A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

A Modest Proposal 125

LITERARY FOCUS: VERBAL IRONY

You use verbal irony whenever you say one thing but mean something

completely different. When you speak, your tone of voice signals listeners

that you don’t really mean what you are saying. Writers don’t have the

option of using a sarcastic tone of voice to convey irony. Instead, they might

make so many shocking or unbelievable statements that the reader can’t

possibly miss the point. Swift’s essay is a classic example of verbal irony

taken to the extreme.

Isn’t It Ironic?

Look at the following examples of verbal irony. Then,

create your own example in the space provided.

READING SKILLS: RECOGNIZING PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES

“A Modest Proposal” is a type of persuasive writing called satire. Through

satire, writers ridicule people or institutions in order to effect change. “A

Modest Proposal” was written in 1729 to shock English society into an

awareness of England’s unjust policies toward the Irish. In it, Swift uses the

types of persuasive techniques listed below to convince the reader that

England’s treatment of the Irish is heartless and immoral.

• Logical appeals: the use of facts or statistics to support a position.

• Emotional appeals: the use of words that stir up strong feelings.

• Ethical appeals: the use of details that will convince readers that the

writer is fair and trustworthy.

Use the Skill

As you read the selection, highlight and identify the types

of persuasive appeals used by Swift. Refer to the list above as a guide.

A Modest Proposal

by Jonathan Swift

Literary Skills

Understand

verbal irony.

Reading

Skills

Recognize

persuasive

techniques

(logical,

emotional, and

ethical appeals).

You trip and fall in front of a large “Aren’t I the picture of grace?”

group of people, your books and you ask as you struggle to your

papers flying everywhere. feet.

You have a bad case of the flu. A You respond, “Never felt better!”

friend visits and asks, “How are

you?”

Situation Verbal Irony (What You Say)

It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great

town,

or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the

roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex,

followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and impor-

tuning every passenger for an alms.

These mothers, instead of

being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to

employ all their time in strolling, to beg sustenance

for their

helpless infants, who, as they grow up either turn thieves for

want

of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the

Pretender

in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.

Jonathan Swift

FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEING A BURDEN

TO THEIR PARENTS

, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC

BACKGROUND

In the late 1720s, Ireland suffered from several years of poor harvests.

Farmers had trouble paying the rents demanded by their English land-

lords. Many children and adults were forced to beg or starve. Most of

the money collected by the landlords was sent to England; very little

was spent in Ireland on locally produced goods.

Here, Swift pretends to be an economic planner who suggests a

shocking solution to the problem. Watch for the sharp contrast between

Swift’s direct, logical style and the outrageous proposal he describes.

1. this great town: Dublin.

2. importuning . . . alms: asking passersby for a handout.

3. want n.: lack; need.

4. the Pretender: James Edward (1688–1766), son of England’s last

Catholic king, the deposed James II (1633–1701); James Edward

kept trying to gain the English throne.

5. sell . . . Barbadoes: go to the West Indies and work as indentured

servants.

Melancholy, in line 1, means

“sad.” Using that knowledge,

paraphrase the first sentence.

sustenance (sus√t¥·n¥ns) n.:

food or money to support life.

126

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number

of children, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their

mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present

deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance;

and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy

method of making these children sound and useful members

of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public, as

to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide

only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater

extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain

age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to support

them, as those who demand our charity in the streets.

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts, for many

years, upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the

several schemes of other projectors,

I have always found them

grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true a child, just

dropped from its dam,

may be supported by her milk, for a

solar year

with little other nourishment, at most not above the

value of two shillings, which the mother may certainly get, or

the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging, and it

is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in

such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents,

or the parish, or wanting food and raiment

for the rest of their

lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and

partly to the clothing of many thousands.

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme,

that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid

practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too

frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt,

A Modest Proposal 127

6. projectors n. pl.: speculators; schemers.

7. dam n.: mother (ordinarily used only of animals).

8. solar year: from the first day of spring in one year to the last day

of winter in the next.

9. raiment (r†√m¥nt) n.: clothing.

10. doubt v.: suspect.

The word prodigious

(pr£·dij√¥s), in line 11, means

“an enormous quantity.”

Pause at line 18. What does

Swift say is the problem

facing the nation?

The word dam (line 28)

means “female parent”

and is usually used to refer

to a domestic animal.

What attitude toward poor

women does this word

choice suggest?

Pause at line 36. At what age

can children be made useful

to society? Circle that infor-

mation. Underline the way

in which they can be of use.

more to avoid the expense, than the shame, which would move

tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.

The number of souls

in Ireland being usually reckoned one

million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two

hundred thousand couples whose wives are breeders, from which

number I subtract thirty thousand couples, who are able to

maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot

be so many under the present distresses of the kingdom, but this

being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand

breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who

miscarry, or whose children die by accident, or disease within

the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand

children of poor parents annually born: The question therefore

is, how this number shall be reared, and provided for, which, as

I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is

utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed, for we

can neither employ them in handicraft,

or agriculture; we

neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land:

They can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing until they

arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts,

although, I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier,

during which time, they can however be properly looked upon

only as probationers,

as I have been informed by a principal

gentleman in the county of Cavan,

who protested to me, that

he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six,

even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest

proficiency in that art.

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or girl, before

twelve years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they

come to this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three

pounds and half a crown at most on the exchange, which cannot

11. souls n. pl.: people.

12. handicraft n.: manufacturing.

13. of towardly parts: exceptionally advanced or mature for their age.

14. probationers n. pl.: apprentices.

15. Cavan: inland county in Ireland that is remote from Dublin.

16. that art: stealing.

Re-read lines 37–42. Circle

the words in line 42 that

suggest that poor people

are not civilized. By using

these words, which type of

persuasive appeal is Swift

making?

Re-read lines 43–53. What

kind of language does Swift

use here to describe births

and deaths of the poor? How

does this language help him

make his point?

128

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

turn to account

either to the parents or the kingdom, the

charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times

that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts,

which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American

of my

acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed

is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome

food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make

no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee,

or ragout.

I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that

of the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed,

twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-

fourth part to be males, which is more than we allow to sheep,

black cattle, or swine, and my reason is that these children are

seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded

by our savages; therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four

females. That the remaining hundred thousand may at a year

old be offered in sale to the persons of quality, and fortune,

through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them

suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump,

and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an

entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the

fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned

with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth

day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will

weigh twelve pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed

increaseth to twenty-eight pounds.

100

A Modest Proposal 129

17. turn to account: be profitable.

18. American: To Swift’s readers this label would suggest a barbaric person.

19. fricassee (frik≈¥·s≤√) n.: stew with a light gravy.

20. ragout (ra·gº√) n.: highly flavored stew.

Re-read lines 77–81. Circle

the words Swift uses to

describe a young, healthy

child. Based on these details,

what plan do you think he

is about to propose to deal

with Ireland’s starving

population?

The speaker provides details

in support of his outrageous

plan (lines 93–97). Underline

those details.

I grant this food will be somewhat dear,

and therefore

very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured

most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but

more plentiful in March, and a little before and after, for we are

told by a grave author,

an eminent French physician, that fish

being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman

Catholic countries about nine months after Lent, than at any

other season, therefore reckoning a year after Lent, the markets

will be more glutted

than usual, because the number of popish

infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it

will have one other collateral advantage by lessening the number

of papists among us.

110

21. dear adj.: expensive.

22. devoured v.: made poor by charging high rents.

23. grave author: The French satirist François Rabelais. His work is comic,

not “grave.”

24. popish adj.: derogatory term meaning “Roman Catholic.”

Re-read lines 104–113.

According to the speaker,

what is a desirable effect of

having a glut of infants on

the market?

An Irish cabin.

National Library of Ireland, Dublin.

glutted (glut√id) v. used as

adj.: overfilled.

Re-read lines 101–103 and

footnotes 21–22. Swift uses

verbal irony to expose a

major cause of the poverty

in Ireland. Restate the

sentence in your own words.

130

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar’s

child (in which list I reckon all cottagers,

laborers, and four-

fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum,

rags

included, and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten

shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said

will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath

only some particular friend, or his own family to dine with him.

Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow pop-

ular among his tenants, the mother will have eight shillings net

profit, and be fit for work until she produceth another child.

Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times

require) may flay

the carcass; the skin of which, artificially

dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer

boots for fine gentlemen.

As to our city of Dublin, shambles

may be appointed for

this purpose, in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we

may be assured will not be wanting, although I rather recom-

mend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the

knife, as we do roasting pigs.

A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and

whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing

on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said,

that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed

their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well

supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding

fourteen years of age, nor under twelve, so great a number of

both sexes in every country being now ready to starve, for want

of work and service:

and these to be disposed of by their parents

if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due

120

130

140

A Modest Proposal 131

25. cottagers n. pl.: tenant farmers.

26. per annum: Latin for “by the year”; annually.

27. flay v.: remove the skin of.

28. artificially adv.: with great artifice; skillfully.

29. shambles n.: slaughterhouse.

30. service n.: employment as servants.

In discussing the economics

of his proposal, what kind of

appeal is the speaker making

(lines 114–123)?

Pause at line 142. What

“refinement,” or modifica-

tion, of the author’s plan is

suggested in this paragraph?

Underline the answer.

Re-read lines 128–132, in

which the speaker suggests

“dressing” children “hot

from the knife.” What effect

do you think Swift expects

this word choice to have

on readers?

deference to so excellent a friend, and so deserving a patriot, I

cannot be altogether in his sentiments, for as to the males, my

American acquaintance assured me from frequent experience,

that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our

schoolboys, by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable,

and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to the

females, it would, I think with humble submission,

be a loss to

the public, because they soon would become breeders them-

selves: And besides it is not improbable that some scrupulous

people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed

very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess,

hath always been with me the strongest objection against any

project, how well soever intended.

But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this

expedient

was put into his head by the famous Sallmanaazor,

a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to

London, above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my

friend, that in his country when any young person happened to

be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of

quality, as a prime dainty, and that, in his time, the body of a

plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison

the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty’s prime minister

of state, and other great mandarins

of the court, in joints

from the gibbet,

at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can

I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young

girls in this town, who, without one single groat to their fortunes,

cannot stir abroad without a chair,

and appear at the play-

150

160

31. with humble submission: with all due respect to those who hold

such opinions.

32. Sallmanaazor: George Psalmanazar (c. 1679–1763), a Frenchman who

pretended to be from Formosa, an old Portuguese name for Taiwan.

His writings were fraudulent.

33. mandarins (man√d¥·rinz) n. pl.: officials. The term comes from

mandarim, the Portuguese word describing high-ranking officials

in the Chinese Empire, with which the Portuguese traded.

34. joints n. pl.: large cuts of meat, including the bone.

35. gibbet (jib√it) n.: gallows.

36. chair n.: sedan chair; a covered seat carried by servants.

deference (def√¥r·¥ns) n.:

respect.

scrupulous (skrº√py¥·l¥s)

adj.: extremely careful and

precise in deciding what is

right or wrong.

censure (sen√◊¥r) v.: condemn;

blame.

expedient (ek·sp≤√d≤·¥nt) n.:

convenient means to an end.

Pause at line 166, and read

footnote 32. How trustworthy

a source is Sallmanaazor?

Why do you think Swift uses

his ideas as an example?

132

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

house, and assemblies in foreign fineries, which they never will

pay for; the kingdom would not be the worse.

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern

about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased,

or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts

what course may be taken, to ease the nation of so grievous an

encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter,

because it is very well known, that they are every day dying, and

rotting, by cold, and famine, and filth, and vermin,

as fast as

can be reasonably expected. And as to the younger laborers they

are now in almost as hopeful

a condition. They cannot get

work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a

degree, that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common

labor, they have not strength to perform it, and thus the country

and themselves are in a fair way

of being soon delivered from

the evils to come.

I have too long digressed

, and therefore shall return to my

subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made

are obvious and many as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen

the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being

the principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most danger-

ous enemies, and who stay at home on purpose with a design to

deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advan-

tageby the absence of so many good Protestants,

who have

chosen rather to leave their country, than stay at home, and pay

tithes

against their conscience, to an idolatrous Episcopal curate.

170

180

190

A Modest Proposal 133

37. vermin n. pl.: pests such as lice, fleas, and bedbugs.

38. hopeful adj.: actually, hopeless. Swift is using the word with

intentional irony.

39. are in a fair way: have a good chance.

40. good Protestants: that is, in Swift’s view, bad Protestants, because

they object to the Church of Ireland’s bishops and regard them as

“idolatrous.”

41. tithes (t¢

‚

z) n. pl.: monetary gifts to the church equivalent to one

tenth of each donor’s income.

The word encumbrance (line

176) means “a burden, a

hindrance, or a weight.”

Re-read lines 172–185. Why

isn’t the speaker concerned

about the great number of

other poor people in Ireland?

Underline that information.

digressed (d¢·grest√) v.:

wandered off the subject.

The speaker lists the

“advantages” of his proposal

one by one. As you read lines

189–231, circle the word

or phrase at the beginning

of each paragraph that

reveals the text’s pattern of

organization. Then, under-

line the “benefit” of each

of the six proposals.

Secondly, the poorer tenants will have something valuable

of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress,

and

help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being

already seized, and money a thing unknown.

Thirdly, whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand

children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed

at less than ten shillings apiece per annum, the nation’s stock

will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum,

besides the profit of a new dish, introduced to the tables of all

gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom, who have any refinement

in taste, and the money will circulate among ourselves, the

goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.

Fourthly, the constant breeders, besides the gain of eight

shillings sterling per annum, by the sale of their children, will

be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.

Fifthly, this food would likewise bring great custom to

taverns, where the vintners

will certainly be so prudent as to

procure

the best receipts

for dressing it to perfection, and

consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentle-

men, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good

eating, and a skillful cook, who understands how to oblige his

guests will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.

Sixthly, this would be a great inducement to marriage,

which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or

enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and

tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were

sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some

sort by the public to their annual profit instead of expense, we

should soon see an honest emulation

among the married

women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the

200

210

220

42. liable to distress: that is, the money from the sale of their children

may be seized by their landlords.

43. own growth and manufacture: homegrown, edible children, not

imported ones.

44. vintners (vint√n¥rz) n. pl.: wine merchants.

45. receipts n. pl.: archaic for “recipes.”

46. emulation (em≈yº·l†√◊¥n) n.: competition.

procure (pr£·kyoor√) v.:

obtain; get.

Notes

134

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

market, men would become as fond of their wives, during the

time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal,

their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow,

nor

offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear

of a miscarriage.

Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance,

the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of

barreled beef. The propagation of swine’s flesh, and improvement

in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by

the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables, which

are no way comparable in taste, or magnificence to a well-grown,

fat yearling child, which roasted whole will make a considerable

figure at a Lord Mayor’s feast, or any other public entertainment.

But this, and many others I omit being studious of brevity

Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be

constant customers for infants’ flesh, besides others who might

have it at merry meetings, particularly weddings and christen-

ings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about

twenty thousand carcasses, and the rest of the kingdom (where

probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining

eighty thousand.

I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised

against this proposal, unless it should be urged that the number

of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I

freely own, and it was indeed one principal design in offering it

to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my

remedy for this one individual kingdom of Ireland, and for no

other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth.

Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients:

Of taxing

our absentees

at five shillings a pound; of using neither clothes,

230

240

250

A Modest Proposal 135

47. farrow (far√£) v.: produce piglets.

48. other expedients: At one time or another, Swift had advocated all

these measures for the relief of Ireland, but they were all ignored

by the government. This section was italicized in all editions printed

during Swift’s lifetime to indicate that Swift made these proposals

sincerely rather than ironically.

49. absentees n. pl.: English landowners who refused to live on their

Irish property.

brevity (brev√¥·t≤) n.: being

brief; shortness.

Pause at line 254. What

objection does the speaker

anticipate (lines 248–250)?

How does he answer the

objection?

Explain the irony in the

speaker’s claim to “brevity”

(line 240).

nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and

manufacture; of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments

that promote foreign luxury; of curing the expensiveness of pride,

vanity, idleness, and gaming

in our women; of introducing a

vein of parsimony,

prudence, and temperance; of learning to

love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the

inhabitants of Topinamboo;

of quitting our animosities, and

factions,

nor act any longer like the Jews, who were murdering

one another at the very moment their city

was taken; of being a

little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing;

of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy toward

their tenants. Lastly of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and

skill into our shopkeepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken

to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat

and exact

upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness,

nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just

dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the

like expedients, till he hath at least a glimpse of hope, that there

will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them in

practice.

But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years

with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly

despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which

as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no

expense and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby

we can incur no danger in disobliging

England. For this kind

260

270

280

50. gaming v. used as n.: gambling.

51. parsimony (pär√s¥·m£≈n≤) n.: thriftiness; economy.

52. Topinamboo: Swift is referring to a region of Brazil populated by

native peoples collectively called the Tupinambá. Here, Swift suggests

that if Brazilian peoples and Laplanders can love their seemingly

inhospitable lands, the Irish should love Ireland.

53. factions n. pl.: political groups that work against the interests of

other such groups or against the main body of government.

54. their city: Jerusalem, which the Roman emperor Titus destroyed in

A.D. 70 while Jewish factions fought one another.

55. exact v.: force payment.

56. disobliging v. used as adj.: offending.

animosities (an≈¥·mäs√¥·t≤z)

n. pl.: hostilities; violent

hatreds or resentments.

Re-read footnote 48 on page

135, which explains that

Swift’s essay is ironic except

for this italicized passage.

Why do you think Swift

included this list of real

solutions to the problems

in Ireland?

136

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of

too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt,

although perhaps I could name a country,

which would be

glad to eat up our whole nation without it.

After all I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion,

as to reject any offer, proposed by wise men, which shall be

found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before

something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to

my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author, or authors

290

A Modest Proposal 137

57. a country: England.

Judy O’Donnel’s “home” under the bridge

at Donnbeg, Clare, Ireland (1849).

The Illustrated London News Picture Library.

Notes

will be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, as things

now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for

a hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly,

there being a round million of creatures in human figure,

throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence

put into a

common stock would leave them in debt two millions of pounds

sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession to the bulk

of farmers, cottagers, and laborers, with their wives and children,

who are beggars in effect; I desire those politicians, who dislike

my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer,

that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they

would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold

for food at a year old, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have

avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes, as they have since

gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility

of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common

sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from

inclemencies of weather, and the most inevitable prospect of

entailing

the like, or great miseries, upon their breed forever.

I profess in the sincerity of my heart that I have not the least

personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work,

having no other motive than the public good of my country, by

advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor,

and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children, by which,

I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine

years old, and my wife past childbearing.

300

310

58. whole subsistence: all their possessions.

59. entailing v. used as n.: passing on to the next generation.

In lines 293–305, the speaker

offers two points for con-

sideration. Re-read those

lines, and underline the

two points.

Re-read lines 305–311.

According to the speaker,

what miseries will be

eliminated for poor people

if his proposal is adopted?

Draw a circle around that

information.

Re-read the closing paragraph

of the essay. Underline words

and phrases that show how

the speaker tries to win over

the reader. What type of

persuasive appeal is the

speaker making here?

138

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

A Modest Proposal 139

A Modest Proposal

Reading Skills: Recognizing Persuasive Techniques

Each of the following

excerpts from “A Modest Proposal” is an example of a persuasive technique.

In the blank provided, write the type of appeal (logical, emotional, or ethical)

that is used in the excerpt. The first one has been done for you.

2. “I profess in the sincerity of my heart that I have not the least personal

interest . . . having no other motive than the public good of my

country . . . I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single

penny . . . and my wife past childbearing.” (closing paragraph)

Type of appeal:

3. “I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the

hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty

thousand may be reserved for breed. . . .” (lines 82–84)

Type of appeal:

Example:

Type of appeal:

Now, look back over the examples of persuasive techniques you highlighted

or underlined in “A Modest Proposal.” Choose an example not listed above,

and write it in the space below. Identify the type of appeal that is used.

1. “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will

prevent [women from] sacrificing the poor innocent babes.” (lines 37–40)

Type of appeal:

emotional appeal

140

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT

DIRECTIONS: Write vocabulary words from the Word Box in the appropriate

blanks. Not all words will be used.

A Modest Proposal

Vocabulary

Skills

Use vocabulary

in context.

Understand

origins of

scientific and

mathematical

terms.

sustenance

glutted

deference

scrupulous

censure

expedient

digressed

procure

brevity

animosities

Wo rd B o x

Wo r d B o x

In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift uses verbal irony to

(1) the way England ignores Irish poverty.

Swift pretends to offer a suitable answer to the problem, but the

(2) he suggests is shocking. Pointing out that

poor Irish people fill the streets everywhere one goes, Swift observes that

they have (3) the kingdom with children. Irish

families who have a hard time providing their families with food are forced

to beg for their (4) . Swift pretends to show

(5) for those who would profit from his plan,

but his use of irony reveals his true feeling of disgust.

WORD ORIGINS: SCIENTIFIC AND MATHEMATICAL TERMS

DIRECTIONS: Swift’s essay is full of mathematical and scientific terminology.

Study the chart on the left, which lists some common Greek and Latin roots

and affixes. Use that information to match each mathematical or scientific

word with its meaning.

Greek, melanos:

“dark; black”

Latin, physica:

“natural science”

Greek, geo–:

“ground; earth”

Latin, com–: “with”

and putare: “to

reckon”

Greek, agros:

“field; soil; earth”

Roots and Affixes

1. melancholy

2. geology

3. agriculture

4. physicist

5. computation

a. science of farming

b. mathematical

calculation

c. study of the earth

d. characterized by

dark depression

e. person who studies

the natural sciences

Student Pages with Answers 63

A Modest Proposal 125

LITERARY FOCUS: VERBAL IRONY

You use verbal irony whenever you say one thing but mean something

completely different. When you speak, your tone of voice signals listeners

that you don’t really mean what you are saying. Writers don’t have the

option of using a sarcastic tone of voice to convey irony. Instead, they might

make so many shocking or unbelievable statements that the reader can’t

possibly miss the point. Swift’s essay is a classic example of verbal irony

taken to the extreme.

Isn’t It Ironic?

Look at the following examples of verbal irony. Then,

create your own example in the space provided.

READING SKILLS: RECOGNIZING PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES

“A Modest Proposal” is a type of persuasive writing called satire. Through

satire, writers ridicule people or institutions in order to effect change. “A

Modest Proposal” was written in 1729 to shock English society into an

awareness of England’s unjust policies toward the Irish. In it, Swift uses the

types of persuasive techniques listed below to convince the reader that

England’s treatment of the Irish is heartless and immoral.

• Logical appeals: the use of facts or statistics to support a position.

• Emotional appeals: the use of words that stir up strong feelings.

• Ethical appeals: the use of details that will convince readers that the

writer is fair and trustworthy.

Use the Skill

As you read the selection, highlight and identify the types

of persuasive appeals used by Swift. Refer to the list above as a guide.

A Modest Proposal

by Jonathan Swift

Literary Skills

Understand

verbal irony.

Reading

Skills

Recognize

persuasive

techniques

(logical,

emotional, and

ethical appeals).

You trip and fall in front of a large “Aren’t I the picture of grace?”

group of people, your books and you ask as you struggle to your

papers flying everywhere. feet.

You have a bad case of the flu. A You respond, “Never felt better!”

friend visits and asks, “How are

you?”

Situation Verbal Irony (What You Say)

220

230

Pause at line 227. What can

we learn by reading the

novels of the eighteenth

century? Underline that

information.

If you wanted to learn more

about important historical

events that occurred toward

the end of the eighteenth

century, what information in

the last paragraph would

you have questions about?

Circle it.

Front cover of

Daniel Defoe’s novel

Robinson Crusoe (1881).

The Bridgeman Art Library.

The novels of one of the most prominent eighteenth-

century novelists, Henry Fielding (1707–1754), are literally

crammed with rough and rowdy incidents. Fielding’s rollicking

novel Tom Jones has even been made into an Oscar-winning

movie, proof that his high-spirited characters are still fresh and

funny today. Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was perhaps the

first novelist to explore in great detail the emotional life of his

characters, especially his heroines (in Pamela and Clarissa). The

novels of Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) are experimental and

whimsical—and still unique despite the efforts of many imita-

tors to copy them. All these novels tell us something of what life

at this time was like. They also help us understand the joys and

disappointments of human experience in all ages.

Searching for a Simpler Life

By the last decade of the century, the world was changing in

disturbing ways. The Industrial Revolution was turning English

cities and towns into filthy, smoky slums. Across the English

Channel, the French were about to murder a king and set their

whole society on a different political course. The eighteenth

century was closing. Just as at the end of the twentieth century,

people sensed that a new era was about to begin, so did people in

England know that the age of elegance, taste, and reason was over.

124

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

Collection 4

Student Pages 124–125

64 The Holt Reader: Teacher’s Manual

I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number

of children, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their

mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present

deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance;

and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy

method of making these children sound and useful members

of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public, as

to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide

only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater

extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain

age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to support

them, as those who demand our charity in the streets.

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts, for many

years, upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the

several schemes of other projectors,

I have always found them

grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true a child, just

dropped from its dam,

may be supported by her milk, for a

solar year

with little other nourishment, at most not above the

value of two shillings, which the mother may certainly get, or

the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging, and it

is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in

such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents,

or the parish, or wanting food and raiment

for the rest of their

lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and

partly to the clothing of many thousands.

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme,

that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid

practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too

frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt,

A Modest Proposal 127

6. projectors n. pl.: speculators; schemers.

7. dam n.: mother (ordinarily used only of animals).

8. solar year: from the first day of spring in one year to the last day

of winter in the next.

9. raiment (r†√m¥nt) n.: clothing.

10. doubt v.: suspect.

The word prodigious

(pr£·dij√¥s), in line 11, means

“an enormous quantity.”

Pause at line 18. What does

Swift say is the problem

facing the nation?

There are too many

starving children.

The word dam (line 28)

means “female parent”

and is usually used to refer

to a domestic animal.

What attitude toward poor

women does this word

choice suggest?

It implies that poor

women and their

children are not much

better than animals.

Pause at line 36. At what age

can children be made useful

to society? Circle that infor-

mation. Underline the way

in which they can be of use.

It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great

town,

or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the

roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex,

followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and impor-

tuning every passenger for an alms.

These mothers, instead of

being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to

employ all their time in strolling, to beg sustenance for their

helpless infants, who, as they grow up either turn thieves for

want

of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the

Pretender

in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.

Jonathan Swift

FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEING A BURDEN

TO THEIR PARENTS, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC

BACKGROUND

In the late 1720s, Ireland suffered from several years of poor harvests.

Farmers had trouble paying the rents demanded by their English land-

lords. Many children and adults were forced to beg or starve. Most of

the money collected by the landlords was sent to England; very little

was spent in Ireland on locally produced goods.

Here, Swift pretends to be an economic planner who suggests a

shocking solution to the problem. Watch for the sharp contrast between

Swift’s direct, logical style and the outrageous proposal he describes.

1. this great town: Dublin.

2. importuning . . . alms: asking passersby for a handout.

3. want n.: lack; need.

4. the Pretender: James Edward (1688–1766), son of England’s last

Catholic king, the deposed James II (1633–1701); James Edward

kept trying to gain the English throne.

5. sell . . . Barbadoes: go to the West Indies and work as indentured

servants.

Melancholy, in line 1, means

“sad.” Using that knowledge,

paraphrase the first sentence.

Suggested response:

When people go out

walking in this town

or in this country, it

is depressing to see

women and their kids

begging.

sustenance (sus√t¥·n¥ns) n.:

food or money to support life.

126

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

Collection 4

Student Pages 126–127

Student Pages with Answers 65

turn to account

either to the parents or the kingdom, the

charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times

that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts,

which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American

of my

acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed

is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome

food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make

no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee,

or ragout.

I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that

of the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed,

twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-

fourth part to be males, which is more than we allow to sheep,

black cattle, or swine, and my reason is that these children are

seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded

by our savages; therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four

females. That the remaining hundred thousand may at a year

old be offered in sale to the persons of quality, and fortune,

through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them

suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump,

and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an

entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the

fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned

with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth

day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will

weigh twelve pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed

increaseth to twenty-eight pounds.

100

A Modest Proposal 129

17. turn to account: be profitable.

18. American: To Swift’s readers this label would suggest a barbaric person.

19. fricassee (frik≈¥·s≤√) n.: stew with a light gravy.

20. ragout (ra·gº√) n.: highly flavored stew.

Re-read lines 77–81. Circle

the words Swift uses to

describe a young, healthy

child. Based on these details,

what plan do you think he

is about to propose to deal

with Ireland’s starving

population?

It sounds like he will

propose that year-old

children of the poor

be killed and used for

food.

The speaker provides details

in support of his outrageous

plan (lines 93–97). Underline

those details.

more to avoid the expense, than the shame, which would move

tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.

The number of souls

in Ireland being usually reckoned one

million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two

hundred thousand couples whose wives are breeders, from which

number I subtract thirty thousand couples, who are able to

maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot

be so many under the present distresses of the kingdom, but this

being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand

breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who

miscarry, or whose children die by accident, or disease within

the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand

children of poor parents annually born: The question therefore

is, how this number shall be reared, and provided for, which, as

I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is

utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed, for we

can neither employ them in handicraft,

or agriculture; we

neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land:

They can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing until they

arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts,

although, I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier,

during which time, they can however be properly looked upon

only as probationers,

as I have been informed by a principal

gentleman in the county of Cavan,

who protested to me, that

he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six,

even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest

proficiency in that art.

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or girl, before

twelve years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they

come to this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three

pounds and half a crown at most on the exchange, which cannot

11. souls n. pl.: people.

12. handicraft n.: manufacturing.

13. of towardly parts: exceptionally advanced or mature for their age.

14. probationers n. pl.: apprentices.

15. Cavan: inland county in Ireland that is remote from Dublin.

16. that art: stealing.

Re-read lines 37–42. Circle

the words in line 42 that

suggest that poor people

are not civilized. By using

these words, which type of

persuasive appeal is Swift

making?

The words savage and

inhuman make an

emotional appeal.

Re-read lines 43–53. What

kind of language does Swift

use here to describe births

and deaths of the poor? How

does this language help him

make his point?

Swift uses mathe-

matical language to

describe the number

of births, miscarriages,

and deaths. The

impersonal use of

statistics exaggerates

the heartlessness of

government agencies.

128

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

Collection 4

Student Pages 128–129

66 The Holt Reader: Teacher’s Manual

I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar’s

child (in which list I reckon all cottagers,

laborers, and four-

fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum,

rags

included, and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten

shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said

will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath

only some particular friend, or his own family to dine with him.

Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow pop-

ular among his tenants, the mother will have eight shillings net

profit, and be fit for work until she produceth another child.

Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times

require) may flay

the carcass; the skin of which, artificially

dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer

boots for fine gentlemen.

As to our city of Dublin, shambles

may be appointed for

this purpose, in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we

may be assured will not be wanting, although I rather recom-

mend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the

knife, as we do roasting pigs.

A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and

whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing

on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said,

that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed

their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well

supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding

fourteen years of age, nor under twelve, so great a number of

both sexes in every country being now ready to starve, for want

of work and service:

and these to be disposed of by their parents

if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due

120

130

140

A Modest Proposal 131

25. cottagers n. pl.: tenant farmers.

26. per annum: Latin for “by the year”; annually.

27. flay v.: remove the skin of.

28. artificially adv.: with great artifice; skillfully.

29. shambles n.: slaughterhouse.

30. service n.: employment as servants.

In discussing the economics

of his proposal, what kind of

appeal is the speaker making

(lines 114–123)?

a logical appeal

Pause at line 142. What

“refinement,” or modifica-

tion, of the author’s plan is

suggested in this paragraph?

Underline the answer.

Re-read lines 128–132, in

which the speaker suggests

“dressing” children “hot

from the knife.” What effect

do you think Swift expects

this word choice to have

on readers?

He assumes his word

choice will outrage

people and make

them think.

I grant this food will be somewhat dear,

and therefore

very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured

most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but

more plentiful in March, and a little before and after, for we are

told by a grave author,

an eminent French physician, that fish

being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman

Catholic countries about nine months after Lent, than at any

other season, therefore reckoning a year after Lent, the markets

will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish

infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it

will have one other collateral advantage by lessening the number

of papists among us.

110

21. dear adj.: expensive.

22. devoured v.: made poor by charging high rents.

23. grave author: The French satirist François Rabelais. His work is comic,

not “grave.”

24. popish adj.: derogatory term meaning “Roman Catholic.”

Re-read lines 104–113.

According to the speaker,

what is a desirable effect of

having a glut of infants on

the market?

It will decrease the

number of Roman

Catholics in Ireland.

An Irish cabin.

National Library of Ireland, Dublin.

glutted (glut√id) v. used as

adj.: overfilled.

Re-read lines 101–103 and

footnotes 21–22. Swift uses

verbal irony to expose a

major cause of the poverty

in Ireland. Restate the

sentence in your own words.

Suggested response:

I admit this food will

be expensive, and

therefore perfect for

landlords, who have

already taken the

parents’ money and

so have the most

right to take their

children, too.

130

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

Collection 4

Student Pages 130–131

Student Pages with Answers 67

house, and assemblies in foreign fineries, which they never will

pay for; the kingdom would not be the worse.

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern

about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased,

or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts

what course may be taken, to ease the nation of so grievous an

encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter,

because it is very well known, that they are every day dying, and

rotting, by cold, and famine, and filth, and vermin,

as fast as

can be reasonably expected. And as to the younger laborers they

are now in almost as hopeful

a condition. They cannot get

work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a

degree, that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common

labor, they have not strength to perform it, and thus the country

and themselves are in a fair way

of being soon delivered from

the evils to come.

I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my

subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made

are obvious and many as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen

the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being

the principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most danger-

ous enemies, and who stay at home on purpose with a design to

deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advan-

tage by the absence of so many good Protestants,

who have

chosen rather to leave their country, than stay at home, and pay

tithes

against their conscience, to an idolatrous Episcopal curate.

170

180

190

A Modest Proposal 133

37. vermin n. pl.: pests such as lice, fleas, and bedbugs.

38. hopeful adj.: actually, hopeless. Swift is using the word with

intentional irony.

39. are in a fair way: have a good chance.

40. good Protestants: that is, in Swift’s view, bad Protestants, because

they object to the Church of Ireland’s bishops and regard them as

“idolatrous.”

41. tithes (t¢

‚

z) n. pl.: monetary gifts to the church equivalent to one

tenth of each donor’s income.

The word encumbrance (line

176) means “a burden, a

hindrance, or a weight.”

Re-read lines 172–185. Why

isn’t the speaker concerned

about the great number of

other poor people in Ireland?

Underline that information.

digressed (d¢·grest√) v.:

wandered off the subject.

The speaker lists the

“advantages” of his proposal

one by one. As you read lines

189–231, circle the word

or phrase at the beginning

of each paragraph that

reveals the text’s pattern of

organization. Then, under-

line the “benefit” of each

of the six proposals.

deference to so excellent a friend, and so deserving a patriot, I

cannot be altogether in his sentiments, for as to the males, my

American acquaintance assured me from frequent experience,

that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our

schoolboys, by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable,

and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to the

females, it would, I think with humble submission,

be a loss to

the public, because they soon would become breeders them-

selves: And besides it is not improbable that some scrupulous

people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed

very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess,

hath always been with me the strongest objection against any

project, how well soever intended.

But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this

expedient was put into his head by the famous Sallmanaazor,

a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to

London, above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my

friend, that in his country when any young person happened to

be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of

quality, as a prime dainty, and that, in his time, the body of a

plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison

the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty’s prime minister

of state, and other great mandarins

of the court, in joints

from the gibbet,

at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can

I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young

girls in this town, who, without one single groat to their fortunes,

cannot stir abroad without a chair,

and appear at the play-

150

160

31. with humble submission: with all due respect to those who hold

such opinions.

32. Sallmanaazor: George Psalmanazar (c. 1679–1763), a Frenchman who

pretended to be from Formosa, an old Portuguese name for Taiwan.

His writings were fraudulent.

33. mandarins (man√d¥·rinz) n. pl.: officials. The term comes from

mandarim, the Portuguese word describing high-ranking officials

in the Chinese Empire, with which the Portuguese traded.

34. joints n. pl.: large cuts of meat, including the bone.

35. gibbet (jib√it) n.: gallows.

36. chair n.: sedan chair; a covered seat carried by servants.

deference (def√¥r·¥ns) n.:

respect.

scrupulous (skrº√py¥·l¥s)

adj.: extremely careful and

precise in deciding what is

right or wrong.

censure (sen√◊¥r) v.: condemn;

blame.

expedient (ek·sp≤√d≤·¥nt) n.:

convenient means to an end.

Pause at line 166, and read

footnote 32. How trustworthy

a source is Sallmanaazor?

Why do you think Swift uses

his ideas as an example?

Sallmanaazor was

exposed as a fraud;

as a source he is not

trustworthy. Swift

deliberately cites him

to make it clear his

proposal is outrageous.

132

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

Collection 4

Student Pages 132–133

68 The Holt Reader: Teacher’s Manual

market, men would become as fond of their wives, during the

time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal,

their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow,

nor

offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear

of a miscarriage.

Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance,

the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of

barreled beef. The propagation of swine’s flesh, and improvement

in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by

the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables, which

are no way comparable in taste, or magnificence to a well-grown,

fat yearling child, which roasted whole will make a considerable

figure at a Lord Mayor’s feast, or any other public entertainment.

But this, and many others I omit being studious of brevity.

Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be

constant customers for infants’ flesh, besides others who might

have it at merry meetings, particularly weddings and christen-

ings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about

twenty thousand carcasses, and the rest of the kingdom (where

probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining

eighty thousand.

I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised

against this proposal, unless it should be urged that the number

of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I

freely own, and it was indeed one principal design in offering it

to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my

remedy for this one individual kingdom of Ireland, and for no

other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth.

Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients:

Of taxing

our absentees

at five shillings a pound; of using neither clothes,

230

240

250

A Modest Proposal 135

47. farrow (far√£) v.: produce piglets.

48. other expedients: At one time or another, Swift had advocated all

these measures for the relief of Ireland, but they were all ignored

by the government. This section was italicized in all editions printed

during Swift’s lifetime to indicate that Swift made these proposals

sincerely rather than ironically.

49. absentees n. pl.: English landowners who refused to live on their

Irish property.

brevity (brev√¥·t≤) n.: being

brief; shortness.

Pause at line 254. What

objection does the speaker

anticipate (lines 248–250)?

How does he answer the

objection?

The number of people

in the kingdom will be

greatly lessened. The

speaker regards this

very same idea as a

plus.

Explain the irony in the

speaker’s claim to “brevity”

(line 240).

He says he won’t list

other advantages

because he wants to

be brief, when in

reality he has gone

on at great length.

Secondly, the poorer tenants will have something valuable

of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress,

and

help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being

already seized, and money a thing unknown.

Thirdly, whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand

children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed

at less than ten shillings apiece per annum, the nation’s stock

will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum,

besides the profit of a new dish, introduced to the tables of all

gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom, who have any refinement

in taste, and the money will circulate among ourselves, the

goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.

Fourthly, the constant breeders, besides the gain of eight

shillings sterling per annum, by the sale of their children, will

be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.

Fifthly, this food would likewise bring great custom to

taverns, where the vintners

will certainly be so prudent as to

procure the best receipts

for dressing it to perfection, and

consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentle-

men, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good

eating, and a skillful cook, who understands how to oblige his

guests will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.

Sixthly, this would be a great inducement to marriage,

which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or

enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and

tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were

sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some

sort by the public to their annual profit instead of expense, we

should soon see an honest emulation

among the married

women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the

200

210

220

42. liable to distress: that is, the money from the sale of their children

may be seized by their landlords.

43. own growth and manufacture: homegrown, edible children, not

imported ones.

44. vintners (vint√n¥rz) n. pl.: wine merchants.

45. receipts n. pl.: archaic for “recipes.”

46. emulation (em≈yº·l†√◊¥n) n.: competition.

procure (pr£·kyoor√) v.:

obtain; get.

Notes

134

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

Collection 4

Student Pages 134–135

Student Pages with Answers 69

of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of

too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt,

although perhaps I could name a country,

which would be

glad to eat up our whole nation without it.

After all I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion,

as to reject any offer, proposed by wise men, which shall be

found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before

something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to

my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author, or authors

290

A Modest Proposal 137

57. a country: England.

Judy O’Donnel’s “home” under the bridge

at Donnbeg, Clare, Ireland (1849).

The Illustrated London News Picture Library.

Notes

nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and

manufacture; of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments

that promote foreign luxury; of curing the expensiveness of pride,

vanity, idleness, and gaming

in our women; of introducing a

vein of parsimony,

prudence, and temperance; of learning to

love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the

inhabitants of Topinamboo;

of quitting our animosities, and

factions,

nor act any longer like the Jews, who were murdering

one another at the very moment their city

was taken; of being a

little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing;

of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy toward

their tenants. Lastly of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and

skill into our shopkeepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken

to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat

and exact

upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness,

nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just

dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the

like expedients, till he hath at least a glimpse of hope, that there

will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them in

practice.

But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years

with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly

despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which

as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no

expense and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby

we can incur no danger in disobliging

England. For this kind

260

270

280

50. gaming v. used as n.: gambling.

51. parsimony (pär√s¥·m£≈n≤) n.: thriftiness; economy.

52. Topinamboo: Swift is referring to a region of Brazil populated by

native peoples collectively called the Tupinambá. Here, Swift suggests

that if Brazilian peoples and Laplanders can love their seemingly

inhospitable lands, the Irish should love Ireland.

53. factions n. pl.: political groups that work against the interests of

other such groups or against the main body of government.

54. their city: Jerusalem, which the Roman emperor Titus destroyed in

A.D. 70 while Jewish factions fought one another.

55. exact v.: force payment.

56. disobliging v. used as adj.: offending.

animosities (an≈¥·mäs√¥·t≤z)

n. pl.: hostilities; violent

hatreds or resentments.

Re-read footnote 48 on page

135, which explains that

Swift’s essay is ironic except

for this italicized passage.

Why do you think Swift

included this list of real

solutions to the problems

in Ireland?

It shows that if the

government ignores

reasonable proposals,

then maybe it will pay

attention to extreme,

unreasonable ones.

136

Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

Part 1

Collection 4

Student Pages 136–137

70 The Holt Reader: Teacher’s Manual

A Modest Proposal 139

A Modest Proposal

Reading Skills: Recognizing Persuasive Techniques

Each of the following

excerpts from “A Modest Proposal” is an example of a persuasive technique.

In the blank provided, write the type of appeal (logical, emotional, or ethical)

that is used in the excerpt. The first one has been done for you.

Suggested responses appear below.

2. “I profess in the sincerity of my heart that I have not the least personal

interest . . . having no other motive than the public good of my

country . . . I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single

penny . . . and my wife past childbearing.” (closing paragraph)

Type of appeal:

ethical appeal

3. “I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the

hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty

thousand may be reserved for breed. . . .” (lines 82–84)

Type of appeal:

logical appeal

Example:

Type of appeal:

logical appeal

new dish. . . .” (lines 203–205)

thousand pounds per annum, besides the profit of a

“the nation’s stock will be thereby increased fifty