It is what we find ourselves contemplating when elsewhere we examine his irony. To lay the stress upon an emotional intensity should be matter of commonplace: actually, in routine usage, the accepted word for Swift is * intellectual'. We are told, for instance, that his is pre-eminently * intellectual satire' (though we are not told what satire is). For diis formula the best reason some commentators can allege is the elaboration of analogies—their 'exact and elaborate propriety' 1 —in Gulliver. But a muddled perception can hardly be expected to give a clear account of itself; the stress on Swift's 'intellect' (Mr Herbert Read alludes to his 'mighty intelligence') 2 registers, it would appear, a confused sense, not only of the mental exercise involved in his irony, but of the habitually critical attitude he maintains towards the world, and of the negative emotions he specializes in. From 'critical' to 'negative' in this last sentence is, it will be observed, a shift of stress.
What do You think about The Common Pursuit (1952)?
