Prill, Spirit of the Whigs, written in anfwer to Steele's "Crifis," in which were many paffages injurious to the honour of their nation.

His friend Harley, however, and the reft of the miniftry, exerted their influence fo strongly in his behalf, that he foon appeared again at court, in higher favour than ever.

În April 1713, he was appointed Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin, the best preferment the ministry would venture to give him. "That ministry," fays Dr. Johnson, was, in a great degree, fupported by the clergy, who were not yet reconciled to the author of the Tale of à Tub, and would not, without much discontent and indignation, have borne to fee him installed in an English cathedral."

In June following, he went to take poffeffion of his deanery; but was not fuffered to stay in Ireland more than a fortnight before he was recalled to England, that he might reconcile Harley and Bolingbroke, who began to look on one another with malevolence, which every day increased.

Upon his arrival, he contrived an interview at Lord Masham's, from which they both departed difcontented; he procured a fecond, which only convinced him that the breach was irreconcilable. He told them his opinion, that all was loft, and that he was determined to have no further concern with public affairs.

By the diffenfion of his great friends, his importance was now at an end; and feeing his fervices at haft useless, he returned in June 1714, to a friend's houfe at Letcomb in Berkshire, where he wrote that spirited pamphlet, called Free Thoughts on the present State of Affairs; but the death of the Queen, foon after it went to prefs, put a stop to the publication.

This event broke down at once the whole fyftem of Tory politics, put an end to all Swift's noble defigns for the public good, and cut off all his own future prospects.

There is an admirable picture given of him upon this occafion, by a few ftrokes of the masterly pen of Arbuthnot: "I have feen a letter," he writes Pope, " from Dean Swift; he keeps up his oble fpirit; and though, like a man knocked down, you may behold him ftill with a stern countenance, and aiming a blow at his adverfaries."

The brightest and most important part of his life paffed during the four last years of Queen Anne, when his faculties were in full vigour, and occafions for displaying them arofe adequate to their greatness.

It is recorded to his honour, and to animate others by his example, that, during his connection with those who were in the highest rank, and who in every rank would have been great, he would Bever fuffer himself to be treated but as an equal, and repulfed every attempt to hold him in depadence, or keep him at diftance, with the utmost refentment and indignation.

It happened upon fome occafion that Harley fent him a bank bill of 501. by his private fecretary, Mr. Lewis, which he inftantly returned with a letter of expoftulation and complaint; but he accpred afterwards a draught of 10001. upon the Exchequer, which was intercepted by the Queen's

death.

When he was defired by Harley to introduce Parnell to his acquaintance, he refused, upon this principle, that a man of genius was a character fuperior to a lord in a high station. He therefore obliged him to walk with his treasurer's ftaff from room to room, inquiring which was Parnell, in ar to introduce himself, and beg the honour of his acquaintance.

As to his political principles, if his own account of them is to be believed, he was always against a popith fucceffor to the crown, whatever title he might have by proximity of blood; nor did he regard the right line upon any other account than as it was established by law, and had much weight in the opinions of the people. He was of opinion, that when the grievances fuffered under a prefent government became greater than thofe which might probably be expected from changing it by visknee, a revolution was justifiable; and this he believed to have been the cafe in that which was brought about by the Prince of Orange. He had a mortal antipathy to standing armies in times of peace; and was of opinion, that our liberty could never be fecured upon a firm foundation, till the ancient law fhould be revived, by which our parliaments were made annual. He abominated the political scheme of fetting up a monied interest in oppofition to the landed, and was an enemy to a temporary suspension of the Habeas Corpus act. In these opinions, and in his general scheme of Ratis, Harley was known to concur; but Bolingbroke fought to gratify his ambition by fecretly noting the restoration of the exiled family.

The period of his political importance is diftinguished by the commencement of his paffion fo Mifs Efther Vanhomrigh, celebrated by the name of Vaneffa, whofe hiftory is too well known t be minutely repeated.

The date of it may be traced to March 1712, when a remarkable change took place in his manne of writing to Mifs Johnson.

Mifs Vanhomrigh was a young woman fond of literature, whom he took pleasure in directing and instructing; till, from being proud of his praise, she grew fond of his person, and ventured to mak him a propofal of marriage.

He now, for the first time, felt what the paffion of love was, with all its attendant fymptoms which he had before only known from defcription, and which he was now enabled to describe himfelf in the strongest colours. In this fituation, foon after his return from his inftallation, in 1713, he wrote that beautiful poem, called Cadenus and Vaneffa, in which he is charatterifed, under the name of Cadenas by the tranfpofition of the letters in the word Decanus, the Dean. His first defign seems to have been to break off the connection in the politeft manner poffible. To soften the harfhnefs of a refusal of her hand, the greatest of mortifications to a woman, young, beautiful, and poffeffed of a good fortune; he painted all her perfections, both of body and mind, in fuch glowing colours, as must at leaft have highly gratified her vanity, and fhown that he was far from being infenfible to her charms, though prudence forbade his yielding to his inclinations. If it be said that he should have checked a paffion which he never meant to gratify, recourse must be had to that extenuation which he fo much defpifed, "men are but men." Perhaps, however, he did not know his own mind; and, as he reprefents himfelf, was undetermined.

A poem written in such exquisite taste, of which she was the subject, and where she saw herfeli dreft out in the moft flattering colours, was not likely to adminifter to her cure; on the contrary, it only ferved to add fresh fuel to the flame.

Meantime, the unfortunate Stella languished in abfence and neglect. The journal was not renewed; while a continual intercourse was kept up between Vanessa and him. She was the firi perfon he wrote to on his retirement to Letcoumb, before the Queen's death, and the laft in his departure from that place to Ireland; whether the foon followed.

He arrived in a much more gloomy state of mind than before. In the triumph of the Whigs, he met with every mortification that a spirit like his could poffibly be exposed to. The people of Ireland were irritated against him beyond measure, and every indignity was offered him as he walked the streets of Dublin. Nor was he only infulted by the rabble; but perfons of diftinguished rank forgot the decorum of common civility, to give him a perfonal affront. While his pride was hurt by fuch indignities, his more tender feelings were often wounded by base ingratitude.

In fuch a fituation, he found it in vain to fruggle against the tide that oppofed him. He filently yielded, and retired from the world to discharge his duties as a clergyman, and attend to the are of his deanery.

He filled his hours with fome hiftorical attempts relating to the Change of the Ministry, and the Conduct of the Minihy. He likewife finifhed a Hiftory of the Four laft Years of Queen Anne, which he began in her lifetime, and laboured with great attention, but never published. It was afterwards published by Dr. Lucas; but failed to fatisfy the curiofity which it excited.

He was now to contrive how he might be beft accommodated in a country where he confidered himself in a fiate of exile. He opened his house by a publie table two days a-week, and found his entertainments gradually frequented by vifitants of learning among the men, and of elegance among the women. Mifs Johnson had left the country, and lived in lodgings not far from the deanery. On his public days fhe regulated the table; but appeared at it as a mere gueft, like other ladies. On other days, he often dined at a stated price, with Mr. Worral, a clergyman of his cathedral, whofe houfe was recommended by the peculiar neatness and pleafantry of his wife. To this frugal mode of living, he was firft difpofed by care to pay fome debts which he had contracted; continued it for the purpose of accumulating money.

and he

In 1716, he was privately married to Mifs Johnfon, by Dr. Afhe, bishop of Clogher, to whom he had been a pupil in the College, and who was the common friend to both, in fettling the conditions of this extraordinary union. The marriage made no change in their mode of life; they lived in feparate houses as before; nor did the ever lodge in the deanery but when Swift was feized with a fit of giddinefs.

During almoft fix years after his return to Ireland, he kept his resolution of not meddling at all with public affairs. In 1720, when the ferment feemed to have fubfided, he published his firfl political pamphlet relative to Ireland, intituled, A Propofal for the univerfal Use of Irifb Manufactures. The effect of this tract is well known. It roused the indignation of the ministry: a profecution against the printer was commenced, though it came to nothing in the end. Swift again withdrew into retirement; and "there," as Mr. Sheridan expreffes it, by repeating his former allusion, “ his patrist: ipirit, thus confined, proved only as an evil one to torment him."

His patriotifm burft forth with a vehemence still more powerful and effective, in 1724, to obstruct the currency of Wood's halfpence, in the affumed character of a Drapier.

His zeal was recompensed with success; and he was, in confequence of it, acclaimed the great patrict of Ireland.

After his marriage to Mifs Johnson, he continued his fecret intercourfe and correspondence with Mifs Vanhomrigh; and even indulged her hopes, by the most explicit confeffion of his paffion for her. After fuch a confeffion, the concluded, that fome reports which had reached her of his being married to Mifs Johnson was the real obstacle to their union. To put an end to all further fufpence, The fent a fhort note to Miss Johnfou, requesting to know whether she was married to Swift or not. Mis Johnson answered her in the affirmative, and then enclosed the note fhe had received from her Swift, and immediately went into the country, without feeing him.

Her abrupt departure showed him what paffed in her mind. In the first tranfports of his paffion, he immediately rode to Celbridge, Mifs Vanhomrigh's country feat. He entered the apartment where the unhappy lady was, and flung a paper on the table, mute, but with a countenance that fpoke the highest resentment, and immediately returned to his horfe. She found it contained nothing but her note to Mifs Johnfon. Despair at once feized her, as if she had seen her death warrant ; and fuch indeed it proved to be. The violent agitation of her mind threw her into a fever, which, in a short time, put a period to her existence. Before her death, which happened in 1723, the ட் had cancelled a will made in favour of Swift, and bequeathed her whole fortune to her relation Serjeant Marshall, and the famous Dr. Berkeley, with a strong injunction, that, immediately aber her decease, they should publish all the letters which paffed between Swift and her, together with the poem of Cadenas and Vanessa. The poem was published, but the letters, at the defire of Dr. Sheridan, were fuppreffed.

Swift made a tour to the fouth of Ireland for about two months at this time, to diffipate his thoughts, and give place to obloquy; during which Mifs Johnson remained in the country; nor did the quit it for fome months after his return. However, upon her return to Dublin, a reconciliation fson took place. He welcomed her to town with a beautiful poem, called Stella at Wood-Park, which concludes with a high compliment to Stella:

For though my raillery were true,

A cottage is Wood-Park with you.

Early in 1726, he revifited England, after an abfence of twelve years; and collected three volumes & M.f.cllatier, in conjunction with Pope, who prefixed the preface, and had the whole profit, which Was very confiderable.

The fame year, he published Gulliver's Travels, a production that was received with such avidity, that the price of the first edition was raised before the fecond could be made. It was read by the high and the low, the learned and illiterate. Criticifm was for a while loft in wonder; no rules of judgment were applied to a book written in open defiance of truth and regularity. But when ddictions came to be made, the part which gave least pleasure was that which defcribes the Flyld, and that which gave most disgust must be the hiftory of the Houybumns. The charge of manthropy is founded on his fuppofed fatire on human nature, in the picture he has drawn of the Tabens. The ground of this cenfure is examined very minutely by Mr. Sheridan, and his defence is conducted with great judgment and ingenuity. This part of his writings reflects neither honour nor reproach on his moral character.

While Swift was paffing his time with his friends Pope and Bolingbroke, and the old fraternity, be received accounts that Mifs Johnson was dangerously ill. This call of calamity haftened him keland, where he had the fatisfaction to find her reflored to an imperfect and tottering health.

Next year, he returned to England; and, when the news of the King's death arrived, he attend at court, and kissed the hands of the new King and Queen three days after their acceffion.

By the Queen, when she was Princefs, he had been treated with fome diftinction, and was w received by her on her exaltation; but whether she gave hopes which the never took care to fatis or he formed expectations which she never meant, the event was, that he always afterwards thoug on her with refentment, and particularly charged her with breaking her promife of fome med. which the engaged to fend him.

He had likewife gained the kindness of Mrs. Howard, the Queen's favourite, with whom he ke up a correspondence; and was favourably noticed, at that time, by Walpole; to whom, it is fai he offered the fervice of his pen, which was rejected. The flory originated with Chesterfield, rather it can be traced no farther, and feems without fufficient foundation.

His last short visit to his friends revived the defire which he had of fettling in England; and thi he hoped, might be accomplished, by an exchange of his preferments for fomething like an equiva lent in England; but he foon found that all expectations of an exchange were at an end?

It was generally fuppofed, on the acceflion of the late King, that the Tories would be no longe profcribed as formerly; more flattering profpects were opened to him than any he could have i view during the late reign. "We have now done with repining," he writes his friend Dr. Sheri dan, " if we be used well and not baited as formerly; we all agree in it; and if things do not mend it is not our faults; we have made our offers; if otherwife, we are as we were."

But he was foon obliged to alter his measures; for, being feized with a fit of giddinefs, and at the fame time, receiving alarming accounts from Ireland, that Mifs Johnfon had relapsed, with little hopes of her recovery, he took leave of the Queen, in a polite letter to Mrs. Howard, and fet ou for that kingdom on the first abatement of his illness.

On his arrival in Dublin, he found Mifs Johnfon in the last ftage of a decay. He had the mifery of attending her in that state, and of daily fecing the gradual advances of death during four or five months. As fhe found her diffolution approach, a few days before it happened, in the prefence of Dr. Sheridan, fhe adjured Swift by their friendship, to let her have the fatisfaction of dying at least, though fhe had not lived his acknowledged wife. He made no reply, but, turning on his heel, walked filently out of the room, nor ever faw her afterwards during the few days the lived. His behaviour threw Mifs Johnfon into unspeakable agonies, and, for a time, fhe funk under the weight of fo cruel a disappointment. But soon after, roused by indignation, the inveighed against his cruelty in the bittereft terms; and, fending for a lawyer, made her will, bequeathing her fortune, in her own name, to charitable ufes. This fcene feems to bear more hard on his humanity than any other part of his conduct in life. She died, January 28. 1728, in the 44th year of her age.

How much he wished her life his papers fhow; nor can it be doubted that he dreaded the death of her whom he loved moft, aggravated by the conscioufnefs that himself had haftened it.

Swift's unjustifiable treatment of Mifs Johnfon and Mis Vanhomrigh have been attributed, by Dr. Delany and Mr. Berkeley, "to that love of fingularity which, in a greater or lefs degree, is infeparable from genius." This may be reasonably doubted. His connection with Miss Waryng was probably the immediate caufe of his myfterious conduct towards Mifs Johnfon; and Miss Vanhomrigh, for a time, had power to captivate him, and make Miss Johnson experience that mortification which she herself had occasioned to Mifs Waryng. His conduct towards Mifs Johnson and Miss Vanhomrigh is examined very minutely by Mr. Sheridan; and though not pofitively juflified, yet fo anxious is he to place it in the most favourable point of view, that he appears more like a vindicator than an apologist. But the partialities of friendship cannot overcome the power of truth; and it would be more for the credit of Swift, if that part of his conduct which refpected Mifs Vanhomrigh, not as aggravated by his enemics, but as related by Mr. Sheridan himself, were configned to oblivion. It will not admit of a defence: it scarcely merits an apology.

After the death of Miss Johnson, his benevolence was contracted, and his severity exafperated; he drove his acquaintance from his table, and wondered why he was deferted. In this forlorn state, his spirit was too great to give way to despondence, and, deprived as he was of all his domestic comforts, he turned his views wholly to the good and happiness of others. He wrote, from time to time, fuch directions, admonitions, or cenfures, as the exigency of affairs, in his opinion, made proper; and nothing fell from his pen in vain. By the acknowledged fuperiority of his talents, his in

fable integrity, and his unwearied endeavours in ferving the public, he obtained such an afcendenyover his countrymen, as perhaps no private citizen obtained in any age or country. He was known over the whole kingdom by the title of the Dean, given to him by way of pre-eminence, sit were by common confent; and when the Dean was mentioned, it always carried with it the dea of the first and greatest man in the kingdom.

In a variety of publications, he laid open the chief fources of the miferies of the poor infatuated sople of Ireland; at the same time, pointing out the means by which they might be alleviated. while he pleaded their caufe with others, he constantly disposed of the third part of his own revemein darities to the poor, and liberalities to the diftreffed. Soon after he was out of debt, he ient out the first 500l. which he could call his own, in fmall fums of 5 1. and 10l. to diligent and Dec fitous tradesmen, to be repaid weekly, at 28. or 4 s. without interest. This charity was atLaded with the greatest benefit to numbers of the lowest clafs of tradefmen.

During this period, his faculties do not seem to have been at all impaired by the near approaches cfeldage. One of his laft pieces, Verfes on the Death of Dr. Savift, is perhaps one of the beft of his comptions in that way: nor are two of his other productions, written about the same time, intituled An Epifle to a Lady, and A Rbapfedy on Poetry, inferior to any of his former pieces.

The two laft were written chiefly with a view to gratify his resentment against Walpole, to whom he attributed the ill offices done him by the Queen, who promised him fome medals, which E: sever fent, and affected to believe him to be the author of three forged letters, written in a very becoming ftyle, to recommend a fubfcription to Mrs. Barber's poems. Walpole was exasperated the highest degree, and threatened a profecution; but dropped the defign.

His fevere reflection on Counsellor Bettefworth, in a fhort poem on the Words, Brother Proteftants and Felles Chriftians, in 1733, is generally known. The provocation given by Swift was certainly very great, but not fo great as the lawyer's indifcretion in his manner of refenting it.

After all, Bettefworth's great fault, and what rendered him particularly obnoxious to Swift, was, ha being a zealous Whig, and an active man among the leaders of that party, at a time when party infities ran high in Ireland, and indeed in both kingdoms.

He wrote, from time to time, various trifles in verfe or profe, and paffed much of his time with Dr. Sheridan, who greatly contributed to his amusement, by little sprightly pieces of the inferior kad of poetry which he was always writing; and yet more to his employment, by hints and matrials which he was every moment throwing out.

As his years increased, his fits of giddinefs and deafness grew more frequent, and his deafness made converfation difficult; they grew likewife more fevere, till, in 1736, as he was writing a poem, ciled The Legion Club, he was feized with a fit fo painful, and so long continued, that he never after bought it proper to attempt any work of thought or labour.

He, however, permitted one book to be published, which had been the production of former years, Polite Converfation, which appeared in 1738. The Directions for Servants was printed foon after death. These two performances show a mind inceffantly attentive; and, when it was not em„peed upon great things, bufy with minute occurrences.

His mental powers at length declined, and his irafcible paffions, which at all times he had found cult to be kept within due bounds, now raged without controul, and made him a torment to hief, and to all who were about him.

Ceticious of his fituation, he was little defirous of feeing any of his old friends and companions, and they were as little folicitous to visit him in that deplorable ftate. He could now no longer amuse hark with writing, and a refolution he had formed of never wearing spectacles, to which he obfinately adhered, prevented him from reading. Without employment, without amufement of any kind, his ideas wore gradually away, and left his mind vacant to the vexations of the hour..

In 1741, he became more violent, and it was found neceffary that legal guardians should be appointed of his perfon and fortune. He now loft diftinction. His madnefs was compounded of rage and fatuity. The laft face he knew was that of Mrs. Whiteway, a relation, that lived with him fince the death of Mifs Johnson; and her he ceafed to know in a little time. His meat was brought him cut into mouthfuls; but he would never touch it while the fervant ftaid; and at last, after it had hour, would eat it walking; for he continued his old habit, and was on his feet 2 hours a-day.

food perhaps an