The Works of Jonathan Swift Read Online

For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.

After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion, as to reject any offer, proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author or authors will be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, As things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for a hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, There being a round million of creatures in humane figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock, would leave them in debt two million of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession, to the bulk of farmers, cottagers and labourers, with their wives and children, who are beggars in effect; I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor cloaths to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of intailing the like, or greater miseries, upon their breed for ever.

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.

A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue

1712

Jonathan Swift, 1667–1745

A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, in a Letter to the Most Honourable Robert Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain, Printed from Benjamin Tooke, at the Middle Temple Gate, Fleetstreet, 1712

To the Most Honourable Robert Earl of Oxford, &c.

My Lord,

What I had the Honour of mentioning to Your Lordship some time ago in Conversation, was not a new Thought, just then started by Accident or Occasion, but the Result of long Reflection; and I have been confirmed in my Sentiments by the Opinion of some very judicious Persons, with whom I consulted. They all agreed, That noting would be of greater Use towards the Improvement of Knowledge and Politeness, than some effectual Method for Correcting, Enlarging, and Ascertaining our Language; and they think it a Work very possible to be compassed, under the Protection of a Prince, the Countenance and Encouragement of a Ministry, and the Care of Proper Persons chosen for such an Undertaking. I was glad to find Your Lordship’s Answer in so different a Style, from what hath been commonly made use of on the like Occasions, for some Years past, that all such Thoughts must be deferred to a Time of Peace: A Topick which some have carried so far, that they would not have us, by any means, think of preserving our Civil or Religious Constitution, because we were engaged in a War abroad. It will be among the distinguishing Marks of your Ministry, My Lord, that you had the Genius above all such Regards, and that no reasonable Proposal for the Honour, the Advantage, or the Ornament of Your Country, however foreign to Your immediate Office was ever neglected by You. I confess, the Merit of this Candor and Condescension is very much lessened, because Your Lordship hardly leaves us room to offer our good Wishes, removing all our Difficulties, and supplying all our Wants, faster than the most visionary Projector can adjust his Schemes. And therefore, My Lord, the Design of this Paper is not so much to offer YouWays and Means, as to complain of a Grievance, the redressing of which is to be Your own Work, as much as that of paying the Nation’s Debts, or opening a Trade into the South Sea; and though not of such immediate Benefit as either of these, or any other of Your glorious Actions, yet perhaps, in future Ages, not less to Your Honour.

My Lord; I do here in the Name of all the Learned and Polite Persons of the Nation, complain to your Lordship, as First Minister, the our Language is extremely imperfect; that its daily Improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily Corruptions; and the Pretenders to polish and refine it, have chiefly multiplied Abuses and Absurdities; and, that in many Instances, it offends against every Part of Grammar. But lest Your Lordship should think my Censure to be too severe, I shall take leave to be more particular.

I Believe Your Lordship will agree with me in the Reason, Why our Language is less Refined than those of Italy, Spain, or France. ’Tis plain that the Latin Tongue, in its Purity, was never in this Island, towards the Conquest of which few or no Attempts were made till the Time of Claudius; neither was that Language ever so vulgar in Britain, as it is known to have been in Gaul and Spain. Further, we find, that the Roman Legions here, were at length all recalled to help their Country against the Goths, and other barbarous Invaders. Mean time, the Britains, left to shift for themselves, and daily harassed by cruel Inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their Defense; who, consequently, reduced the greatest Part of the Island to their own Power, drove the Britains into the most remote and mountainous Parts, and the rest of the Country, in Customs, Religion, and Language, became wholly Saxon. This I take to be the Reason why there are more Latin words remaining in the BritishTongue, than in the old Saxon; which, excepting some few Variations in the Orthography, is the same, in most original Words, with our presentEnglish, as well as with the German, and other Northern Dialects.

Edward the Confessor having lived long in France, appears to be the first who introduced any mixture of the French Tongue with the Saxon; the Court affecting what the Prince was fond of, and others taking it up for a Fashion, as it is now with us. William the Conqueror proceeded much further; bringing over with him vast numbers of that Nation; scattering them in every Monastery; giving them great Quantities of Land, directing all Pleadings to be in that Language, and endeavouring to make it universal in the Kingdom. This, at least, is the Opinion generally received. But Your Lordship hath fully convinced me, that the French Tongue made yet a greater Progress here under Harry the Second, who had large Territories on that Continent, both from his Father and his Wife, made frequent Journeys and Expeditions there, and was always attended with a number of his Countrymen, Retainers at his Court. For some Centuries after, there was a constant Intercourse between France and England, by the Dominions we possessed there, and the Conquests we made; so that our Language, between two and three hundred Years ago, seems to have had a greater mixture with French. than at present; many Words having been afterwards rejected, and some since the time of Spencer; although we have still retained not a few, which have been long antiquated in France. I could produce several Instances of both kinds, if it were of any Use or Entertainment.

TO examine into the several Circumstances by which the Language of a Country may be altered, would force me to enter into a wide Field. I shall only observe, That the Latin, the French, and the English, seem to have undergone the same Fortune. The first, from the Days of Romulus to those of Julius Caesar, suffered perpetual Changes, and by what we meet in those Authors who occasionally speak on that Subject, as well as from certain Fragments of old Laws, it is manifest, that the Latin, Three hundred Years before Tully, was as unintelligible in his Time, as theEnglish and French of the same Period are now; and these two have changed as much since William the Conqueror (which is but little less than Seven hundred Years) as the Latin appears to have done in the like Term. Whether our Language or the French will decline as fast as the Roman did, is a Question that would perhaps admit more Debate than it is worth. There were many Reasons for the Corruptions of the last: As, the Change of their Government into a Tyranny, which ruined the Study of Eloquence, there being no further Use of Encouragement for popular Orators: Their giving not only the Freedom of the City, but Capacity for Employments, to several Towns in Gaul, Spain, and Germany, and other distant Parts, as far as Asia; which brought a great Number of forein Pretenders into Rome: The slavish Disposition of the Senate and the People, by which the Wit and Eloquence of the Age were wholly turned into Panegyrick, the most barren of all Subjects: The great Corruption of Manners, and Introduction of forein Luxury, with forein Terms to express it; with several others that might be assigned: Not to mention those Invasions from the Goths andVandals, which are too obvious to insist on.

THE Roman Language arrived at great Perfection before it began to decay: And the French for these last Fifty Years hath been polishing as much as it will bear, and appears to be declining by the natural Inconstancy of that People, and the Affection of some late Authors to introduce and multiply Cant Words, which is the most ruinous Corruption in any Language. La Bruyere a late celebrated Writer among them, makes use of many hundred new Terms, which are not to be found in any of the common Dictionaries before his Time. But the English Tongue is not arrived to such a Degree of Perfection, as to make us apprehend any Thoughts of its Decay; and if it were once refined to a certain Standard, perhaps there might be Ways found out to fix it for ever; or at least till we are invaded and made a Conquest by some other State; and even then our best Writings might probably be preserved with Care, and grow into Esteem, and the Authors have a Chance of Immortality.

BUT without such great Revolutions as these, (to which we are, I think less subject than Kingdoms upon the Continent) I see no absolute Necessity why any Language would be perpetually ; for we find many Example to the contrary. From Homer to Plutarch are above a Thousand Years; so long at least the Purity of the Greek Tongue may be allow’d to last, and we know not how far before. The Grecians spread their Colonies round all the Coasts of Asia Minor, even to the Northern Parts, lying towards the Euxine; in every Island of the Aegean Sea, and several others in the Mediterranean, where the Language was preserved entire for many Ages, after they themselves became Colonies to Rome, and till they were over-run by the barbarous Nations, upon the Fall of that Empire. TheChinese have Books in their Language above two Thousand Years old, neither have the frequent Conquests of the Tartars been able to alter it. The German, Spanish, and Italian, have admitted few or no Changes for some Ages past. The other Languages of Europe I know nothing of, neither is there any occasion to consider them.

HAVING taken this compass, I return to those Considerations upon our own Language, which I would humbly offer Your Lordship.