JONATHAN SWIFT, D. D. 77

ces on the throne, so far as it was only a revolution

of state :*

* The following severe lines on Dr Sherlock ' s original refusal

to take the oaths, and subsequent compliance with the revolution

government, have much of Swift ' s spirit, and occur in the collec

tion from which so many of his unpublished poems have been re

trieved :

From the Lanesborough Manuscript, Trinity College, Dublin,

tf Whimsical Medley, " Vol. I. Appendix, pages 52, 238.

TO DR SHERLOCK, ON HIS NOT TAKING THE OATHS.

Since at the tavern I can ' t meet you,

With paper embassy I greet you,

T* advise you not yourself t ' expose

By a refusal of the oaths ;

In spite of fellowship and pupils,

To weigh your conscience out in scruples.

If, as you Queen ' s-men must believe,

Two nays make one affirmative ;

Why, in the name of the predicaments,

And all your analytic sense,

Will you deny poor affirmations

In their turns, too, to make negations ?

This postulatum any pate

Will grant, that ' s not prejudicate.

Nay, th ' argument, I can assure you,

Appears to some a fortiori,

Hoc data et concesso, thus I

In Baralipton blunderbuss ye.

He who to two things takes an oath,

Is by the last absolved from both ;

For each oath being an affirmation,

Both, as ' twas own ' d, make a negation.

Thus scientifically you see

The more you ' re bound, the more you ' re free.

As jugglers when they knit one more

Undo the knot they tied before.