The Political Sermons of Samuel Johnson
and Jonathan Swift
The New Rambler
Journal of the Johnson Society of London
Spring, 1971, 27-40
By,
Jordan P. Richman, Ph.D
Writers Anonymous
Phoenix, Arizona
Samuel Johnson was a stern critic of the life and works of Jonathan Swift. However, a reading of their sermons on the same subjects shows the large extent of Johnson’s sympathetic apperception of Swift’s political and religious beliefs.
While the tone and style of both sermonizers is personal, nonironic, and argumentative, there can be also be found shades of differences in their basic moral concerns.
As a preacher Swift thinks he is unsuccessful, complaining that he “could only preach pamphlets.” In his Life of Swift, however, Johnson disagrees and views the statement as “unreasonably severe.” (Lives, III, 54). Johnson believes Swift’s published sermons show him as an active and diligent churchman who was afraid to show the extent of his piety in order not to appear hypocritical. Johnson, in this passage, reminds his reader that Swift overlooked his own warning that religious hypocrisy was more correctible than avowed impiety, because the hypocrite might end up believing the words of his uttered prayers, whereas those who practiced impiety might have to stick by their guns to the end.
and Jonathan Swift
The New Rambler
Journal of the Johnson Society of London
Spring, 1971, 27-40
By,
Jordan P. Richman, Ph.D
Writers Anonymous
Phoenix, Arizona
Samuel Johnson was a stern critic of the life and works of Jonathan Swift. However, a reading of their sermons on the same subjects shows the large extent of Johnson’s sympathetic apperception of Swift’s political and religious beliefs.
While the tone and style of both sermonizers is personal, nonironic, and argumentative, there can be also be found shades of differences in their basic moral concerns.
As a preacher Swift thinks he is unsuccessful, complaining that he “could only preach pamphlets.” In his Life of Swift, however, Johnson disagrees and views the statement as “unreasonably severe.” (Lives, III, 54). Johnson believes Swift’s published sermons show him as an active and diligent churchman who was afraid to show the extent of his piety in order not to appear hypocritical. Johnson, in this passage, reminds his reader that Swift overlooked his own warning that religious hypocrisy was more correctible than avowed impiety, because the hypocrite might end up believing the words of his uttered prayers, whereas those who practiced impiety might have to stick by their guns to the end.
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