Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/9

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THE

DIFFICULTY

OF

KNOWING ONE'S SELF^[1].

2 KINGS, viii, PART OF THE I3TH VERSE.

And Hazael said, But what! is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?

We have a very singular instance of the deceitfulness of the heart, represented to us in the person of Hazael: who was sent to the prophet Elisha, to inquire of the Lord, concerning his master the king of Syria's recovery. For the man of God, having told him that the king might recover from the disorder he

↑ When I first gave this sermon to be published, I had some doubts whether it were genuine; for, though I found it in the same parcel with three others in the Dean's own hand, and there was a great similitude in the writing, yet as some of the letters were differently cut, and the hand in general much fairer than his, I gave it to the world as dubious. But as some manuscripts of his early poems have since fallen into my hands, transcribed by Stella, I found, upon comparing them, that the writing was exactly the same with that of the sermon; which was therefore copied by her. Swift, in his journal to that lady, takes notice that he had been her writing-master, and that there was such a strong resemblance between their hands, as gave occasion to some of his friends to rally him, upon seeing some of her letters addressed to him at the bar of the coffee-house, by asking him, how long he had taken up the custom of writing letters to himself? So that I can now fairly give it to the public as one of his, and not at all unworthy of the author.

Vol. X.

B

was

[1] When I first gave this sermon to be published, I had some doubts whether it were genuine; for, though I found it in the same parcel with three others in the Dean's own hand, and there was a great similitude in the writing, yet as some of the letters were differently cut, and the hand in general much fairer than his, I gave it to the world as dubious. But as some manuscripts of his early poems have since fallen into my hands, transcribed by Stella, I found, upon comparing them, that the writing was exactly the same with that of the sermon; which was therefore copied by her. Swift, in his journal to that lady, takes notice that he had been her writing-master, and that there was such a strong resemblance between their hands, as gave occasion to some of his friends to rally him, upon seeing some of her letters addressed to him at the bar of the coffee-house, by asking him, how long he had taken up the custom of writing letters to himself? So that I can now fairly give it to the public as one of his, and not at all unworthy of the author.

[1]