ABSTRACT
Readers of Smith know that he was sometimes given to hyperbole. One of the most striking instances of such in his corpus is to be found in his ninth rhetoric lecture. Here he claims that when combined, the systems of Jonathan Swift and Lucian form ‘a complete system of ridicule’. With Swift satirizing the gay and Lucian the grave, ‘both together form a System of morality from whence more sound and just rules of life for all the various characters of men may be drawn than from most set systems of Morality’ (Smith 1985, LRBL i.124-25). But this claim raises several questions. First, how did Smith come to shower such praises on a composite ‘system of morality’ neither of whose elements are mentioned in the review of ‘Systems of Moral Philosophy’ in Part VII of The Theory of Moral Sentiments? Second, even though Smith explains why it is necessary to couple Lucian and Swift (namely so that each might balance out the ‘prejudices’ characteristic of the other), it is hardly clear, on its face, why he should have recommended either in the first instance. It is this second question that will occupy us here, and specifically with reference to Swift.1 What did Smith find so compelling in Swift to lead him to make such a pointed recommendation of the Dean?
