that solecisms can be found; and
whoever depends on his authority may generally conclude himself safe.
His sentences are never too much dilated or contracted; and it will not
be easy to find any embarrassment in the complication of his clauses,
any inconsequence in his connections, or abruptness in his transitions.
His style was well suited to his thoughts, which are never subtilised
by nice disquisitions, decorated by sparkling conceits, elevated by
ambitious sentences, or variegated by far-sought learning. He pays no
court to the passions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration: he
always understands himself, and his readers always understand him: the
peruser of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be sufficient
that he is acquainted with common words and common things; he is neither
required to mount elevations, nor to explore profundities; his passage
is always on a level, along solid ground, without asperities, without
obstruction. This easy and safe conveyance of meaning it was Swift's
desire to attain, and for having attained he deserves praise. For
purposes merely didactic, when something is to be told that was not
known before, it is the best mode; but against that inattention by which
known truths are suffered to lie neglected, it makes no provision; it
instructs, but does not persuade.

By his political education he was associated with the Whigs; but he
deserted them when they deserted their principles, yet without running
into the contrary extreme; he continued throughout his life to retain
the disposition which he assigns to the "Church-of-England Man," of
thinking commonly with the Whigs of the State, and with the Tories
of the Church. He was a Churchman, rationally zealous; he desired the
prosperity, and maintained the honour of the clergy; of the Dissenters
he did not wish to infringe the Toleration, but he opposed their
encroachments. To his duty as Dean he was very attentive. He managed
the revenues of his church with exact economy; and it is said by Delany,
that more money was, under his direction, laid out in repairs, than had
ever been in the same time since its first erection. Of his choir he
was eminently careful; and though he neither loved nor understood music,
took care that all the singers were well qualified, admitting none
without the testimony of skilful judges.

In his church he restored the practice of weekly communion, and
distributed the sacramental elements in the most