Which statement best explains Swift's use of rhetorical devices in this passage? And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, how well soever intended. -"A Modest Proposal," Jonathan Swift O Swift uses verbal irony when he mentions objections to his plan in order to prove that no one could possibly object to the proposal. O Swift uses verbal irony when he says his plan is "a little bordering upon cruelty" because his plan is not at all cruel. O Swift uses understatement and irony when he says his plan is "a little bordering on cruelty" to highlight how cruel the plan really is.​