The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. - Volume 07: Historical and Political Tracts-IrishSwift, Jonathan
General
The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. - Volume 07: Historical and Political Tracts-Irish
Swift, Jonathan
Ireland -- Politics and government -- 18th century
"Perhaps the inhabitants, through a high strain of virtue, have, in
imitation of the Athenians, made a solemn resolution, never to rebuild
those sacred edifices, but rather leave them in ruins, as monuments, to
perpetuate the detestable memory of that hellish instrument of
rebellion, desolation, and murder. For the Athenians, when Mardonius had
ravaged a great part of Greece, took a formal oath at the Isthmus, to
lose their lives rather than their liberty, to stand by their leaders to
the last, to spare the cities of such barbarians as they conquered. And
what crowned all, the conclusion of their oath was, We will never repair
any of the Temples, which they have burned and destroyed, lest they may
appear to posterity as so many monuments of these wicked barbarians.
This was a glorious resolution; and I am sorry to think, that the
poverty of my countrymen will not let the world suppose, they have acted
upon such a generous principle; yet upon this occasion I cannot but
observe, that there is a fatality in some nations, to be fond of those
who have treated them with the least humanity. Thus I have often heard
the memory of Cromwell, who has depopulated, and almost wholly destroyed
this miserable country, celebrated like that of a saint, and at the same
time the sufferings of the royal martyr turned into ridicule, and his
murder justified even from the pulpit, and all this done with an intent
to gain favour, under a monarchy; which is a new strain of politics that
I shall not pretend to account for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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