TlfE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 61 



It was at this juncture that Swift came to aid his friend, Temple, 

 with his satire in the Tale of a Txih, and the Battle of the Books. 

 Once again scientific learning has only a small part in the quarrel. 

 To Swift it was a personal matter, for he did not show himself 

 really interested in the struggle to maintain classical authority. 

 His actual position, as nearly as it can be ascertained, is summed 

 up in this sentence from the essay, The Mechanical Operations of 

 the Spirit : " It is hard to assign one art or science which has not 

 annexed to it some fanatic branch; such are, the philosopher's 

 stone, the grand elixir, the planetary world, the squaring of the 

 circle ".^^- This is good sense, for these things were follies even 

 at that time and deserved censure. The Tale of the Tub ridiculed 

 Wotton as the defender of these absurd claims. "The whole 

 school of Greshamites are too wild in their claims", says Swift, "the 

 whole realm of human knowledge is too broad for one generation to 

 conquer. Besides, the philosophers are working at foolish things." 

 The new discoveries which Swift promised his readers to discuss 

 are these: "My new help for smatterers or the art of being deep- 

 learned and shallow read. A curious invention about mouse-traps. 

 A universal rule of reason, or every man his own carver; together 

 with a most useful engine for catching owls. All which the 

 judicious readers will find largely treated on in the several parts 

 of this discussion."^" The best word that he had for Descartes was 

 that he had been chosen as chief "in the academy of modern Bed- 

 lam". He declared Descartes 's ambitions to be that he "reckoned 

 to see before he died, the sentiments of all philosophers, like so many 

 lesser stars in his romantic system, wrapped and drawn within his 

 own vortex ".^^* But this is not a worthy criticism of that philos- 

 opher's theory, nor does it show any clear understanding of it. 



In the Battle of the Books the greatest scene is a description 

 of the battle itself. Here the scientists take their places in the 

 battle line. "There came the bowmen (philosophers) under their 

 valient leaders, Descartes, Gassendi, and Hobbs; whose strength 

 was such that they could shoot their arrows beyond the atmosphere, 



^^ Swift, Jonathan, The Mechanical Operations of the Spirit, (Everyman's Edition, 

 p. 172). 



'^^ The Tale of the Tub, (Everyman's Edition, p. 108). 



1** Ibid. p. 107. Repeated in the Battle of the Books, p. 160. 



