degree of virtue from mortal men." He was speaking to them of the
impossibility of office-holders being independent of the government
under which they held their offices. "Blazing stars," he said, "are much
more frequently seen than such heroical virtues." As the Irish people
were governed by such men he advised them strongly to choose a
parliamentary representative from among themselves. He insisted on the
value of their collected voice, their unanimity of effort, a
consciousness of their understanding of what they wished to bring about.
"Be independent" is the text of all his writings to the people of
Ireland. It is idle to appeal to England's clemency or England's
justice. It is vain to evolve social schemes and Utopian dreams. The
remedy lay in their own hands, if the people only realized it.

"Violent zeal for truth," Swift noted in one of his "Thoughts on
Religion," "has a hundred to one odds to be either petulancy, ambition,
or pride." Examining Swift's writings on behalf of Ireland by the
criterion provided in this statement, we must acquit him entirely of
misusing any of these qualities. If he were bitter or scornful, he was
certainly not petulant. No one has written with more justice or
coolness; the temper is hot but it is the heat of a conscious and
collected indignation. If he wrote or spoke in a manner somewhat
overbearing, it was not because of ambition, since he was now long past
his youth and his mind had become settled in a fairly complacent
acceptance of his position. If he had pride, and he undoubtedly had, it
was nowhere obtruded for personal aggrandizement, but rather by way of
emphasizing the dignity of citizenship, and the value of self-respect.
Assuredly, in these Irish tracts, Swift was no violent zealot for truth.
Indeed, it is a high compliment to pay him, to say that we wonder he
restrained himself as he did.