In this chapter, Swift uses the technique of paradox as fuel for his satire. He gives paradoxical explanations for secular war, contrasting actual motives with professed motives. Swift is saying that men use their reason to give themselves excuses — instead of alternatives — for wars. Although we are not physically dangerous, we use reason to increase our power to kill. Swift concludes that as our reason increases so, proportionately, do our vices. From the gunpowder illustration, Swift moves to a social illustration: law and lawyers. The details he gives emphasize lawyers' antipathy to right reason: They destroy reasonable conversation, fight knowledge, and use reason to exalt injustice.
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