[443] "Mrs. Pilkington pretends that this letter was written on Lady Betty Moore's Marriage with Mr. George Rochfort. But Mr. Faulkner, who is the more sound authority, supposed it addressed to Mrs. John Rochford, daughter of Dr. Staunton." (Swift: Works, ed. Scott, vol. IX, p. 203 n.)
[444] Swift: Works, ed. Scott, vol. IX, p. 209. De Quincey has an interesting comment on this passage: "Often, indeed, I had occasion to remember the cynical remark of Swift that, after all, as respects mere learning, the most accomplished woman is hardly on a level with a schoolboy. In quoting this saying, I have restricted it so as to offer no offence to the female sex intellectually considered. Swift probably meant to undervalue women generally. Now, I am well aware that they have their peculiar province. But that province does not extend to learning, technically so called. No woman ever was or will be a polyhistor, like Salmasius, for example; nor a philosopher; nor, in fact anything whatsoever, called by what name you like, which demands either of these two combinations which follow:—1, great powers of combination, that is, of massing or grouping under large comprehensive principles; or, 2, severe logic." (Works, ed. Masson, vol. XIV, p. 125.)
[445] Ibid., vol. IX, p. 227.
[446] Swift: Works, ed. Scott, vol. IX, p. 217.
[448] Ibid., vol. IX, p. 208.
[449] Craik, Henry: Life of Jonathan Swift, vol. II, Appendix XI.
[450] On the Picture of Lady M. Wortley Montagu by Kneller.
[451] Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, ll. 368-69 and note.
[452] The Rape of the Lock, canto IV, ll. 59-62.