The Battle of the Books
Jonathan Swift worked for William Temple during the time of the controversy, and Swift's "A Tale of a Tub" (1703/1705) takes part in the debate. From its first publication, Swift added a short satire entitled "The Battle of the Books" to the "Tale of a Tub." In this piece, there is an epic battle fought in a library when various books come alive and attempt to settle the arguments between moderns and ancients. In Swift's satire, he skilfully manages to avoid saying which way victory fell. He portrays the manuscript as having been damaged in places, thus leaving the end of the battle up to the reader.
Digression
In 18th-century literature, the digression (not to be confused with subplot) was a substantial part of satiric works. Works such as Jonathan Swift's "A Tale of a Tub", Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and Diderot's "Jacques le fataliste et son maître" even made digressiveness itself a part of the satire. Sterne's novel, in particular, depended upon the digression, and he wrote, "Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; — they are the life, the soul of reading; — take them out of this book ("Tristram Shandy") for instance, — you might as well take the book along with them." This use of digression as satire later showed up in Thomas Carlyle's work.