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The Battle of the Books — Preface Quotes by Jonathan Swift: Context & Meanings

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Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own;

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“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own;”

Jonathan Swift

Meaning & context

Swift jokes that readers readily recognize other people in satire while overlooking themselves, making self-exemption part of the very behavior satire exposes.

Source details

The Battle of the Books, 'The Preface of the Author,' represented by Project Gutenberg #623. Swift's 'satire is a sort of glass' image opens the Preface and explains why readers recognize other people's faults more readily than their own. The retained semicolon marks a frozen excerpt from a longer sentence; this is satirical/literary metaphor rather than a psychological measurement rule.

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