eed
out of your Conversation; so that it should seem Mr. _Dean_, if I am
such a wretched Politician as you say, I may as fairly and more truly
tell you, that you have not shewn your self a very able Divine.

SWIFT. I smile at the Weakness of the Objection, but I am quite
delighted with the Malice of it. Let me tell you, Sir, I had something
else to do with my Divinity, than filling Pamphlets with it to make
madmen Merry, and wisemen Sick. There is a Decency, or shall I rather
say a Chastity in Writing or Thinking on such exalted Subjects, that
great Minds are apt to Cherish, which keeps them Cautious and
Diffident, where weak Men are as bold and as rash (to use an homely
Phrase) as a blind Mare in a Mire. I have known many silly Preachers,
and paperscull'd Writers in my Time, that were troubled with the
Divinity Squirt, and were forc'd to print, or to be tormented with the
Cholick, or foul themselves; and so they exposed their Nakedness to the
World, with all their Rhapsodies of dreaming Thoughts, borrowed Sense,
and hearsay Learning. I was none of those High Dutch Inkshiters as
somebody calls them; and instead of sending my Religion to the Press to
make other Men frantick, I kept mine at home to keep my self Sober. As
to the rest of your Objection, Sir, I must confess I did not talk much
of Divinity, nor did I love to hear others bring it into Conversation;
for it was always my Opinion, that tho' Divinity and Piety are at home
in the Church and the Closet, yet every where else they are used as
Strangers, and should be treated with the highest Respect and Ceremony.
The Practice Men have fallen into, of over-writing and over-talking
themselves on such Subjects, has done and is doing such harm in the
World, that I wonder it has not been hist out of it; but there are some
Persons so fond of haranguing, declaiming and setting out their Noise
to the Crowd, that if they wrote on Geometry or Algebra, they would
flourish and use Tropes and Figures to shew their Parts and their
Eloquence, and so in spite of all Advice and Experience, Divinity and
Religion must be bother'd out of their Senses by Praters and Scriblers
and half Thinkers.

But prithee _Tom_, let my Divinity alone. Why should you strive to vex
me by throwing Dirt at me now, tho' you know I was never disturbed by
such impotent Petulance, when I was above Ground; or else I had
Revilers enough to make me as Sick of _Ireland_, after all the Service
I had done it by my