Maxims Controlled in Ireland (1729)

Abstract

Written in 1729 but not published until 1765, this (unfinished) piece emphasizes a point Swift repeatedly came back to in his writings: namely, that Ireland’s semi-colonial situation was so uniquely insupportable and anomalous that it differed from all other countries and thus was not governed by the same general laws and principles that prevailed everywhere else. This point is reinforced through the enumeration of several maxims judged to be universally applicable but “controlled” (i.e., contradicted) in Ireland. The implication is that Ireland’s problems require very special solutions, ones not based on the experiences or practices of other countries. Copy-text: Works, ed. Deane Swift (1765).