Mortal open secrets written down

   Thus, in the choice of a
   Devil, it hath been the
   usual Method of Mankind,
   to single out some being,
   either in Act, of in Vi-
   sion, which was in most
   Antipathy to the God they
   had framed.. For I think
   it one of the greatest,
   and best of human Actions
   to remove Prejudices, and
   place Things in their tru-
   est and fairest Light..

   In the 18th Century this

   language went public, in

   an outpouring of satiric

   contests; its brilliants

   simmered somewhat merci-

   lessly, a mode unfortun-

   ately more imitable than

   their means. As Jonathan

   Swift retreated to Let-

   combe, his close allies

   looked in, to cheer him

   up: Dr Arbuthnot, Alex-

   ander Pope, a few others.

   Arbuthnot was attending

   the dying Queen, Pope

   was translating Homer,

   and Swift was readying

   an abdication to Dublin.

   They were losing a hard

   political struggle to-

   gether, but the language

   kept their relics close,

   almost as its conscience.

Never repeat that melancholy tender word, that you will endeavour to forget me. I am sure I can never forget you, till I meet with (what is impossible) another whose conversation I can delight so much in as Dr Swift's: and yet that is the smallest thing I ought to value you for. That hearty sincere friendship, that plain and open ingenuity, in all your commerce, is what I am sure I can never find in another, alas. I shall want often a faithful monitor, one that would vindicate me behind my back and tell me my faults to my face. God knows I write this with tears in my eyes.

Jonathan Swift
A Tale of a Tub
1710
op. cit.

Arbuthnot to Swift
  August, 1714

Leo Damrosch
Jonathan Swift
  His Life and His World
Yale University Press, 2013©