be thought rather to proceed from defects in nature, than from the scrupulous difficulties of a tender conscience. Such a supposition will still appear more strong, if we recollect the distant manner in which Swift cohabited with Stella; colder, if possible, after, than before she was his wife."
I appeal to the reader whether he ever met in the most stupid, or malicious commentator, such a total perversion of the meaning of words. To show this it its strongest light, let us place the text, and explanation in opposition to each other.
| Text. | Explanation. |
|
That virtue pleas'd by being shown |
That vice, as soon as it defied shame, was immediately changed into virtue.
|
|
That common forms were not design'd |
That vulgar forms were not binding upon certain choice spirits, to whom either the writings, or the persons of men of wit were acceptable.
|
According to this account, the man who had been all his life a votary to virtue; whose chief delight it was to instil the best principles into the minds of youth; who had trained the amiable Stella, from her early days, in such a way, as, by the remarker's own description of her, made her a model of perfection; this man, I say, all of a sudden became a proselyte to vice; betrayed the confidence reposed in him by the mother, his particular friend, to corrupt the mind of her innocent daughter, so as to make her lose
