English and Literature “The Age of Reason / Enlightenment”

English and Literature

“The Age of Reason / Enlightenment”

 

A.  The Age Reason / Enlightenment

The Enlightenment or Age of Reason:  1700s / Eighteenth Century – Europe and America. The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, is the name given to the period in Europe and America during the 1700s when mankind was emerging from centuries of ignorance into a new age enlightened by reason, science, and respect for humanity. People of the Enlightenment were convinced that human reason could discover the natural laws of the universe and determine the natural rights of mankind; thereby unending progress in knowledge, technical achievement, and moral values would be realized.

This new way of thinking led to the development of a new religious thought known as Deism. Deists believed in God as a great inventor or architect who had created the universe then allowed it to function like a machine or clock without divine intervention. Although Deists believed in a hereafter, they believed human achievement and happiness should be the focus of this life rather than the life to come.

Benevolence toward less fortunate people, humanitarianism, resulted. Difficult though it is for us to realize, the idea that people who are more fortunate should assist those who are less fortunate was, in fact, a new concept during the Enlightenment. Prior to this, religious beliefs

perceived assistance to the unfortunate as interference with God because people thought if someone were unfortunate, it was God’s will and was punishment for wrongdoing.

a.       Major Changes in Europe: Political, Social, Economic, and Religious

Politically, wars during the 1700s were most often fought within countries over secession to a throne rather than between countries. Monarchies still often ruled during the 1700s, but with less security than in earlier times. The English executed their king in 1642, France executed their king and queen (in 1793 and 1794 respectively) during the French Revolution, and other European monarchies soon fell. Royal instability suggested insecurity of the social order over which aristocracies had ruled.

Economically, new trade between countries generated new wealth. The newly wealthy tradesman and merchant class demanded a share of the social and political power formally held only by the nobility. As a result of the political and economic changes during the eighteenth century, there were major social changes as well. The former rigid class system based on inherited positions of nobility and wealth became far less secure.

There were also major religious changes during the 1700s. There was a significant decline in church power and prestige, which resulted primarily from people’s no longer believing in God’s daily involvement in their human affairs. Prior to the Enlightenment, before the discovery of natural laws, people had believed that every event that occurred, no matter how major or minor, was a direct result of God’s intervention. Once scientists discovered that natural laws caused these occurrences, mankind feared God less, and as a result, religious obligations were no longer the primary concern of many people.

Rather than focusing on God and the church, people of the Enlightenment focused on man. Alexander Pope, a famous English poet, wrote a rhyming couplet (two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme) that describes well the attitude of the time: “Know then thyself; presume not God to scan. The proper study of mankind is man.”

The eighteenth century recognized the interdependence of men on each other. Rather than the agricultural society prevalent during the previous feudal period, the 1700s saw the development of cosmopolitan society. People lived in clusters and depended upon each other rather than living alone and being independent of one another. The importance of cooperation and mutual respect became obvious.

B.  Lady Mary Chudleigh “ To The Ladies ”

a.       Biography of Lady Mary Chudleigh

Mary, the daughter of Richard Lee, was born in August 1656, in Winslade in the county of Devon, England. While she, like most women of her time, received little in the way of formal education, she read widely ^[3] and educated herself in theology, science, and philosophy.^[4]

She married Sir George Chudleigh of Ashton, also in Devon. Her biographers argue as to whether their marriage was happy; her references to marriage as a trap that was psychologically stifling for women suggest that she may have had personal experience with an overbearing husband,^[5] but on the other hand, he did allow her to publish several feminist works during his lifetime, and her previously-unpublished work was saved carefully by the family after her death.^[6] They had at least three children: Eliza Maria, George (later the next Sir George), Thomas, and possibly others.

Little else is known about her life except for the fact that her daughter must have died young, as her grief is mentioned in her letters and some poetry. Mary Chudleigh died in 1710.

b.      “To The Ladies” By Lady Mary Chudleigh

Wife and Servant are the same, But only differ in the Name: For when that fatal Knot is ty'd, Which nothing, nothing can divide: When she the word obey has said, [5] And Man by Law supreme has made, Then all that's kind is laid aside, And nothing left but State and Pride: Fierce as an Eastern Prince he grows, And all his innate Rigor shows: [10] Then but to look, to laugh, or speak, Will the Nuptial Contract break. Like Mutes she Signs alone must make, And never any Freedom take: But still be govern'd by a Nod, [15] And fear her Husband as her God: Him still must serve, him still obey, And nothing act, and nothing say, But what her haughty Lord thinks fit, Who with the Pow'r, has all the Wit. [20] Then shun, oh! shun that wretched State, And all the fawning Flatt'rers hate: Value your selves, and Men despise, You must be proud, if you'll be wise.

Mary Chudleigh's poem "To the Ladies" provides commentary on the institution of marriage. The author begins by putting forth her heartfelt conclusion:

Wife and servant are the same.

In other words, once a woman becomes a wife, she also becomes a servant—the words are synonymous; the difference between "wife" and "servant" is simply a question of semantics.

The author addresses the sentiments of marriage. Whereas marriage is often referred to as "tying the knot," the author states that it is a fatal knot. "Fatal" here is used very precisely, and is a word associated with death: the threat or actuality of dying. "Fatal" is a warning.

The lines of a wedding ceremony, "...let no man put asunder" are alluded to: the bonds of matrimony shall never be severed—though the author's description makes it sound more like a curse. She writes:

...which nothing, nothing can divide...

The repetition of the word "nothing" stresses the permanent nature of this bond. Once the woman says her vows, promising to "obey," the "law supreme" (more likely society's laws rather than God's) makes certain she adheres to those promises not just in spirit, but in deed.

The following line indicates that after the vows, the wooing is over and things get very serious.

Then all that's kind is laid aside...

The love notes, flowers, and flirtations are at an end. It is now time to pay attention to the serious nature of marriage. When a woman takes her vows, she then belongs to her husband. Like an "eastern prince," the man grows more powerful, and the woman becomes powerless. When the speaker refers to "...And all his innate rigour shows," she is explaining that once married, a husband's natural tendency toward stiff, unbending behavior awakes.

The author goes on to describe the rules for the new wife: looking, laughing, or speaking when not permitted to do so may be all that is necessary to break the wedding vows. Like one who is "mute," the new wife must "make signs" rather than open her mouth. This may be literal (unable to speak), but a figurative meaning seems more likely. The author's suggestion may be that the wife is no longer free to say what is on her mind, but may share only those "approved" sentiments expected of a good wife.

The next section explains that the bride will have no freedom; she will be instructed by her husband's nod and she must fear him as if he were God. Every day she will be expected to serve and obey; she may not have any original thoughts—her only thoughts are those her husband approves of. He exerts the power in their world; he is the one with the intelligence, not his wife.

Finally, with all these dire circumstances presented, the author issues her final warning. Women should do anything possible to avoid ("shun") the ["wretched"] state of marriage. (Her intent is seen in her repetition of "shun.") If a man approaches a woman with flattery and fawning (giving exaggerated attention), detest him. Beyond all things, a woman must remember her importance and her value as an individual, and spurn the attention of men. A woman must be proud, wise, and single in order to be happy.

Although Lady Mary Chudleigh was herself married, and a mother of five children, she was not unknown to speak out against things occurring that affected women of the time. She wrote another poem called "The Ladies Defence," influenced by an angry sermon preached against the fair sex.

C.  Alexander Pope From “ The Rape of The Lock”

a.       Biography of Alexander Pope

     ALEXANDER POPE, English poet, was born in Lombard Street, London, on the 21st of May 1688. His father, Alexander Pope, a Roman Catholic, was a linen-draper who afterwards retired from business with a small fortune, and fixed his residence about 1700 at Binfield in Windsor Forest. Pope's education was desultory. His father's religion would have excluded him from the public schools, even had there been no other impediment to his being sent there. Before he was twelve he had obtained a smattering of Latin and Greek from various masters, from a priest in Hampshire, from a schoolmaster at Twyford near Winchester, from Thomas Deane, who kept a school in Marylebone and afterwards at Hyde Park Corner, and finally from another priest at home. Between his twelfth and his seventeenth years excessive application to study undermined his health, and he developed the personal deformity which was in so many ways to distort his view of life. He thought himself dying, but through a friend, Thomas (afterwards the Abbe) Southcote, he obtained the advice of the famous physician John Radcliffe, who prescribed diet and exercise. Under this treatment the boy recovered his strength and spirits. "He thought himself the better," Spence says, "in some respects for not having had a regular education. He (as he observed in particular) read originally for the sense, whereas we are taught for so many years to read only for words." He afterwards learnt French and Italian, probably in a similar way. He read translations of the Greek, Latin, French and Italian poets, and by the age of twelve, when he was finally settled at home and left to himself, he was not only a confirmed reader, but an eager aspirant to the highest honours in poetry. There is a story, which chronological considerations make extremely improbable, that in London he had crept into Will's coffee-house to look at Dryden, and a further tale that the old poet had given him a shilling for a translation of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe; he had lampooned his schoolmaster; he had made a play out of John Ogilby's Iliad for his schoolfellows; and before he was fifteen he had written an epic, his hero being Alcander, a prince of Rhodes, or, as he states elsewhere, Deucalion.

The year 1725 may be taken as the beginning of the third period of Pope's career, when he made his fame as a moralist and a satirist. It may be doubted whether Pope had the staying power necessary for the composition of a great imaginative work, whether his crazy constitution would have held together through the strain. He toyed with the idea of writing a grand epic. He told Spence that he had it all in his head, and gave him a vague (and it must be admitted not very promising) sketch of the subject and plan of it. But he never put any of it on paper. He shrank as with instinctive repulsion from the stress and strain of complicated designs. Even his prolonged task of translating weighed heavily on his spirits, and this was a much less formidable effort than creating an epic. He turned rather to designs that could be accomplished in detail, works of which the parts could be separately laboured at and put together with patient care, into which happy thoughts could be fitted that had been struck out at odd moments and in ordinary levels of feeling.

      He died on the 30th of May 1744, and he was buried in the parish church of Twickenham. He left the income from his property to Martha Blount till her death, after which it was to go to his half-sister Magdalen Rackett and her children. His unpublished MSS. were left at the discretion of Lord Bolingbroke, and his copyrights to Warburton.

b.      “The Rape of the Lock” By Alexander Pope

Summary

The Rape of the Lock opens with an invocation of a muse and establishes the poem’s subject matter, specifically a “dire offense from amorous causes” and the “mighty contests [rising] from trivial things” (1-2). The speaker concludes his invocation by asking the muse to explain first why a lord of good-breeding would assault a lady and, secondly, why a lady would reject a lord.

The action of the poem begins with the rising sun awakening the residents of a wealthy household. Though everyone, including the lapdogs, has risen, Belindaremains asleep. She dreams of a handsome youth who informs her that she is protected by a “thousand bright inhabitants of air:” spirits that were once human women who now protect virgins.

The youth explains that after a woman dies, her spirit returns to elemental form; namely, to fire, water, earth, and air. Each element is characterized by different types of women. Termagants or scolds become fire spirits or Salamanders. Indecisive women become water spirits. Prudes or women who delight in rejecting men become Gnomes (earth spirits). Coquettes become Sylphs (air spirits).

The dream is sent to Belinda by Ariel, “her guardian Sylph” (20). The Sylphs are Belinda’s guardians because they understand her vanity and pride, having been coquettes when they were humans. They are devoted to any woman who “rejects mankind” (68). Their role is to guide young women through the “mystic mazes” of social interaction (92).

At the end of the dream, Ariel warns Belinda of an impending “dread event,” urging her to “Beware of all, but most beware of Man” (109, 114). Belinda is then awoken by her lapdog, Shock. Upon rising, she sees that a billet-doux, or a love-letter, has arrived for her, causing her to forget the details of the dream.

Now awake, Belinda begins her elaborate toilette. Pope endows every object from combs and pins to billet-doux and Bibles with significance in this ritual of dressing: “Each silver vase in mystic order laid” (122). Belinda herself is described as a “goddess,” looking at her “heavenly image” in the mirror (132, 125). The elegant language and importance of such objects thus elevate the process of dressing to a sacred rite.

The Sylphs assist in Belinda’s dressing routine, setting her hair and straightening her gown. Fully arrayed, Belinda emerges from her chamber.

Analysis

The opening of The Rape of the Lock establishes the poem’s mock-heroic tone. In the tradition of epic poetry, Pope opens the poem by invoking a muse, but rather than invoke one of the mythic Greek muses, Pope leaves the muse anonymous and instead dedicates the poem to John Caryll, the man who commissioned the poem. The first verse-paragraph also introduces Pope’s epic subject matter: a war arising from “amorous causes” (1). Unlike Menelaus’ fury at Paris’ theft of Helen or Achilles’ quarrel with Agamemnon over Briseis in The Iliad, however, the poem’s “mighty contests rise from trivial things” (2). Indeed, these “mighty contests” are merely flirtations and card games rather than the great battles of the Greek epic tradition.

The second verse-paragraph encapsulates Pope’s subversion of the epic genre. In lines 11-12 Pope juxtaposes grand emotions with unheroic character-types, specifically “little men” and women: “In tasks so bold can little men engage, / And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage.” The irony of pairing epic characteristics with lowly human characters contributes to Pope’s mock-heroic style. Furthermore, the “mighty rage” of women evokes the rage of Achilles at the outset of The Iliad, foreshadowing the comic gender-reversal that characterizes the rest of the poem. Rather than distinguish the subjects of the poem as in a traditional epic, Pope uses the mock-heroic genre to elevate and ridicule his subjects simultaneously, creating a satire that chides society for its misplaced values and emphasis on trivial matters.

Belinda’s dream provides the mythic structure of the poem. In this segment, Pope introduces the supernatural forces that affect the action of the poem, much the way that the gods and goddesses of The Iliad would influence the progress of the Trojan War. Just as Athena protects Diomedes and Aphrodite supports Paris during the Trojan War, Ariel is the guardian of Belinda. Unlike the Greek gods, however, Ariel possesses little power to protect his ward and preserve her chastity. In this initial canto, Belinda forgets Ariel’s warnings of impending dangers upon receiving a billet-doux. Though charged with protecting Belinda’s virtue, it seems that Ariel cannot fully guard her from the perils of love, unable to distract her even from a relatively harmless love letter. In the dream Ariel indicates that all women have patron sprites, depending on their personality type. Ariel explains that when women die, their spirits return “from earthly vehicles” to “their first elements” (50, 58). Each personality type—scolds, undecided women, prudes, coquettes—becomes a Salamander, Nymph, Gnome, or Sylph, respectively. These four types are associated with both the four humors and the four elements. Having been “light coquettes” as human women, the Sylphs are most closely affiliated with Belinda. Belinda herself is a coquette, and it is this aspect of femininity with which Pope is most concerned.

Pope explores the role of the coquette in this first canto. He demonstrates that womanly priorities are limited to personal pleasures and social aspirations. In his description of the Sylphs during the dream sequence, Pope enumerates coquettish vanities. As humans these women valued their “beauteous mold” and enjoyed frivolous diversions, which they continue to take pleasure in as sprites (48). The “joy in gilded chariots” suggests a preference for superficial grandeur and external signifiers of wealth (55). Similar

D.  Jonathan Swift A Modest Proposal (Prose)

a.                        Biography of  Jonathan Swift

Birth
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin. His father died before he was born, and his nurse, who (according to Swift’s later account) had become very fond of her young charge, took him at the age of one year old to Whitehaven in Cumberland, where he remained with her until the age of 3. 

Education

On his return to Ireland his education was paid for by his uncle, Godwin, first at Kilkenny School (1673, 6) and then at Trinity College, Dublin (1682, 15). 

First employment

After an undistinguished university career, he went to stay with his mother, Abigail Erick, in Leicester, and shortly afterwards, in 1689 (22), he became secretary to Sir William Temple, the diplomat and writer, at Moor Park in Surrey, during which time he had full access to Temple’s impressive library. 

First major works

It was also here that he began his first major work, A Tale of a Tub, and completed The Battle of the Books, a satire concerning whether ancient or modern authors were to be preferred, which was the continuation of a debate begun by Temple in his Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning of 1692. Both works were published anonymously in 1704 (37). 

Ireland

He returned to Ireland in 1694 (27), and was ordained as a priest in 1695 (28).

Second period with Temple

   In 1696 (29) he obtained a licence for non residence at his living in Kilroot, and rejoined Temple, beginning work on his patron’s memoirs and correspondence.

Second period in Ireland

When Temple died in 1699 (32) Swift returned to Ireland once more, where, having resigned his living, he had hopes of becoming chaplain and secretary to the Earl of Berkeley, Lord Justice of Ireland, but lost the opportunity because of an intrigue. He subsequently held various posts in the Irish Church, and in 1702 (35) Stella, who had been left property in Ireland in Temple’s will, joined him in Dublin. In 1707 (40) he was sent to London as an emissary of the Irish clergy, seeking remission of tax on Irish clerical incomes, but his suit was rejected by the Whig government. 

Alexander Pope

In the same year he stayed with Alexander Pope in Twickenham, and between 1727 (60) and 1736 (69) five volumes of Swift-Pope Miscellanies were published. 

Mental decay and death

His mental decay, which he had always feared, became pronounced from 1738 (70). Paralysis was followed by aphasia and a long period of apathy. He died in 1745 (78), and was buried in St Patrick’s, alongside Stella. He wrote his own epitaph : ‘The body of Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Dean of this Cathedral Church, is buried here, where fierce indignation can no more lacerate his heart. Go, traveller, and imitate, if you can, one who strove with all his strength to champion liberty.’

b.    A Modest of Proposal

Modest Proposal

Even though Gulliver's Travels, Swift's epic travel parody, was written first, we're going to talk about A Modest Proposal now. A Modest Proposal's full name is A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick (and that's 'publick' with a 'k' - fun fact). The topic of the pamphlet is one that Swift had taken up throughout his life - the conditions of impoverished Irish people. This time, Swift's dark sense of humor led him to suggest a pretty nasty way for the poor Irish to lead a better life - they could sell their babies to rich people to be eaten. Yes - baby-eating.

Of course, he wasn't serious - though not everyone picked up on that. Swift was actually employing a classical Latin form of satire in which an extreme position is taken up to ridicule it, and the audience is never really let in on the joke - they're supposed to figure it out for themselves that Swift is kidding. Of course, not everybody did. But you can even see the satire even in the title because what's so 'modest' about suggesting that people sell their babies to be eaten?

Swift had a few other targets that he was lampooning here as well, like the people of his time who thought that they could offer easy cure-alls to society's problems in just a little pamphlet. He was also pointing out the dehumanization of the lower classes - this is something he saw around him a lot - where poor people were basically reduced to statistics and not actually viewed as human beings.

Swift ultimately does introduce actual notions of reforms that he think would work, though he does this using a tactic called paralipsis, which is introducing a topic by saying it shouldn't be talked about (yeah, there's a word for that). The things that Swift embraces through this mocking tone include using only Irish-made goods, tightening up on personal spending habits and encouraging all Irish citizens to be more peaceful and understanding of their neighbors - relatively reasonable suggestions (much more so than selling your babies to be eaten). Of course, that part of the text hasn't really stuck with people as much as baby-eating. That vivid, unexpected image is what makes A Modest Proposal so famous even today and really one of the best examples of satire ever written because its point of view is so extreme.

Gulliver's Travels

So that was A Modest Proposal, and we're going to move on to Gulliver's Travels, which is really, I think, Swift's most famous work, and it's pretty incredible. It's an epic satire, a parody of a travel novel and also a sort of prototype for the science fiction genre that was to come. Gulliver's Travels is a four-tale story of the adventures of a ship captain named Gulliver. Throughout these books, he will travel to lots of lands and encounter all sorts of strange people and places, and each one is meant to illuminate some folly of the human condition that he's observed in his own life.

I'm going to go through what happens in each of the books, then we'll talk about what it was that Swift was trying to point out with each of these stories. Don't be afraid if you hear a lot of crazy names that make no sense, and if the way I pronounce them isn't the way you would pronounce them, I apologize - I'm really doing my best.

In the first book, Gulliver is shipwrecked and ends up in a place called Lilliput, and it's a land of tiny people that are all under six inches tall - so, of course, Gulliver is a giant because he's what we would consider a regular-sized person. Gulliver takes up a position in the Lilliputian court, where he's put to work attacking their enemies, who are the Blefuscudians. These groups are at war over how to crack an egg. Gulliver refuses to use his massive size to obliterate the enemies completely, which pisses them off. Then he also puts out a fire by urinating on it, and I think that was really the nail in the coffin for Gulliver on Lilliput. He's charged with treason, but because he's a giant, he manages to escape and returns to England for the time being. That's the first book.

In the second book, the tables are turned, and Gulliver is abandoned in the land of Brobdingnag, which is a place full of giants. So, before Gulliver was much bigger than the inhabitants, and now he's much smaller. He's taken in by a local farmer as a curiosity (like, 'Oh, look at the tiny guy I found!') and is purchased by the Queen for her collection of oddities (which sort of reminds me of something that the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland would do, but that's just me). While he's in the company of the royal family, Gulliver regales them with stories of his life in England, and it seems that the people there are all a little bummed out by it. They think England sounds like a violent and petty place. Eventually, as you might expect, a giant eagle snatches Gulliver up and drops him into the sea, where he's received by a group of sailors.

The third book finds Gulliver marooned after a pirate attack in the land of Laputa, a floating island whose inhabitants rigorously pursue mathematics and science but for no real reason; they just like inane experimentation. For those of us who aren't scientifically inclined ourselves, this can be how we view all people who rigorously pursue math and science. During this voyage, he also takes a side-trip to the land of Luggnagg, which is populated with ancient immortals called Struldbrugs, who age but never seem to die. Eventually, Gulliver manages to escape by way of Japan and then returns to England. A lot more happens than I'm talking about - these are just really the bullet points here.

In the fourth and final book, Gulliver suffers a mutiny at the hands of his crew and winds up on an island controlled by the Houyhnhnms. They are incredibly wise but highly dispassionate horse-people. On that island, humans are wild, second-class citizens called Yahoos. Gulliver finds great joy in this society of the wise Houyhnhnms, but eventually they figure out that Gulliver's just another Yahoo, and they exile him. Gulliver eventually does get back home to England, but now he's a changed man; he spends most of his time thinking about these experiences that he's had and refusing the company of people he now considers Yahoos (which are just other humans), and he'll even go to the stables to hang out with horses because he misses the company of the Houyhnhnms. So ends Gulliver's Travels.

That's what happens in the book, which can seem like a lot of ridiculous nonsense, just like a crazy fairy story, but there's really more going on. Critics have literally filled books talking about the deeper meanings of all of his journeys and the people that Gulliver encounters, so we're just going to scratch the surface here a little bit.

Each land that Gulliver visits is pretty clearly meant to represent some exaggerated human trait or philosophy that he observed at his time. The Lilliputians are small, and they're warlike. They fight over stupid things like cracking an egg. This is how we imagine Swift viewed England at the time. In the second book, the tables are turned, and Swift can't escape the association of his countrymen; in the land of peaceful giants, he's a quaint oddity from the land of angry, violent people.

In the third book, the Laputians criticize this slavish devotion to science and reason without a sense behind it - it's not too dissimilar from one of his attacks in A Modest Proposal, actually. The immortal, miserable Struldbrugs show that even having all the time in the world to think about stuff doesn't necessarily guarantee happiness. Then finally, the fourth book presents the hyper-rational Houyhnhnms, a race Gulliver desperately wants to be a part of but yet cannot. Gulliver's realization that he is, at least in part, a wild Yahoo is sobering for him; having seen the alternative - the way he could be living - he never really feels comfortable amongst his own people again. (That's kind of a bummer.)

Swift's Themes Summed Up

There's really a whole lot more that I could say about Gulliver's Travels, but that's a really quick overview of its plot and themes, and I hope you'll check it out for yourself, as well as A Modest Proposal. Swift really used Gulliver to satirize the human condition; through exaggerated comedy, he ridiculed prominent thoughts of his day, but he also tried to offer people some comfort. Gulliver, after all, has to accept that he's passionate, not-always-logical and just a human being at the end of the day, even if he'd rather be something else (in this case, a horse-person...). Regardless, you have to be who you are, even if you think the alternative might be better.

This same idea comes up in A Modest Proposal as well - there's the central notion which is based on a totally dispassionate sentiment - that Ireland can take care of its poor if they would only sell babies to be eaten. Looking at these two works combined, it really seems as though Swift was advocating for a more compassionate way of life, workable reforms for the conditions in Ireland and England and really just more sympathy amongst peoples and an effort to understand each other instead of offering crazy solutions, like going to war or eating babies. Even in Swift's broad, unflinching comedy, humanity always shines through, and that's what I'd like you to remember about Jonathan Swift.