Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish satirists, and one of the first to practise modern journalistic satire. For instance, In his "A Modest Proposal" Swift suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the "problem" of poverty. His purpose is of course to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor. In his book "Gulliver's Travels" he writes about the flaws in human society in general and English society in particular. John Dryden wrote an influential essay entitled "A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire" that helped fix the definition of satire in the literary world. His satirical "Mac Flecknoe" was written in response to a rivalry with Thomas Shadwell and eventually inspired Alexander Pope to write his satirical "[". Other satirical works by Pope include the "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot".