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    The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers
    The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers
    The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers
    Ebook51 pages48 minutes

    The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers

    By Jonathan Swift and Mint Editions

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    About this ebook

    When the famed 18th century astrologer, John Partridge, publicly discredited the Christian church, Jonathan Swift developed an immense distaste for the man. Feeling insulted and malicious, Swift decided to celebrate his favorite holiday, All Fools Day, more commonly known as April Fools, while also appeasing his self-appointed feud with Partridge. Under the disguise of a pseudonym, Swift published The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers as a series of three letters. The first letter, titled Predictions for the Year 1708 started with a criticism of the cultural impact astrology had on their society. Eventually, the narrative shifts to list predictions including political uprisings, the birth of children, weather patterns, battle outcomes, and most importantly, the death of notable figures, including John Partridge. To accompany this letter, Swift next published The Accomplishments of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff’s Predictions, which was written from the perspective of a government employee who supported and confirmed the validity of Bickerstaff’s predictions. This section also included an elegy for John Partridge, furthering the claim that the man was dead. These papers gained immense popularity, and convinced the public that these predictions were legitimate. This caused quite the disturbance for Partridge, who was often waken by the sound of people crying outside his home, mourning his death. After Partridge published a paper to deny the rumors that he was dead, Swift responded with the final part of The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers, pondering the philosophical definition of death to convince his audience that Partridge was dead once more.

    Though it began as a prank, Swift’s The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers transformed into a life-altering work that employed careful prose and satire so supreme that it went unnoticed by many. Following its popularity in 1708 and 1709, The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers further inspired celebrated authors such as Richard Steele, Benjamin Franklin, and H.P. Lovecraft.

    This edition of The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift features a new, eye-catching cover design and is printed in a readable font, making it both accessible and modern.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMint Editions
    Release dateJan 19, 2021
    ISBN9781513275307
    The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers
    Author

    Jonathan Swift

    Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667. Although he spent most of his childhood in Ireland, he considered himself English, and, aged twenty-one, moved to England, where he found employment as secretary to the diplomat Sir William Temple. On Temple's death in 1699, Swift returned to Dublin to pursue a career in the Church. By this time he was also publishing in a variety of genres, and between 1704 and 1729 he produced a string of brilliant satires, of which Gulliver's Travels is the best known. Between 1713 and 1742 he was Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin; he was buried there when he died in 1745.

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      Book preview

      The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers - Jonathan Swift

      PREDICTIONS FOR THE YEAR 1708

      Wherein the month, and day of the month are set down, the persons named, and the great actions and events of next year particularly related, as will come to pass.

      Written to prevent the people of England from being farther imposed on by vulgar almanack-makers.

      By Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.

      I have long consider’d the gross abuse of astrology in this kingdom, and upon debating the matter with myself, I could not possibly lay the fault upon the art, but upon those gross impostors, who set up to be the artists. I know several learned men have contended that the whole is a cheat; that it is absurd and ridiculous to imagine, the stars can have any influence at all upon human actions, thoughts, or inclinations: And whoever has not bent his studies that way, may be excused for thinking so, when he sees in how wretched a manner that noble art is treated by a few mean illiterate traders between us and the stars; who import a yearly stock of nonsense, lyes, folly, and impertinence, which they offer to the world as genuine from the planets, tho’ they descend from no greater a height than their own brains.

      I intend in a short time to publish a large and rational defence of this art, and therefore shall say no more in its justification at present, than that it hath been in all ages defended by many learned men, and among the rest by Socrates himself, whom I look upon as undoubtedly the wisest of uninspir’d mortals: To which if we add, that those who have condemned this art, though otherwise learned, having been such as either did not apply their studies this way, or at least did not succeed in their applications; their testimony will not be of much weight to its disadvantage, since they are liable to the common objection of condemning what they did not understand.

      Nor am I at all offended, or think it an injury to the art, when I see the common dealers in it, the students in astrology, the philomaths, and the rest of that tribe, treated by wise men with the utmost scorn and contempt; but rather wonder, when I observe gentlemen in the country, rich enough to serve the nation in parliament, poring in Partridge’s almanack, to find out the events of the year at home and abroad; not daring to propose a hunting-match, till Gadbury or he have fixed the weather.

      I will allow either of the two I have mentioned, or any other of the fraternity, to be not only astrologers, but conjurers too, if I do not produce a hundred instances in all their almanacks, to convince any reasonable man, that they do not so much as understand common grammar and syntax; that they are not able to spell any word out of the usual road, nor even in their prefaces write common sense or intelligible English. Then for their observations and predictions, they are such as will equally suit any age or country in the world. This month a certain great person will be threatened with death or sickness. This the news-papers will tell them; for there we find at the end of the year, that no month passes without the death of some person of note; and it would be hard if it should be otherwise, when there are at least two thousand persons of not in this kingdom, many of them old, and the almanack-maker has the liberty of chusing the sickliest season of the year where he may fix his prediction. Again, This month an eminent clergyman will be preferr’d; of which there may be some hundreds half of them with one foot in the grave. Then such a planet in such a house shews great machinations, plots and conspiracies, that may in time be brought to light: After which, if we hear of any discovery, the astrologer gets the honour; if not, his prediction still stands good. And at last,

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