JONATHAN SWIFT. BORN 1667-DIED 1745. [In the spring of 1667 Jonathan Swift, full | doubt, he suffered many an indignity from the cousin to the poet Dryden, and steward to the poverty-stricken state in which he was mainSociety of King's Inns, Dublin, died in poor tained by an uncle who seemed, but in reality circumstances, leaving a widow. Seven months was not, rich. later, on the 30th of November, in a little house in Hoey's Court, the poor widow gave birth to a son, who was named Jonathan after his dead father, and whose life, begun thus miserably, was fated to be one constant round of warfare and suffering, of defeat in victory and of disappointment in success. Born with a spirit fitting him to rule, the greatest satirist of England felt in the very first years of his life the cold hand of poverty pressing him to the earth and branding him a slave. From his earliest days there seemed to be something in Swift's life different from other men. His father had been buried at the expense of the society he served; his mother and himself were kept in existence by the scanty, and we believe necessarily scanty, bounty of his uncle Godwin. Still, it seems he had a nurse, and this nurse, like other women, in after days became so attached to him, that when she was called away to England to the death-bed of a relative she carried him with her clandestinely. After she was found the mother refused to insist on taking the child from her, fearing, as it was delicate, that it might not be able to stand the fatigues of a voyage from Whitehaven to Ireland. So in Whitehaven Swift remained three or four years, and there learned to read the Bible with ease. When he was about five years of age his nurse carried him to Ireland again, where, alas! there was now no kind mother to receive him, she having gone to live with a rela tive at Leicester in England. However, the little waif was taken into the family of his uncle Godwin, by whom, at six years of age, he was sent to Kilkenny school, where he remained for about eight years, and where, says Sir Walter Scott, his name, cut in school-boy fashion upon his desk or form, is still shown to strangers. There he learned to celebrate his birthdays by reading from Job the fierce passage in which that patriarch curses the day in which it was said in his father's house "that a man-child was born," and there, no At the age of fourteen he was entered at the University of Dublin, being on the 24th of April, 1682, received a pensioner under the tuition of St. George Ashe. His cousin, Thomas Swift, was also admitted at the same time, and owing to this fact and to the mention of the names in the college record without any prænomen attached, great difficulty has arisen in tracing certain details of their lives. At the university Swift rebelled against having to study the learned sophistry of Smiglecius and his fellows. Instead he dived deeply into studies of a wide but desultory kind, and while so doing drew up, young as he was, a rough sketch of his Tale of a Tub. Not only did he rebel against Smiglecius and his crew, he rebelled also against the college discipline, and became reckless and violent in other respects. Like Johnson in a similar condition he "disregarded all power and all authority;" he was "miserably poor, mad, and violent," and what "was bitterness, that they mistook for frolic." For this he suffered several and severe penalties, and in February, 1685–6, the heaviest punishment of all in having his degree conferred on him by special favour. However, he still remained in college, and still continued to be a rebel to its rules. On the 18th of March, 1687, he was publicly admonished for neglect of duties, and on the 20th of November, 1688, he and some others were convicted of insolent conduct to the junior dean, and he and another had their academical degree suspended, and were condemned to publicly crave pardon of the offended dignitary. Whether or not Swift ever submitted to the latter degradation is unknown, but shortly afterwards he left the college "without,” as Scott says, "a single friend to protect, receive, or maintain him,"-his uncle having died a year or two before. The war of the Revolution had just broken out in Ireland, so he turned his back upon that country, and, footsore and weary, presented himself at his mother's residence in Leicestershire. There it was impossible for him to remain, as his mother was herself only the recipient of the bounty of her friends, and an inmate of a house which was not her own. However, she advised him to apply to Sir William Temple, a retired statesman, into whose house he was received as amanuensis at a salary of £20 a year. At Moor Park, near Farnham, the residence of Temple, Swift resided for a couple of years, in the earlier part of which he was treated with coldness and distrust, and as one who had far too confident a mien and too presuming a temper for one so poor. However, he gradually grew in favour as his worth and strength became apparent, and after he had made a short visit to Ireland for the good of his health, Temple took him into confidence so far as to have him present at private interviews with the king. About this time also he went to Oxford, where, on the 5th of July, 1692, he was admitted to the degree of Master of Arts. At Oxford Swift composed his first extant poetical work, a translation of the eighteenth ode of the second book of Horace, and shortly after he attempted a higher flight in the production of Pindaric odes. These he showed to Dryden, who at once answered decisively, "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet." The remark was never forgiven or forgotten, for to the proud bitter soul of Swift it seemed another of the insults to which his youth had been subjected. However, notwithstanding Dryden's opinion, Swift began to acquire a literary reputation, and to make friendships among such men as Congreve, to whom in November, 1693, he addressed a copy of verses. In these very verses, as Scott has well remarked, he shows that he felt confidence in his own powers, and was already gifted with that "hate for fools" which made him so feared, and for which the "fools" yet make his memory pay dearly. “My hate, whose lash just Heaven had long decreed, Shall on a day make sin and folly bleed." After Swift's return from Oxford, where he had been flatteringly received, Temple and he grew gradually colder to each other. Swift saw clearly that he was but very poorly rewarded by his patron, who kept him in his present state for selfish reasons he believed. Temple looked upon Swift's anxiety for advancement as ingratitude, and offered him a post in the Rolls Office in Ireland, which was, it is said, expected to be refused. Swift did refuse it, and the two parted in mutual bad temper. Swift made another foot journey to Leicester, stayed there for a short time with his mother, then went over to Ireland, deter Before being mined to enter holy orders. admitted a deacon he had, however, to write to Sir William Temple for a certificate of conduct, and this, after some delay, he brought himself to do. In his letter he made admissions that he had been perhaps over-hasty, if not absolutely wrong in his conduct, and Temple not only gave him the certificate, but pleaded his cause with Lord Capel, so that he was at once, after admission to deacon's orders in January, 1694-5, appointed to the prebend of Kilroot, near Carrickfergus, worth about £100 a year. Swift's stay at Kilroot was not for long. He soon became weary of its rude society and dulness. Sir William found that he had lost an indispensable companion, whose real value only began to be properly seen when he was no longer present. Swift soon became aware of Sir William's desire for his return, but for a while his pride caused him to hesitate how to act. At last this was decided almost by accident. One day he met a curate with whom he had formed an acquaintance, and who had proved to be, not only a good man and modest, but well-learned and the father of eight children, whom he supported on an income of £40 a year. Borrowing the clergyman's horse, Swift started off at once to Dublin, resigned his preferment, and obtained a grant of it for the poor curate, who was so affected with gratitude that the benefactor never forgot the pleasure of the good deed so long as he lived. On Swift's return to Moor Park, in 1695, he was treated "rather as a confidential friend than a dependent companion," and the two great men soon became really fast friends. Once more settling down to work Swift completed his Tale of a Tub, and also wrote The Battle of the Books, neither of which was in defence of Temple's side in an argument published till 1704. The latter was written into which that statesman had got involved as to the relative values of ancient and modern learning. During this second residence at Moor Park Swift made the acquaintance of Esther Johnson, whom he has immortalized as Stella, an event the most unfortunate in his life, as giving a handle to his enemies to vilify his name. In January, 1698-9, Sir William Temple died, and the four quietest and happiest years of Swift's life were brought sharply to an end. In his will Sir William left his secretary £100, and, what was looked upon as of much greater value than the money, his literary remains. These Swift edited carefully, and published with a dedication to King William. A petition also was presented to the king reminding him of his promise to Sir William to bestow a prebend of Canterbury or Westminster on Swift; but as the dead statesman's services could no longer be turned to account, his secretary's talents and claims ceased to have any force, and Swift never even had an answer to his request. After long waiting, which must have been bitter indeed to his haughty spirit, he accepted an offer of the Earl of Berkeley, one of the lordsjustices, and went with that nobleman to Ireland as chaplain and private secretary. Before long an intriguer of the name of Bushe was appointed to the place of private secretary, amends being promised to Swift in the shape of the first good church living that should become vacant. In this Swift was again disappointed and tricked. The rich deanery of Derry fell vacant, but Bushe, who seems rapidly to have gained influence over Berkeley, declared Swift should not have it without a bribe of £1000. Swift classing master and man together as partners in the vile transaction, burst into an impetuous cry-"God confound you both for a couple of scoundrels!"and on the instant departed from his lodgings in the castle. Berkeley, alarmed at the thought of Swift's satiric lash, hastened to patch up the breach, and the vicarages of Laracor and Rathbeggan and the rectory of Agher, all in the diocese of Meath, were conferred upon him. These were altogether worth about £270 a year, not half the value of the deanery withheld, but Swift accepted them. Berkeley and Swift never were real friends again, but Lady Berkeley and her two daughters still retained the esteem of the late secretary, and one of the daughters, Lady Elizabeth, remained to the end of his days one of his most valued correspondents. At Laracor he preached regularly on Sundays, and said prayers twice a week-on Wednesdays and Fridays-a thing not then much in vogue. The church, which was in a sad state of dilapidation, he repaired, as well as the vicarage, which had almost fallen into ruin through the avarice of former incumbents. "He increased the glebe from one acre to twenty." He also purchased the tithes of Effernock, and settled them by will upon the incumbent of that living. While these things were being done, Stella, and Mrs. Dingley her companion, took up their abode in the town of Trim, near at hand. Johnson, like nearly all Swift's biographers, calls her "the unfortunate Stella," but we cannot see how the appellation is justified. Her connection with Swift has made her name remembered, which it otherwise would never have been; while in the company, conversation, and confidence of such a master mind she had a full recompense for sacrifices treble those she seemed to make. Whether in the end Swift did or did not marry her is a matter of little moment, and a thing impossible to determine. It is sufficient for us to know that he and she were pure true friends to the last, and that, so far at anyrate as he was concerned, no trace of lower passion was allowed to enter into their intercourse. To avoid scandal he and she continued to live apart; she and Mrs. Dingley occupying the parsonage in his absence, but retiring from it on his return. They also took care never to meet except in the presence of a third party, a piece of precaution that evidently originated with Swift. In 1701 Swift's career began in earnest by the publication anonymously of his treatise on Dissensions in Athens and Rome, a work in which he showed how easy it is for liberty, by degenerating into license, to force itself to be extinguished by tyranny. The work made a great stir, and was attributed successively to Lord Somers and Bishop Burnet-Burnet, to escape an impeachment by the commons, being reduced to make a public disavowal of any share in the work, though in private he was no way offended at having it attributed to him. In 1702, on a visit to England, Swift publicly avowed the authorship. In 1704 appeared The Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books. The first of these at once placed Swift in the very foremost rank of living writers, and showed to the world and to the friends that flocked around him-Addison, Steele, and Arbuthnot, Somers and Halifax -that a new and tremendous literary force had arisen in their midst. In The Tale of a Tub Swift presents as an allegory three sons who mistook, altered, observed, and neglected the will of their father. In the records of their conduct he satirizes the corruptions and follies of the churches. At the same time in his digressions he points his sarcastic thrusts at the pedants, authors, and critics of his own and future times. It gave offence in many high quarters, however; notably to Queen Anne, who never forgave him for writing it, and who would never afterwards listen to his having the bishopric which he desired, earned, and deserved. Four years later, that is in 1708, appeared The Sentiments of a Church of England Man; Arguments against Abolishing of the Allies, of which, in the space of a week, four editions were swallowed by the public. To this treatise is attributed the conclusion of the peace of Utrecht. It was a masterly piece of political workmanship, drawn up with great care and skill, and carried public opinion with it in a wave. The Whigs denounced it violently, and even Walpole and Aislabie urged that Swift should be impeached at the bar of the House of Lords. However, he took no notice of the little storm, and continued his work for his friends by drawing up The Representation of the House of Commons on the State of the Nation, and An Address of Thanks to the Queen. In July, 1711, he wrote his Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, which was published in May, 1712. In 1712 also appeared the Reflections on the Barrier Treaty, and his Remarks on the Bishop of Sarum's Introduction to his Third Volume of the History of the Reformation, a bitter reply to the bishop's pamphlet. Meanwhile, as occasion offered, he busied himself in good offices for his friends, even for those who, for political reasons, had become his enemies. "Congreve, Rowe, and Philips experienced in their turn the benefits of his intercession," says Sir Walter Scott, "and it appears he was really anxious to be of service to Steele." He smoothed Parnell's way for him, and caused him to receive "that prompt attention which is most flattering to the modesty of merit." Pope had his warmest support while at work over Homer, and Gay was made known to Bolingbroke through him. Berkeley also "owed to Swift those introductions which placed him in the way to promotion." Dr. King, an antagonist, he caused to be made gazetteer, and later on, Prior, when in distress, received from him effectual assistance and advice. Christianity; Letter upon the Sacramental Test; and the witty ridicule of astrology under the name of Bickerstaff Predictions for 1708 (published at the end of 1707). The first work "is written," says Johnson, "with great coolness, moderation, ease, and perspicuity;" and the second "is a very happy and judicious irony." Next year he published his Project for the Advancement of Learning, as well as the Vindication of Bickerstaff, and the curious explanation of an Ancient Prophecy. In 1710, on the persuasion of the primate of Ireland, Swift solicited the queen for a remission of the first-fruits and twentieth parts to the Irish clergy. In doing this he was joined by the Bishops of Ossory and Killaloe, but the matter was to be left entirely in his hands in case the bishops left London before it was brought to an end. Starting on his journey to London on the 1st of September, he reached Chester on the 2d, and there wrote the first of the letters in his Journal to Stella. When he reached London he was full of bitterness against the fallen Whigs, who had neglected him, and on the 1st October he wrote Sid Hamet's Rod, a lampoon on Lord Godolphin. On the 4th he was introduced to Harley, and by Harley he was presented to St. John, and between him and these two ministers a friendship, begun in interest but ended in genuine feeling, immediately commenced. Almost at once he became a close adviser, and was admitted to the meetings of the ministry. On the 10th November, 1710, appeared Swift's first number of The Examiner, in which, till the 14th of June, 1711, a space of seven months, "he bore the battle upon his single shield "—a battle in which he found opposed to him all the friends he had made on his previous visits to London-Steele, Addison, Congreve, Rowe, Burnet. But he was more than a match for them all, and one after another he planted his rankling shafts in the bosoms of Wharton, Somers, Marlborough, Sunderland, and Godolphin. Against Wharton he poured out the very vials of his wrath in his Short Character of the Earl of Wharton. In the midst of the turmoil he did not forget the mission on which he had left Ireland, and at last, owing to the influence he acquired over the ministers, he brought it to a successful issue just at the moment the bishops, with wonder-power was sufficient to produce. In his writful stupidity, recalled his commission on the pretext of putting it in the hands of the Duke of Ormond. In the latter part of November, 1711, a few days before the meeting of parliament, appeared his treatise on The Conduct Meanwhile his desire for a life of ease began to assert itself, and Swift called upon his ministerial friends to redeem the promises of "doing something for him" which they had so often made, as a compensation for his services as a writer for the press, &c., which they found invaluable. The policy of the Tory party was to bring about a peace and draw with them the popular feeling. In this Swift's pen effected what no other means in their ings he pointed out the attempts of the Dutch to get the better of England in all their treaties, and also represented the financial loss of the country in consequence of a war which would have been ended but for the ambition gibes flung at them very ill, and through their influence three hundred pounds were offered for the discovery of the author of the pamphlet. Morphew the bookseller and Barber the printer were both arrested. However, by the management of the ministry the storm was played with till it had blown itself out, and Swift, at one moment in great danger, soon found himself of greater importance than ever. of Marlborough, to whom alone its prolonga- | northern people." The Scotch lords took the tion would be an advantage. A bishopric was the least he expected and deserved, and there is no doubt that, on a vacancy occurring in the see of Hereford, Bolingbroke struggled hard that he should have it. But an angry woman stood in the way. The Duchess of Somerset had been ridiculed by Swift in his Windsor Prophecy some time before, and she now used all a clever woman's skill to keep him down. Joined to her was Archbishop Sharpe of York, who did not scruple to describe The Tale of a Tub as "a satire on religion in general, and the writer as little better than an infidel." The result was that the queen would not even see Swift, a piece of woman's folly which he generously repaid by never once allowing his pen to say a single bitter word of her. Finally it was arranged that Dr. Sterne should be promoted from the deanery of St. Patrick's in Dublin to the bishopric of Dromore, and Swift was prevailed upon to become a dean. Early in June, 1713, he departed for Ireland, feeling more like a person going into exile than one returning to his native land. In a letter to Stella he says, "At my first coming I thought I should have died with discontent, and was horribly melancholy while they were installing me, but it begins to wear off, and change to dulness." In a fortnight's time, however, he was recalled to England to reconcile Harley and Bolingbroke, between whom a feud had broken out, and upon whose cordial co-operation and confidence the success of their government entirely depended. Swift brought about an interview, and a temporary reconciliation was effected. But perfect confidence between the two was impossible, and the feud broke out again, bringing in its train ruin and disaster. Scarcely had Swift found himself in London again when he too became a party to a bitter feud between himself and Steele, in which Steele shows to much advantage. Swift conducted himself with fierceness and cruelty, and showed all his wit; Steele wrote well and manfully, and conducted himself with considerable generosity. It was the unappeasable Achilles and the more humane Hector over again, though the Hector in this case was not dragged at the chariot-wheels of his rival. Steele in his Crisis admired the wisdom of the union and praised the Scottish nation. Swift took the opposite side, and as he "disliked the Scots and had quarrelled with Argyll," he spoke of the Scots in The Public Spirit of the Whigs, an answer to The Crisis, as "a poor fierce By this time matters between Oxford and Bolingbroke had reached such a height that Swift had once more to try to reconcile them. The attempt failed, and he retired, telling them that "all was gone," and that he "would go to Oxford on Monday, since he found it was impossible to be of any use." On the Monday he set out for Oxford, and at the house of Mr. Gery, Upper Letcomb, Berkshire, he composed his Free Thoughts on the State of Public Affairs. This he sent to Barber, Barber showed it to Bolingbroke, Bolingbroke at once added to it such things as made it very hurtful to Oxford, and Swift hearing of this demanded its return. After some delay the MS. was returned to its author. A little later, and before anything could be done to heal the breach in the Tory ranks, Queen Anne died. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled the country; Oxford, Wyndham, Prior, and others were imprisoned; and Swift, finding that the spirit of the Tories was utterly broken, retired into Ireland, where he was very badly received and insulted at first. Very soon, however, Swift began to make himself at home in his new sphere. He obtained lodgings for Stella and Mrs. Dingley in a house on Ormond's Quay. He himself took possession of the deanery-house, where twice a week he entertained such people as the Grattans, Rev. Mr. Jackson, George Rochefort, Peter Ludlow, Dr. Walonsley, Dr. Helsham, Dr. Sheridan, Mr. Stopford, and Dr. Delany. However, before long a bird of ill omen appeared in Dublin in the shape of Miss Vanhomrigh, "Vanessa," whose acquaintance Swift had made while in London, and who seemed to think, though without any foundation for the thought, that he was likely to marry her. Her appearance roused the jealousy of Stella and made Swift fear for his reputation. He spoke to her harshly of her conduct, but she replied with tears, and fearing that decisive measures might lead to some tragic ending, he began a system of temporizing between the two foolish women, and entered upon that course of misery which ended in bis |