so the congregation is but little edified
for the sake of three or four fools who are past grace. Neither do I
think it any part of prudence to perplex the minds of well-disposed
people with doubts, which probably would never have otherwise come into
their heads. But I am of opinion, and dare be positive in it, that not
one in an hundred of those who pretend to be freethinkers, are really so
in their hearts. For there is one observation which I never knew to
fail, and I desire you will examine it in the course of your life, that
no gentleman of a liberal education, and regular in his morals, did ever
profess himself a freethinker: where then are these kind of people to be
found? Among the worst part of the soldiery made up of pages, younger
brothers of obscure families, and others of desperate fortunes; or else
among idle town fops, and now and then a drunken 'squire of the country.
Therefore nothing can be plainer, than that ignorance and vice are two
ingredients absolutely necessary in the composition of those you
generally call freethinkers, who in propriety of speech, are no thinkers
at all. And since I am in the way of it, pray consider one thing
farther: as young as you are, you cannot but have already observed, what
a violent run there is among too many weak people against university
education. Be firmly assured, that the whole cry is made up by those who
were either never sent to a college; or through their irregularities and
stupidity never made the least improvement while they were there. I have
at least[11] forty of the latter sort now in my eye; several of them in
this town, whose learning, manners, temperance, probity, good-nature,
and politics, are all of a piece. Others of them in the country,
oppressing their tenants, tyrannizing over the neighbourhood, cheating
the vicar, talking nonsense, and getting drunk at the sessions. It is
from such seminaries as these, that the world is provided with the
several tribes and denominations of freethinkers, who, in my judgment,
are not to be reformed by arguments offered to prove the truth of the
Christian religion, because reasoning will never make a man correct an
ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired: for in the course of
things, men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers; but if
you would once convince the town or country profligate, by topics drawn
from the view of their own quiet, reputation, health, and advantage,
their infidelity would soon drop off: This I confess is no easy task,
because it is almost in a literal sense, to fight with beasts. Now, to
make it clear, that we are to look for no other original of this
infidelity, whereof divines so much complain, it is allowed on all
hands, that the people of England are more corrupt in their morals than
any other nation at this day under the sun: and this corruption is
manifestly owing to other causes, both, numerous and obvious, much more
than to the publication of irreligious books, which indeed are but the
consequence of the former. For all the writers against Christianity
since the Revolution have been of the lowest rank among men in regard to
literature, wit, and good sense, and upon that account wholly
unqualified to propagate heresies, unless among a people already
abandoned.
[Footnote 11: Scott and Hawkesworth print "above forty." [T. S.]]
In an age where everything disliked by those who think with the majority
is called disaffection, it may perhaps be ill interpreted, when I
venture to tell you that this universal depravation of manners is owing
to the perpetual bandying of factions among us for thirty years past;
when without weighing the motives of justice, law, conscience, or
honour, every man adjusts his principles to those of the party he hath
chosen, and among whom he may best find his own account: But by reason
of our frequent vicissitudes, men who were impatient of being out of
play, have been forced to recant, or at least to reconcile their former
tenets with every new system of administration. Add to this, that the
old fundamental custom of annual parliaments being wholly laid aside,
and elections growing chargeable, since gentlemen found that their
country seats brought them in less than a seat in the House, the voters,
that is to say, the bulk of the common people have been universally
seduced into bribery, perjury, drunkenness, malice, and slanders.
Not to be further tedious, or rather invidious, these are a few among
other causes which have contributed to the ruin of our morals, and
consequently to the contempt of religion: For imagine to yourself, if
you please, a landed youth, whom his mother would never suffer to look
into a book for fear of spoiling his eyes, got into parliament, and
observing all enemies to the clergy heard with the utmost applause, what
notions he must imbibe; how readily he will join in the cry; what an
esteem he will conceive of himself; and what a contempt he must
entertain, not only for his vicar at home, but for the whole order.