Jonathan Swift has been said to be the "Keenest mind and sharpest wit in an age marked by intellectual brilliance".(1) Jonathan Swift was also called "a mass of sense"(1). His works however took very irrational approaches to the many topics he wrote about in his many literary works. He shows this irrational writing in his works: The Battle of the Books, A Modest Proposal, and Gulliver's Travels (originally entitled: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lempel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships). He had an enthusiasm in his idea of "pure reason" and was distrustful of all fanaticism. He also had very clear and direct style of the English language, but the extremeness of his irony were misunderstood in his own and later ages.
             Born in Dublin on November 30, 1667, Jonathan Swift was the son of an Englishman who had settled in Ireland, was educated at Trinity College with the aid of a wealthy uncle. In 1688 he left Ireland and became secretary to Sir William Temple at Moor Park, Surrey. Temple was not an agreeable master, and Swift wanted to be independent in the exciting world of London. It was Sir William who polished to a young Swift and introduced him to his own world of wit and polite learning, it was in his behalf that swift entered the controversy over the relative merits of the "ancients" and the "moderns" in The Battle of the Books. In this mock-heroic prose a battle between the "ancients" and "moderns" books by classical and modern authors war with one another.(2)
             During this same period (1696-1698), Swift wrote A Tale of a Tub, history of the Church that is the first time his true genius was first revealed. Just as important as his tale of the degradation of the Church through selfishness and fanaticism and the numerous digressions on moral, philosophical, and literary subjects.
             In 1694 Swift returned to Ireland where he was ordained an Anglican priest, b...