animals and finally says that the children should be kept alive and then dressed “hot from the knife” like a roasting pig. The ironic comparison is sustained when he suggests using the childen’s skin to make gloves and boots.

Swift admits that the practice of eating young people may be open to censure “as a little bordering upon cruelty” and says that this has always been the strongest argument against any project, ironically suggesting that he may be rather over-scrupulous in his concern.

The essay ends in bathos and irony when Swift points out that he has no personal motive for suggesting this plan, since he has no children to sell himself and his wife is past child-bearing. The purpose of both the bathos and the irony is to maintain a mild, matter-of-fact tone so at variance with the horror of the subject under discussion that the incongruity increases the grisliness of the suggestion. Swift's cool irony is far more effective in making his point than the most savage indignation.