The Works of the REV. Dr. Jonathan Swift (Volume 8) - Tapa blanda

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1784. Excerpt: ... A N INTRODUCTION, AS my life hath been chiefly fpent in confulting the honour and welfare of my country for more than forty years paft, not without anfwerable fuccefs, if the world and my friends have not flattered me; fo there is no point wherein I have fo much laboured, as that of improving and polifhing all parts of converfation between perfons of quality, whether they meet by accident or invitation, at meals, tea, or vifits, mornings, noons, or evenings. I have patted perhaps more time than any other man of my age and country in vifits and aflemblies, where the polite perfons of both fexes diftinguifh themfelves; and could not without much grief obferve how frequently both gentlemen and ladies are at a lofs for queftions, anfwers, replies, and rejoinders. However, my concern was much abated, when I found that thefe defects were not occafioned by any want of materials, but becaule thofe materials were not in every hand: for inftance, one lady can give an anfwer better than afk a queftion: one gentleman is happy at a reply; another excels in a rejoinder: one can revive a languiming converfation by a Hidden furprizing fentence; another is more dexterous in feconding; a third can fill up the gap with laughing, or commending what has been faid: thus frefh hints may be ftarted, and the ball of the difcourfe kept up. This treatife appears to have been written with the fame view, as.the Tritical Ed ay on the Faculties of the Mind, but upon a more general plan: the ridicule, which is there confined to literary compofition, is here extended to converfation, but its objeiS is the fame in both; the repetition of quaint phrafes picked up by rote either from the living or the dead, and applied upon every occafion to conceal ignorance or ftupidity, or to prevent th...