"
"And to add another argument of a parallel nature--if Christianity
were once abolished, how could the free-thinkers, the strong
reasoners, and the men of profound learning be able to find another
subject so calculated in all points, whereon to display their
abilities? What wonderful productions of wit should we be deprived
of, from those whose genius, by continual practice, has been wholly
turned upon raillery and invectives against religion, and would,
therefore never be able to shine or distinguish themselves upon any
other subject! We are daily complaining of the great decline of Wit
among us, and would we take away the greatest, perhaps the only
topic we have left? Who would ever have suspected Asgil for a wit,
and Toland for a philosopher, if the inexhaustible supply of
Christianity had not been at hand to provide them with materials?
What other subject through all Art and Nature could have produced
Tindal for a profound author, and furnished him with readers? It is
the wise choice of the subject, which alone adorns and
distinguishes the writer. For had a hundred such pens as these been
employed on the side of religion, they would have sunk into silence
and oblivion."
Pope claims to have shadowed forth such a work as Gulliver's Travels in
the Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus; but Swift, no doubt, took the idea
from Lucian's "True History.
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