42 A HISTORY OF 



There yawning Sloth into a corner steals. 

 With Poverty, her daughter, at her Heels. 

 Fantastic Pride, of high extraction, fain 

 Would be excused, and sues, but sues in vain. 

 The same the Doom of Luxury and Waste, 

 Who fly from Care, but to Destruction haste. 

 Envy and Discontent, and sudden Spleen 

 Move off the last, and close the wretched Scene. 



Thus if th y endeavours of the good and wise 

 Can ought avail to make a Nation rise^ 

 Soon shall Hibernia see her broken state, 

 Repair d by Arts and Industry, grow great. 



A little later, on an occasion when Dr. Francis 

 Hutchinson, bishop of Down, was in the chair, he is 

 noted as having recommended to the Society the " care 

 of the English tongue." It will be remembered that 

 soon after its foundation, the Royal Society appointed a 

 committee to consider the improvement of the English 

 tongue. The Bishop wrote an English Grammar, and 

 dwelt on the many advantages of a good language to 

 any nation. He may have had in mind a project like 

 Swift's for the improvement of the English tongue 

 (Prose Works, xi. 5). As shown by his work on 

 Ancient Historians, he also took a great interest in the 

 Irish language and history, and published a Church 

 Catechism in Irish. An Excellent New Ballad (at- 

 tributed to Swift), printed for T. Harkin, opposite 

 Crane lane, 1725-6, a copy of which is in Trinity 

 College Library, has the following allusion to his 

 work in these fields : 



I'll tell you a story, a story most merry, 

 Of a B[ishop] from Ed[munds] 1 but not Canterbery, 

 Who for his great parts, and the books he has written, 

 Outdoes all the Bpshops] ere sent us from Britain. 



1 In 1692 Hutchinson had been appointed perpetual curate of St. 

 James', Bury St. Edmunds. 



