The battle of the books Author:Jonathan Swift Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: darling of his mother, above all her children, and she resolved to go and comfort him. But first, according to the good old custom of deities, she cast about to ... more »change her shape, for fear the divinity of her countenance might dazzle his mortal sight, and overcharge the rest of his senses. She therefore gathered up her person into an octavo compass, her body grew white and arid, and split in pieces with dryness, the thick turned into pasteboard, and the thin into paper, upon which her parents and children artfully strowed a black juice, or decoction of gall and soot, in form of letters : her head, and voice, and spleen, kept their primitive form : and that which before was a cover of skin did still continue so; in which guise she marched on towards the Moderns, undistinguishable in shape and dress from the divine B-ntl-y, W-tt-n's dearest friend. "Brave W-tt-n," said the goddess, "why do our troops stand idle here, to spend their present vigour, and opportunity of this day ? Away ! let us haste to the generals, and advise to give the onset immediately." Having spoke thus, she took the ugliest of her monsters, full glutted from her spleen,and flung it invisibly into his mouth, which flying straight up into his head, squeezed out his eye-balls, gave him a distorted look, and half overturned his brain. Then she privately ordered two of her beloved children, Dullness and Ill-Manners, closely to attend his person in all encounters. Having thus accoutred him, she vanished in a mist, and the hero perceived it was the goddess his mother. The destined hour of fate being now arrived, the fight began ; whereof before I dare adventure to make a particular description, I must, after the example of other authors, petition for a hundred tongues, and mouths, and hands, and pens, which would all...« less