Book: The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV:

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Business, fear, guilt, design, anguish, and vexation are continually
buzzing about the curtains of the rich and the powerful, and will hardly
suffer them to close their eyes, unless when they are dosed with the
fumes of strong liquors.

It is a great mistake to imagine that the rich want but few things;
their wants are more numerous, more craving, and urgent, than those of
poorer men: For these endeavour only at the necessaries of life, which
make them happy, and they think no farther: But the desire of power and
wealth is endless, and therefore impossible to be satisfied with any
acquisitions.

If riches were so great a blessing as they are commonly thought, they
would at least have this advantage, to give their owners cheerful hearts
and countenances; they would often stir them up to express their
thankfulness to God, and discover their satisfaction to the world. But,
in fact, the contrary to all this is true. For where are there more
cloudy brows, more melancholy hearts, or more ingratitude to their great
Benefactor, than among those who abound in wealth? And, indeed, it is
natural that it should be so, because those men, who covet things that
are hard to be got, must be hard to please; whereas a small thing maketh
a poor man happy, and great losses cannot befall him.

It is likewise worth considering, how few among the rich have procured
their wealth by just measures; how many owe their fortunes to the sins
of their parents, how many more to their own? If men's titles were to be
tried before a true court of conscience, where false swearing, and a
thousand vile artifices, (that are well known, and can hardly be avoided
in human courts of justice) would avail nothing; how many would be
ejected with infamy and disgrace? How many grow considerable by breach
of trust, by bribery and corruption? How many have sold their religion,
with the rights and liberties of themselves and others, for power and
employments?

And, it is a mistake to think, that the most hardened sinner, who oweth
his possessions or titles to any such wicked arts of thieving, can have
true peace of mind, under the reproaches of a guilty conscience, and
amid the cries of ruined widows and orphans.

I know not one real advantage that the rich have over the poor, except
the power of doing good to others. But this is an advantage which God
hath not given wicked men the grace to make use of. The wealth acquired
by evil means was never employed to good ends; for that would be to
divide the kingdom of Satan against itself. Whatever hath been gained by
fraud, avarice, oppression, and the like, must be preserved and
increased by the same methods.

I shall add but one thing more upon this head, which I hope will
convince you, that God (whose thoughts are not as our thoughts) never
intended riches or power to be necessary for the happiness of mankind in
this life; because it is certain, that there is not one single good
quality of the mind absolutely necessary to obtain them, where men are
resolved to be rich at any rate; neither honour, justice, temperance,
wisdom, religion, truth, or learning; for a slight acquaintance of the
world will inform us, that there have been many instances of men, in all
ages, who have arrived at great possessions and great dignities, by
cunning, fraud, or flattery, without any of these, or any other virtues
that can be named. Now, if riches and greatness were such blessings,
that good men without them could not have their share of happiness in
this life; how cometh it to pass, that God should suffer them to be
often dealt to the worst, and most profligate of mankind; that they
should be generally procured by the most abominable means, and applied
to the basest and most wicked uses? This ought not to be conceived of a
just, a merciful, a wise, and Almighty Being. We must therefore
conclude, that wealth and power are in their own nature, at best, but
things indifferent, and that a good man may be equally happy without
them, provided that he hath a sufficiency of the common blessings of
human life to answer all the reasonable and virtuous demands of nature,
which his industry will provide, and sobriety will prevent his wanting.
Agur's prayer, with the reasons of his wish, are full to this purpose:
"Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for
me; lest I be full and deny thee, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or, lest I
be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain."

From what hath been said, I shall, in the second place, offer some
considerations, that may be useful for your practice.

And here I shall apply myself chiefly to those of the lower sort, for
whose comfort and satisfaction this discourse is principally intended.
For, having observed the great sin of those, who do not abound in
wealth, to be that of murmuring and repining, that God hath dealt his
blessings unequally to the sons of men, I thought it would be of great
use to remove out of your minds so false and wicked an opinion, by
shewing that your condition is really happier than most of you imagine.

_First:_ Therefore, it hath been always agreed in the world, that the
present happiness of mankind consisted in the ease of our body and the
quiet of our mind; but, from what has been already said, it plainly
appears, that neither wealth nor power do in any sort contribute to
either of these two blessings. If, on the contrary, by multiplying our
desires, they increase our discontents; if they destroy our health, gall
us with painful diseases, and shorten our life; if they expose us to
hatred, to envy, to censure, to a thousand temptations, it is not easy
to see why a wise man should make them his choice, for their own sake,
although it were in his power. Would any of you, who are in health and
strength of body, with moderate food and raiment earned by your own
labour, rather choose to be in the rich man's bed, under the torture of
the gout, unable to take your natural rest, or natural nourishment, with
the additional load of a guilty conscience, reproaching you for
injustice, oppressions, covetousness, and fraud? No; but you would take
the riches and power, and leave behind the inconveniences that attend
them; and so would every man living. But that is more than our share,
and God never intended this world for such a place of rest as we would
make it; for the Scripture assureth us that it was only designed as a
place of trial. Nothing is more frequent, than a man to wish himself in
another's condition; yet he seldom doth it without some reserve: He
would not be so old; he would not be so sickly; he would not be so
cruel; he would not be so insolent; he would not be so vicious; he would
not be so oppressive, so griping, and so on. From whence it is plain,
that, in their own judgment, men are not so unequally dealt with, as
they would at first sight imagine: For, if I would not change my
condition with another man, without any exception or reservation at all,
I am, in reality, more happy than he.

_Secondly_: You of the meaner sort are subject to fewer temptations than
the rich; and therefore your vices are more unpardonable. Labour
subdueth your appetites to be satisfied with common things; the business
of your several callings filleth up your whole time; so that idleness,
which is the bane and destruction of virtue, doth not lead you into the
neighbourhood of sin: Your passions are cooler, by not being inflamed
with excess, and therefore the gate and the way that lead to life are
not so straight and so narrow to you, as to those who live among all the
allurements to wickedness. To serve God with the best of your care and
understanding, and to be just and true in your dealings, is the short
sum of your duty, and will be the more strictly required of you, because
nothing lieth in the way to divert you from it.

_Thirdly_: It is plain from what I have said, that you of the lower rank
have no just reason to complain of your condition: Because, as you
plainly see, it affordeth you so many advantages, and freeth you from so
many vexations, so many distempers both of body and mind, which pursue
and torment the rich and powerful.

_Fourthly_: You are to remember and apply, that the poorest person is
not excused from doing good to others, and even relieving the wants of
his distressed neighbour, according to his abilities; and if you perform
your duty in this point, you far outdo the greatest liberalities of the
rich, and will accordingly be accepted of by God, and get your reward:
For it is our Saviour's own doctrine, when the widow gave her two mites.
The rich give out of their abundance; that is to say, what they give,
they do not feel it in their way of living: But the poor man, who giveth
out of his little stock, must spare it from the necessary food and
raiment of himself and his family. And, therefore, our Saviour adds,
"That the widow gave more than all who went before her; for she gave all
she had, even all her living;" and so went home utterly unprovided to
supply her necessities.

_Lastly_: As it appeareth from what hath been said, that you in the
lower rank have, in reality, a greater share of happiness, your work of
salvation is easier, by your being liable to fewer temptations; and as
your reward in Heaven is much more certain than it is to the rich, if
you seriously perform your duty, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven; so
your neglect of it will be less excusable, will meet with fewer
allowances from God, and will be punished with double stripes: For the
most unknowing among you cannot plead ignorance of what you have been so
early taught, I hope, so often instructed in, and which is so easy to be
understood, I mean the art of leading a life agreeable to the plain and
positive laws of God. Perhaps you may think you lie under one
disadvantage, which the great and rich have not; that idleness will
certainly reduce you to beggary; whereas those who abound in wealth lie
under no necessity either of labour or temperance to keep enough to live
on. But this is indeed one part of your happiness, that the lowness of
your condition, in a manner, forceth you to what is pleasing to God, and
necessary for your daily support. Thus your duty and interest are always
the same.

To conclude: Since our blessed Lord, instead of a rich and honourable
station in this world, was pleased to choose his lot among men of the
lower condition; let not those, on whom the bounty of Providence hath
bestowed wealth and honours, despise the men who are placed in a humble
and inferior station; but rather, with their utmost power, by their
countenance, by their protection, by just payment of their honest
labour, encourage their daily endeavours for the support of themselves
and their families. On the other hand, let the poor labour to provide
things honest in the sight of all men; and so, with diligence in their
several employments, live soberly, righteously, and godlily in this
present world, that they may obtain that glorious reward promised in the
Gospel to the poor, I mean the kingdom of Heaven.

Now, to God the Father, &c,




A SERMON ON THE CAUSES OF THE WRETCHED CONDITION OF IRELAND.[1]

[Footnote 1: This is not very properly styled a sermon; but, considered
as a political dissertation, it has great merit, and it is highly worthy
of the subject, and the author. Most of the circumstances here founded
upon, as the causes of national distress, are the subject of separate
disquisitions in those political writings connected with Ireland. But
they are here summed up, and brought into one view; and the opinions
expressed form a sort of index to the Dean's tenets upon the state of
that country. [S.]]


PSALM CXLIV. PART OF THE 14TH AND 15TH VERSES.

"That there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is the people that
is in such a case."


It is a very melancholy reflection, that such a country as ours, which
is capable of producing all things necessary, and most things convenient
for life, sufficient for the support of four times the number of its
inhabitants, should yet lie under the heaviest load of misery and want,
our streets crowded with beggars, so many of our lower sort of
tradesmen, labourers, and artificers, not able to find clothes and food
for their families.

I think it may therefore be of some use to lay before you the chief
causes of this wretched condition we are in, and then it will be easier
to assign what remedies are in our power toward removing, at least, some
part of these evils.

For it is ever to be lamented, that we lie under many disadvantages, not
by our own faults, which are peculiar to ourselves, and which no other
nation under heaven hath any reason to complain of.

I shall, therefore, first mention some causes of our miseries,--which I
doubt are not to be remedied, until God shall put it in the hearts of
those who are stronger to allow us the common rights and privileges of
brethren, fellow-subjects, and even of mankind. The first cause of our
misery is the intolerable hardships we lie under in every branch of our
trade, by which we are become as hewers of wood, and drawers of water,
to our rigorous neighbours.

The second cause of our miserable state is the folly, the vanity, and
ingratitude of those vast numbers, who think themselves too good to live
in the country which gave them birth, and still gives them bread; and
rather choose to pass their days, and consume their wealth, and draw out
the very vitals of their mother kingdom, among those who heartily
despise them.

These I have but lightly touched on, because I fear they are not to be
redressed, and, besides, I am very sensible how ready some people are to
take offence at the honest truth; and, for that reason, I shall omit
several other grievances, under which we are long likely to groan.

I shall therefore go on to relate some other causes of this nation's
poverty, by which, if they continue much longer, it must infallibly sink
to utter ruin.

The first is, that monstrous pride and vanity in both sexes, especially
the weaker sex, who, in the midst of poverty, are suffered to run into
all kind of expense and extravagance in dress, and particularly priding
themselves to wear nothing but what cometh from abroad, disdaining the
growth or manufacture of their own country, in those articles where they
can be better served at home with half the expense; and this is grown to
such a height, that they will carry the whole yearly rent of a good
estate at once on their body. And, as there is in that sex a spirit of
envy, by which they cannot endure to see others in a better habit than
themselves, so those, whose fortunes can hardly support their families
in the necessaries of life, will needs vie with the richest and greatest
amongst us, to the ruin of themselves and their posterity.

Neither are the men less guilty of this pernicious folly, who, in
imitation of a gaudiness and foppery of dress, introduced of late years
into our neighbouring kingdom, (as fools are apt to imitate only the
defects of their betters,) cannot find materials in their own country
worthy to adorn their bodies of clay, while their minds are naked of
every valuable quality.

Thus our tradesmen and shopkeepers, who deal in home goods, are left in
a starving condition, and only those encouraged who ruin the kingdom by
importing among us foreign vanities.

Another cause of our low condition is our great luxury, the chief
support of which is the materials of it brought to the nation in
exchange for the few valuable things left us, whereby so many thousand
families want the very necessaries of life.

_Thirdly_, In most parts of this kingdom the natives are from their
infancy so given up to idleness and sloth, that they often choose to beg
or steal, rather than support themselves with their own labour; they
marry without the least view or thought of being able to make any
provision for their families; and whereas, in all industrious nations,
children are looked on as a help to their parents; with us, for want of
being early trained to work, they are an intolerable burthen at home,
and a grievous charge upon the public, as appeareth from the vast number
of ragged and naked children in town and country, led about by strolling
women, trained up in ignorance and all manner of vice.

_Lastly_, A great cause of this nation's misery, is that Egyptian
bondage of cruel, oppressing, covetous landlords, expecting that all who
live under them should make bricks without straw, who grieve and envy
when they see a tenant of their own in a whole coat, or able to afford
one comfortable meal in a month, by which the spirits of the people are
broken, and made for slavery; the farmers and cottagers, almost through
the whole kingdom, being to all intents and purposes as real beggars as
any of those to whom we give our charity in the streets. And these cruel
landlords are every day unpeopling their kingdom, by forbidding their
miserable tenants to till the earth, against common reason and justice,
and contrary to the practice and prudence of all other nations, by which
numberless families have been forced either to leave the kingdom, or
stroll about, and increase the number of our thieves and beggars.

Such, and much worse, is our condition at present, if I had leisure or
liberty to lay it before you; and, therefore, the next thing which might
be considered is, whether there may be any probable remedy found, at the
least against some part of these evils; for most of them are wholly
desperate.

But this being too large a subject to be now handled, and the intent of
my discourse confining me to give some directions concerning the poor of
this city, I shall keep myself within those limits. It is indeed in the
power of the lawgivers to found a school in every parish of the kingdom,
for teaching the meaner and poorer sort of children to speak and read
the English tongue, and to provide a reasonable maintenance for the
teachers. This would, in time, abolish that part of barbarity and
ignorance, for which our natives are so despised by all foreigners: this
would bring them to think and act according to the rules of reason, by
which a spirit of industry, and thrift, and honesty would be introduced
among them. And, indeed, considering how small a tax would suffice for
such a work, it is a public scandal that such a thing should never have
been endeavoured, or, perhaps, so much as thought on.

To supply the want of such a law, several pious persons, in many parts
of this kingdom, have been prevailed on, by the great endeavours and
good example set them by the clergy, to erect charity-schools in several
parishes, to which very often the richest parishioners contribute the
least. In those schools, children are, or ought to be, trained up to
read and write, and cast accounts; and these children should, if
possible, be of honest parents, gone to decay through age, sickness, or
other unavoidable calamity, by the hand of God; not the brood of wicked
strollers; for it is by no means reasonable, that the charity of
well-inclined people should be applied to encourage the lewdness of
those profligate, abandoned women, who crowd our streets with their
borrowed or spurious issue.

In those hospitals which have good foundations and rents to support
them, whereof, to the scandal of Christianity, there are very few in
this kingdom; I say, in such hospitals, the children maintained ought to
be only of decayed citizens, and freemen, and be bred up to good trades.
But in these small-parish charity-schools which have no support, but the
casual goodwill of charitable people, I do altogether disapprove the
custom of putting the children 'prentice, except to the very meanest
trades; otherwise the poor honest citizen, who is just able to bring up
his child, and pay a small sum of money with him to a good master, is
wholly defeated, and the bastard issue, perhaps, of some beggar
preferred before him. And hence we come to be so overstocked with
'prentices and journeymen, more than our discouraged country can employ;
and, I fear, the greatest part of our thieves, pickpockets, and other
vagabonds are of this number.

Therefore, in order to make these parish charity-schools of great and
universal use, I agree with the opinion of many wise persons, that a new
turn should be given to this whole matter.

I think there is no complaint more just than what we find in almost
every family, of the folly and ignorance, the fraud and knavery, the
idleness and viciousness, the wasteful squandering temper of servants,
who are, indeed, become one of the many public grievances of the
kingdom; whereof, I believe, there are few masters that now hear me who
are not convinced by their own experience. And I am not very confident,
that more families, of all degrees, have been ruined by the corruptions
of servants, than by all other causes put together. Neither is this to
be wondered at, when we consider from what nurseries so many of them are
received into our houses. The first is the tribe of wicked boys,
wherewith most corners of this town are pestered, who haunt public
doors. These, having been born of beggars, and bred to pilfer as soon as
they can go or speak, as years come on, are employed in the lowest
offices to get themselves bread, are practised in all manner of
villainy, and when they are grown up, if they are not entertained in a
gang of thieves, are forced to seek for a service. The other nursery is
the barbarous and desert part of the country, from whence such lads come
up hither to seek their fortunes, who are bred up from the dunghill in
idleness, ignorance, lying, and thieving. From these two nurseries, I
say, a great number of our servants come to us, sufficient to corrupt
all the rest. Thus, the whole race of servants in this kingdom have
gotten so ill a reputation, that some persons from England, come over
hither into great stations, are said to have absolutely refused
admitting any servant born among us into their families. Neither can
they be justly blamed; for although it is not impossible to find an
honest native fit for a good service, yet the inquiry is too
troublesome, and the hazard too great for a stranger to attempt.

If we consider the many misfortunes that befall private families, it
will be found that servants are the causes and instruments of them all:
Are our goods embezzled, wasted and destroyed? Is our house burnt down
to the ground? It is by the sloth, the drunkenness or the villainy of
servants. Are we robbed and murdered in our beds? It is by confederacy
with our servants. Are we engaged in quarrels and misunderstandings with
our neighbours? These were all begun and inflamed by the false,
malicious tongues of our servants. Are the secrets of our families
betrayed, and evil repute spread of us? Our servants were the authors.
Do false accusers rise up against us (an evil too frequent in this
country)? They have been tampering with our servants. Do our children
discover folly, malice, pride, cruelty, revenge, undutifulness in their
words and actions? Are they seduced to lewdness or scandalous marriages?
It is all by our servants. Nay, the very mistakes, follies, blunders,
and absurdities of those in our service, are able to ruffle and
discompose the mildest nature, and are often of such consequence, as to
put whole families into confusion.

Since therefore not only our domestic peace and quiet, and the welfare
of our children, but even the very safety of our lives, reputations, and
fortunes have so great a dependence upon the choice of our servants, I
think it would well become the wisdom of the nation to make some
provision in so important an affair. But in the meantime, and, perhaps,
to better purpose, it were to be wished, that the children of both
sexes, entertained in the parish charity-schools, were bred up in such a
manner as would give them a teachable disposition, and qualify them to
learn whatever is required in any sort of service. For instance, they
should be taught to read and write, to know somewhat in casting
accounts, to understand the principles of religion, to practise
cleanliness, to get a spirit of honesty, industry, and thrift, and be
severely punished for every neglect in any of these particulars. For, it
is the misfortune of mankind, that if they are not used to be taught in
their early childhood, whereby to acquire what I call a teachable
disposition, they cannot, without great difficulty, learn the easiest
thing in the course of their lives, but are always awkward and unhandy;
their minds, as well as bodies, for want of early practice, growing
stiff and unmanageable, as we observe in the sort of gentlemen, who,
kept from school by the indulgence of their parents but a few years, are
never able to recover the time they have lost, and grow up in ignorance
and all manner of vice, whereof we have too many examples all over the
nation. But to return to what I was saying: If these charity children
were trained up in the manner I mentioned, and then bound apprentices in
the families of gentlemen and citizens, (for which a late law giveth
great encouragement) being accustomed from their first entrance to be
always learning some useful thing, [they] would learn, in a month, more
than another, without those advantages, can do in a year; and, in the
meantime, be very useful in a family, as far as their age and strength
would allow. And when such children come to years of discretion, they
will probably be a useful example to their fellow-servants, at least
they will prove a strong check upon the rest; for, I suppose, everybody
will allow, that one good, honest, diligent servant in a house may
prevent abundance of mischief in the family.

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