Type: Article
Carey, Daniel. ‘Swift Among The Freethinkers’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 12 (1997), pp 89-99.
Jonathan Swifts ongoing literary battles with freethinkers impelled him to use a variety of rhetorical strategies to combat the threat which freethinkers posed to Anglican orthodoxy and to Swifts political position as a Tory. This article assesses the successes and failures of Swifts strategies, supporting the idea that Swifts voice achieved its greatest impact and victory over his opponent when assuming the identity of a satirised narrator. Carey analyses Swifts attacks on his freethinking opponents, the unholy trio of Toland, Tindal and Collins. In response to complaints about church mysteries, Swift composed his Sermon on the Trinity, a polemic delivered in his own voice, launching an ad hominem attack on freethinkers: The slightly scattered nature of his objections and replies in the sermon indicates the vulnerability of Swifts position, open to attack by opponents. The article also looks in detail at Swifts more successful attacks on freethinking, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity and Mr C[olli]nss Discourse of Free-Thinking put into plain English by way of Abstract for the Use of the Poor.