Originally published at National Catholic Register
True faith rejoices in knowing that the Life we celebrate at the stable in Bethlehem is the real answer to death.
Jonathan Swift is best remembered today for writing Gulliver’s Travels, but Swift wrote other things still read by students of classic English prose.
Prominent among these is a bitterly satirical work known by its shortened title — A Modest Proposal.
Published anonymously as a pamphlet in 1729 in Dublin, where Swift was dean of the Anglican cathedral, the “proposal” purports to originate with a public-spirited citizen who wants to share a bright idea for solving Irish overpopulation and poverty.
How? The idea is to sell the babies of poor Irish couples to rich people, to be cooked and eaten as delicacies. Stewed, roasted, baked or broiled, the author assures his readers, a year-old child is “most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food.”
The point of Swift’s grim mockery was that, morally speaking, England’s real-life policy toward Ireland was not much better than a grisly scheme for generating revenue by selling and eating Irish babies.
I thought of Swift while reading (rereading really — it’s one of my favorite books) Evelyn Waugh’s short novel The Loved One.
