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38. Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745.

A letter to a young gentleman, lately enter'd into Holy Orders : By a person of quality : It is certainly known, that the following treatise was writ in Ireland / by the Reverend Dr. Swift, Dean of St Patrick's in that Kingdom. 2nd edition. (London : printed for J. Roberts, 1721)

38. Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. A letter to a young gentleman

Swift had lost hope of promotion after the Tories had been defeated by the Whigs and George I had become King. He retired back to Ireland and had to be content with becoming Dean of St. Patrick’s Dublin. His advice to a young clergyman is to keep his sermons simple, and not, for example, to preach against free-thinkers, as it is imprudent "to perplex the minds of well-disposed people with doubts which probably would never have otherwise come into their heads."

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