A Tale of a Tub is a mass of text apparently brought together with the intention of deliberately confusing the reader, but its digressions upon digressions cannot obscure the theme inevitable. of loss, which we ultimately find in all of Swift's works. Satire opposes the present to an ideal of past perfection, and the comparison always shows that the modern is lacking. The Church falsifies religion; the modern, the ancient; reviews, the author. The narrator of Swift's text seems to believe that at the moment a great work or idea is presented, it may be pure, but will always degrade over time. Because it is impossible to return to that previous state, there is a heavy sense of disappointment that weighs on the most transparent wit and humor. The whole story could be nothing more than a joke, aimed not only at moderns and at the Church, but also at the public.1 But no matter how many crude jokes or attacks there are Swift says, the point of the story is not just to laugh at the expense of others, but to mourn the fall of an ideal that can never exist again. It is impossible to return to an original source in the Tale because it seems that the narrator holds a linear timeline model in his head. As time passes, the distance between each passing moment and the point of origin must increase, and any attempt to return to the beginning must fail. Just as it is impossible for someone living in the 18th century to return to the first, so a man who is taught to be modern will never be able to think exactly like an ancient person. From this point of view, the narrator can almost be considered a modern-day phenomenologist. This philosophy asserts the impossibility of observing an object as it really is, since the viewer is separated from the object...... middle of paper ...... must be below the original. And if his talent cannot be used to increase the glory of the classics, he might as well use it to condemn the moderns. If all writing is ultimately a corruption of what came before it, as the narrator seems to believe, then it is better to write about something that is despised rather than revered. Sometimes the Tale seems to be nothing more than a farce, because of all the digressions and unintelligible passages that are inserted into it. Swift states that he gives his readers exactly what they want, because humanity "receives a far greater advantage by being diverted than by being instructed", and happiness "is a perpetual possession of being well deceived” (327, 351). Swift sees this as the exact problem that is ruining current learning and puts it in front of readers' noses to frustrate them with the same method they promote.