higher People shew'd a
true publick Spirit, it wou'd produce vast Effects amongst us; it wou'd
stir up Invention, Industry and Emulation, and in a Word awaken every
Genius, every useful Man in this Kingdom. We have had very
extraordinary Persons Born and Educated here, and we wou'd have them
still, if our Leaders wou'd make use of that plain Method, by proper
Premiums to raise Seed-Beds and Nurseries for them, and use our Youth
to think, and to excell. How easily might they call out every one's
best Qualities, to the properest Purposes, and encourage every Man, who
finds he has the Seeds of Virtue, the Power of Thinking and Acting for
himself or others, and a proper force of Mind, to try how far his
Abilities can go. If this can't be brought about, and if for want of
such a miserable Stock of common Sense and common Virtue in _Ireland_,
we are to be left to ourselves, and employ'd in doing nothing but
making a little Linen, I can only say, we are the most negligent and
neglected People under Heaven.

SWIFT. Ah _Tom! Tom!_ what must we think of our Physicians, where our
Diseases are so dangerous and are yet so manageable, and where the
Remedies are so easy and parable? Where nothing but slighting our
Disorders can make our Cure doubtful, and where they give over the
Patient barely for want of being feed? What must become of a Country,
where about 600,000 _l._ of its Rents are annually spent Abroad, by a
Crowd of Parricides, which we call Absentees; where as much more is
spent at home, in foreign Growths or Manufactures by _Irish_ Suicides,
and the rest is laid out in Dress and Equipage, in Gaming and Drinking,
and Horse-Racing, except a Pittance that is scrambled for, by our
Labourers and Workmen to buy Potatoes and Whisky, and once in a Month,
half a Peck of Meal for the Children of the Nation. What will become of
a Kingdom, whose Manufactures are the Scorn of its own Inhabitants; who
will not Drink of their own Liquors, write on their own Paper, or be
fed with their own Bread, as I observ'd before, and can't observe too
often: Nay, where the Poor by giving into these fine Fashions, seem as
well inclin'd to destroy us as the Rich? What must become of a Nation
of Beggars, and none to relieve them? What must become of a Country,
where the common People make as much Interest, to be put on the List of
the Parish Poor, and be authorized to Starve upon Charity; as their
Landlords, and 'Squires do to get a Place or a Sallary,