Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/341

of half my due every year: That having held from your father an island worth three pence a year, which I planted and paid two shillings annually for, and being out of possession of the said island seven or eight years, there could not possibly be above four shillings due to you; for which you have thought proper to stop three or four years tithe, at your own rate of two pounds five shillings a year (as I remember) and still continue to stop it, on pretence that the said island was not surrendered to you in form; although you have cut down more plantations of willows and abeles, than would purchase a dozen such islands. I told my friend, "That this talent of squires prevailed very much formerly in the country: That as to yourself, from the badness of your education, against all my advices and endeavours, and from the cast of your nature, as well as another circumstance which I shall not mention, I expected nothing from you that became a gentleman: That I had expostulated this scurvy matter very gently with you: That I conceived this letter was an answer: That from the prerogative of a good estate, however gotten, and the practice of lording over a few Irish wretches, and from the natural want of better thinking, I was sure your answer would be extremely rude and stupid, full of very bad language in all senses: That a bear in a wilderness will as soon fix on a philosopher as on a cottager; and a man wholly void of education, judgment, or distinction of persons, has no regard, in his insolence, but to the passion of fear: and how heartily I wished, that to make you show your humility, your quarrel had rather been with a captain of dragoons, than the dean of St. Patrick's."

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