good a work" in conclusion, "earnestly recommending to them to avoid disputes; and determining to do all that in her lies to compose and extinguish them." It is to be hoped, that this last part of her majesty's 5 letter will be the first she will please to execute; for it seems, this very letter created the first dispute, the fact whereof is thus related:-The Upper House, having formed an address to the queen before they received her majesty's letter, sent both address and letter together to 10 the Lower House, with a message, excusing their not mentioning the letter in the address; because this was formed before the other was received. The Lower House returned them, with a desire that an address might be formed with a due regard and acknowledgments 15 for the letter. After some difficulties, the same address was sent down again, with a clause inserted, making some short mention of the said letter. This the Lower House did not think sufficient, and sent it back again with the same request; whereupon the archbishop, after a short 20 consultation with some of his brethren, immediately adjourned the convocation for a month; and no address at all was sent to the queen. I understand not ecclesiastical affairs well enough to comment upon this matter; but it seems to me, that all 25 methods of doing service to the church and kingdom, by means of a convocation, may be at any time eluded, if there be no remedy against such an incident. And, if this proceeding be agreeable to the institution, spiritual assemblies must needs be strangely contrived, very differ30 ent from any lay senate yet known in the world. Surely, from the nature of such a synod, it must be a very unhappy circumstance, when the majority of the bishops draws one way, and that of the lower clergy another. The latter, I think, are not at this time suspected for any principle bordering upon those professed by enemies to episcopacy; and if they happen to differ from the greater part of the present set of bishops, I doubt it will call some things to mind, that may turn the scale of general favour on the inferior clergy's side; who, with a profound 5 duty to her majesty, are perfectly pleased with the present turn of affairs. Besides, curious people will be apt to inquire into the dates of some promotions; to call to mind what designs were then upon the anvil, and thence make malicious deductions. Perhaps they will observe the manner of voting 10 on the bishops' bench, and compare it with what shall pass in the upper house of convocation. There is, however, one comfort, that, under the present dispositions of the kingdom, a dislike to the proceedings of any of their lordships, even to the number of a majority, will be purely personal, and 15 not turned to the disadvantage of the order. And for my part, as I am a true lover of the church, I would rather find the inclinations of the people favourable to episcopacy in general, than see a majority of prelates cried up by those who are known enemies to the character. Nor, indeed, hath 20 anything given me more offence for several years past, than to observe how some of that bench have been caressed by certain persons, and others of them openly celebrated by the infamous pens of atheists, republicans, and fanatics. Time and mortality can only remedy these inconveniences 25 in the church, which are not to be cured, like those in the state, by a change of ministry. If we may guess the temper of a convocation from the choice of a prolocutor, as it is usual to do that of a house of commons by the speaker, we may expect great things from that reverend body, who have 30 done themselves much reputation, by pitching upon a gentleman of so much piety, wit, and learning, for that office, and one who is so thoroughly versed in those parts of knowledge which are proper for it. I am sorry that the three Latin speeches, delivered upon presenting the prolocutor, were not made public; they might, perhaps, have given us some light into the disposition of each house; and, besides, one of them is said to be so peculiar in the style and 5 matter, as might have made up in entertainment what it wanted in instruction. NOTES. EARLY POEMS. Swift's respect Page 40. William Sancroft (1616–1693), Archbishop of Canterbury, had been the leader of the English Bishops in their resistance to James II's scheme of Indulgence. But Sancroft's adherence to 'divine right' principles forced him, after the Revolution, to resign the Archbishopric, and join the Nonjuring party. for Sancroft-although he had no sympathy with Sancroft's extreme views-shows the underlying vein of ecclesiastical Toryism that influenced him, even before he had separated himself from the Whig party. Swift rarely adopted any views that were those of Dryden : but Dryden in the Fables (version of Chaucer's Good Parson) refers to Sancroft's action in similar terms of praise. 1. 3. that high sacred seven has doubtless reference to the seven lights of the Tabernacle (Exodus xxv.), the seven lamps of the prophet Zechariah's vision, and to the seven stars of Revelation (ii.). Cf. Milton, Parad. Lost iii. 654 'Uriel, for thou of those seven spirits that stand and Milton's poem On Time (v. 14): 'When everything that is sincerely good And perfectly divine, With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine About the supreme Throne.' 41, 1. 7. Swift may have had in his mind here the imagery of the Cave in Plato's Republic; but the lines are more immediately based upon his study of Descartes' treatise on optics, with the theories of the transmission and refraction of light. The Cartesian artists in 1. 13 are those who attempted to illustrate the new theories by experiments with the camera obscura, the effects of which are described in the following lines. 42, 1. 15. The whole of this stanza is extremely obscure: but it seems to show the effects of the same recent study of Descartes, as may be inferred from stanza II. The first lines appear to mean: 'Some men, in order to be of great influence, and to satisfy their own vanity, make their minds wander over the whole expanse of thought, and are involved in contradictions and inconsistencies-all in order to find arguments in favour of some material ease of place (such as clinging by casuistical arguments to a post like that surrendered by Sancroft, the tenure of which was against their conscience).' But this must only be conjectural: and the comparisons with the mistaken notions as to the sun's motion, and the herd, who are deceived by the weathercock, would seem to point rather to a philosophical error, than to the selfishness dictated by a false casuistry in matters of conduct. The reference to the 'vortex' is doubtless a reminiscence of the system of Descartes (cf. p. 165, 1. 10 note): and it is curious that the next lines cite the false belief in the sun's motion, which Descartes as well as Galileo had combated. Part of the obscurity of this stanza seems to be due to the fact that Swift avoids committing himself entirely to the defence of Sancroft's position. In later days he by no means sympathized with the Nonjurors; and although now he honours Sancroft's integrity, he seems to deprecate the careless and self-satisfied criticism of the crowd, and to deny any inference as to Sancroft's disaffection to the Government, rather than to defend entirely the position which Sancroft had assumed. 43, 1. 13. In gathering follies from the wise, i. e. ‘in finding instances which may prove that the wise may give way to folly.' Swift does not himself ascribe the folly to Sancroft: but he admits that the multitude may put such an interpretation upon Nonjuring, as though it amounted to disaffection. 1. 26. It would be absurd to draw any special political inference from this. Swift could not mean that the recent misfortunes of James II were due to his excess of gentleness, nor could he mean to hint any repugnance to the Revolution. All he intended, probably, was to urge the necessity of strengthening the Crown as a bulwark against faction, and perhaps to convey a hint that William was not using for the check of faction all that authority with which the nation had entrusted him. But cf. note on p. 67, 1. 21. 1. 29. Cf. Rich. II, Act iii, Sc. 4: 'Our sea-walled garden, the whole land, Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up,' &c. 44, 1. 5. original mildness. This is probably addressed to Sancroft. 'Original' has much the same sense as the 'prisca fides' of Virgil. 1. 20. In wholly equalling our sin and theirs. 'I should be |