In 1742, he had an inflammation in his left eye, which swelled it to the size of an egg, with be in other parts; he was kept long waking with the pain, and was not eafily reftrained by five tendants from tearing out his eye. The tumour at last fubfided, and a short interval of reafon enfuing, in which he knew his phy cian and family, gave hopes of his recovery; but he funk into lethargic ftupidity, motionless, he lefs, and fpeechlefs; the effect, as it was fufpected, of water in the brain. He afterwards fpoke now and then to Mrs. Ridgeway the house-keeper, or gave some intimati of a meaning, but at last funk into a perfect filence, which continued till the 19th of October, 17. when he expired without a ftruggle, in the 78th year of his age. He was buried in the great aile of St. Patrick's Cathedral, under a stone of black marble, which was engraved the following epitaph, written by himself: Hic depofitum eft corpus JONATHAN SWIFT, S. T. P, Ubi fæva indignatio Ulterius cor conlacerare nequit. Et imitare, fi poteris Strenuum pro virili libertatis vindicem. Menfis (Octobris) die (19) By his will, which is dated May 3. 1740, juft before he ceased to be a reasonable being, he le about 1200 1. in specific legacies, and the reft of his fortune, which amounted to about 11,000 l. erect and endow an hofpital for idiots and lunatics. His fifter, Mrs. Fenton, had difobliged him an imprudent marriage. His works have been printed often, and in various forms; first by Pope, in 1726, in fome v lumes of Mifcellanies; next by George Faulkener, 1765; afterwards by Dr. Hawkesworth, 8 vels. 4to. 1775.; three additional volumes 4to. by Deane Swift, Efq.; and three more by M Nichols. Thefe have been reprinted in 25 vols. large 8vo, and in 27 vols. fmall 8vo. with the li of Swift by Mr. Sheridan, in 1784. A volume of Mifcellaneous Pieces, in Profe and Verfe, not infert in Mr. Sheridan's edition, was printed in 1789, and may be confidered either as an 18th volume Mr. Sheridan's edition, or as a 26th of that of Dr. Hawkesworth and Mr. Nichols. On the character and writings of Swift, it is the lefs neceffary for the present writer to enlarg as they have been fo accurately illuftrated by Lord Orrery, Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Sheridan. "His capacity and strength of mind," fays Lord Orrery," were undoubtedly equal to any ta whatever. His pride, his spirit, or his ambition, call it by what name you please, was boundle but his views were checked in his younger years, and the anxiety of that disappointment had a v fible effect upon all his actions. He was four and fevere, but not abfolutely illnatured. He w fociable only to particular friends, and to them only at particular hours. He knew politeness mo than he practifed it. He was a mixture of avarice and generofity; the former was frequently pr valent, the latter seldom appeared unless excited by compaffion. He was open to adulation, ar could not, or would not distinguish between flattery and just applaufe. His abilities rendered hi superior to envy. He was undisguised, and perfectly fincere. I am induced to think that he enter into orders more from fome private and fixed refolution than abfolute choice. Be that as it may, performed the dutics of the church with great punctuality, and a decent degree of devotion. H read prayers rather in a strong nervous voice than in a graceful manner; and although he has be often accused of irreligion, nothing of that kind appeared in his converfation and behaviour. H caft of mind induced him to think and speak more of politics than religion. His perpetual viev were directed towards power, and his chief aim was to be removed into England; but when l found himself entirely difappointed, he turned his thoughts to opposition, and became the patron Ireland. From the gifts of nature, he had great powers, and from the imperfection of humanity, he ha pany failings. I always confidered him as an abstract and brief chronicle of the times, no man being better acquainted with human nature, both in the highest and loweft fcenes. His friends and correfpondents were the greatest and most eminent men of the age; and the fages of antiquity were eften the companions of his closet; and although he avoided an oftentation of learning, and gencrally chofe to draw his materials from his own ftore, yet his knowledge of the ancient authors evidently appears from the ftrength of his fentiments, and the claffic correctness of his style. "His attendance upon the public fervice of the church was regular and uninterrupted; and, indeed, regularity was peculiar to him in all his actions, even in the greatest trifles. His hours of waking and reading never varied: his motions were guided by his watch, which was fo conftantly held in his hand, or placed before him upon his table, that he feldom deviated many minutes in the daily revolution of his exercises and employments. "The Dean kept company with many of the fair fex, but they were rather his amusement than his admiration; he trifled away many hours in their converfation, he filled many pages in their praife, and, by the powers of his head, he gained the character of a lover, without the leaft afliftance from his heart. To this particular kind of pride, fupported by the heat of his genius, and jained by the exceffive coldness of his nature, Vanessa owed the ruin of her reputation; and from the fime canfe, Stella remained an unacknowledged wife. If you review his feveral poems to Stella, you will find them fuller of affection than defire, and more expreffive of friendship than love. Upon a general view of his poetry, we fhall find him, as in his other performances, an uncommon, furprising, heteroclite genius, luxurious in his fancy, lively in his ideas, humorous in his defription, and bitter, exceedingly bitter, in his fatire. The reftleffnefs of his imagination, and the Cappointment of his ambition, have both contributed to hinder him from undertaking any poetical work of length or importance. His wit was fufficient to every labour; no flight could have wearied the strength of his powers; perhaps if the extenfive views of his nature had been fully fatified, his airy motions had been more regular and lefs fudden; but he now appears like an eagle that is fometimes chained, and at that particular time, for want of nobler and more proper food, diverts his confinement, and appeases his hunger, by deftroying the gnats, butterflies, and other wretched infects that unluckily happen to buz or flutter within her reach. "The fubjects of his poems are often naufeous, and the performances beautifully difagreeable. The Ladies Drefing-room has been univerfally condemned, as deficient in point of delicacy, even to the gheft degree. The two poems, entitled The Life and genuine Character of Dr. Swift, and Verfes on the Death of Dr. Swift, &c. are poems of great wit and humour. In the laft, he has fummoned the whole powers of fatire and poetry; it is a parting blow, the legacy of anger and disappointment. One ofhis stricteft rules in poetry was to avoid triplets. He had the niceft ear, and is remarkably chafe and delicate in his rhymes: a bad rhyme appeared to him one of the capital fins in poetry.". Mr. Sheridan produces some striking inftances of Swift's tenderness of heart, his great humanity, and his univerfal benevolence, and clofes his account of him with laying open one leading part of his character," which," fays he, "may ferve as a clue to the whole." "He was perhaps the most difinterested man that ever lived. No selfish motive ever influenced any part of his conduct. He loved virtue for its own fake, and was content it fhould be its own reward. The means to arrive at rank, fortune, and fame, the three great objects of purfuit in other men, though thrown in his way, he utterly defpifed, fatisfied with having deferved them. The fame principle operated equally on the author as on the man, as he never put his name to his works, nor had any folicitude about them after they had once made their appearance in the world. The at act of his life showed how far he made this a rule of conduct, in his choice of the charity to which he bequeathed his fortune, leaving it for the fupport of idiots and lunatics, beings that could never know their benefactor. "Upon the whole, when we confider his character as a man perfectly free from vice, with few frailties, and fuch exalted virtues, and as an author poffeffed of fuch uncommon talents, fuch an unexhaufible fund of wit, joined to fo clear and folid an understanding; when we behold these two characters united in one and the fame perfon, perhaps it will not be thought too bold an affertion to fay, that his parallel is not to be found either in the hiftory of ancient or modern times." At the end of his Introduction," thefe blazing ercomiums are collected into one strong point: "It is of moment to the general cause of religion and morality, that the greatefl genius of the age was a man of the trueft piety and most exalted virtue." The character of Swift as given by Dr. Johnfon, is lefs favourable; and though it may be allowed to be, in fome instances, uncandid and unjuft, it will by no means warrant the fevere and rancorous recrimination of Mr. Sheridan. "When Swift is confidered as an author, it is juft to eftimate his powers by their effects. In the reign of Queen Anne, he turned the stream of popularity against the Whigs, and muft be confeffed to have dictated for a time the political opinions of the English nation. In the fucceeding reign, he delivered Ireland from plunder and oppreflion; and fhowed that wit, confederated with truth, had fuch force as authority was unable to refift. He faid truly of himself, that Ireland "was his debtor." It was from the time when he first began to patronize the Irish, that they may date their riches and profperity. He taught them first to know their own intereft, their weight, and their flrength, and gave them spirit to affert that equality with their fellow-fubjects to which they have ever since been making vigorous advances, and to claim those rights which they have at last eftalished. Nor can they be charged with ingratitude to their benefactor; for they reverenced him as a guardian, and obeyed him as a dictator. "In his works, he has given very different specimens, both of fentiments and expreffion. His Tale of a Tub has little resemblance to his other pieces. It exhibits a vehemence and rapidity of mind, a copioufnefs of images, and vivacity of diction, fuch as he afterwards never poffeffed, or never exerted. It is of a mode fo distinct and peculiar, that it must be confidered by itself: What is true of that, is not true of any thing elfe which he has written. "In his other works, is found an equable tenour of easy language, which rather trickles than flows. His delight was in fimplicity. That he has in his works no metaphor, as has been said, is not true; but his few metaphors feem to be received rather by neceffity than choice. He studied purity; and though perhaps all his ftrictures are not exact, yet it is not often that folecifms can be found; and whoever depends on his authority may generally conclude himself safe. His fentences are never too much dilated or contracted; and it will not be eafy to find any embarrasiment in the complication of his clauses, any inconfequence in his connections, or abruptnefs in his tranfitions. His ftyle was well fuited to his thoughts, which are never fubtilized by nice difquifitions, decorated by sparkling conceits, elevated by ambitious sentences, or variegated by far-fought learning. He pays no court to the paffions; he excites neither furprise nor admiration; he always understands himself, and his readers always understand him. The perufer of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be sufficient that he is acquainted with common words and common things; he is neither required to mount elevations, nor to explore profundities; his paffage is always on a level, along folid ground, without afperities, without obftruction. "This easy and safe conveyance of meaning it was Swift's defire to attain, and for having obtained it he deferves praise, though perhaps not the highest praise. For purposes merely didactic, when fomething is to be told that was not known before, it is the best mode, but against that inattention by which known truths are fuffered to lie neglected, it makes no provision: it instructs, but does not perfuade. "By his political education, he was associated with the Whigs; but he deserted them when they deferted their principles, yet without running into the contrary extreme; he continued throughout his life to retain the disposition which he affigns to the Church-of-England Man, of thinking commonly with the Whigs of the ftate, and with the Tories of the church. "He was a churchman rationally zealous; he defired the profperity, and maintained the honour of the clergy; of the diffenters he did not wish to infringe the toleration, but he opposed their encroachments. "To his duty as Dean he was very attentive. He managed the revenues of his church with exact economy; and it is faid by Delany, that more money was, under his direction, laid out in repairs than had ever been in the fame time fince its firft erection. Of his choir he was eminently careful; and, though he neither loved nor understood music, took care that all the fingers were well qualified, admitting none without the teftimony of skilful judges. In his church he restored the practice of weekly communion, and diftributed the facramental ele ments in the most folenm and devout manner with his own hand. He came to church every morning, preached commonly in his turn, and attended the evening anthem, that it might not be negligently performed. “He entered upon the clerical state with hope to excel in preaching; but complained, that, from the time of his political controverfies," he could only preach pamphlets." This cenfure of himself, if judgment may be made from thofe fermons which have been printed, was unreasonably severe. "The fufpicions of his irreligion proceeded in a great measure from his dread of hypocrify; instead of wishing to feem better, he delighted in feeming worse than he was. He went in London to early prayers, left he should be feen at church; he read prayers to his fervants every morning, with such dexterous fecrecy, that Dr. Delany was fix months in his houfe before he knew it. He was not only careful to hide the good which he did, but willingly incurred the suspicion of evil which he did not. He forgot what himself had formerly afferted, that hypocrify is lefs mifchievous than open impiety. Dr. Delany, with all his zeal for his honour, has justly condemned this part of his character, * The perfon of Swift had not many recommendations. He had a kind of muddy complexion, which, though he wafhed himself with oriental ferupulofity, did not look clear. He had a countenance four and severe, which he seldom softened by any appearance of gaiety. He stubbornly refitted any tendency to laughter. To his domeftics he was naturally rough; and a man of a rigorous temper, with that vigilance of minute attention which his works discover, must have been a mafter that few could bear. That he was difpofed to do his fervants good, on important occafions, is no great mitigation: benefaction can be but rare, and tyrannic peevishness is perpetual. He did not spare the fervants of others. Once, when he dined alone with the Earl of Orrery, he said, of one that waited in the room, That man has, fince we fat to the table, committed fifteen faults." What the faults were, Lord Orrery, from whom I heard the ftory, had not been attentive enough to difcover. My number may perhaps not be exact. "In his economy, he practifed a peculiar and offenfive parfimony, without difguife or apology. The practice of faving being once neceffary, became habitual, and grew first ridiculous, and at last deteftable. But his avarice, though it might exclude pleasure, was never fuffered to encroach upon. his virtue. He was frugal by inclination, but liberal by principle; and if the purpose to which he destined his little accumulations be remembered, with his diftribution of occafional charity, it will perhaps appear that he only liked one mode of expence better than another, and faved merely that he might have something to give. He did not grow rich by injuring his fucceffors, but left both Laracor and the Deanery more valuable than he found them.-With all this talk of his covetousness and generosity, it should be remembered that he was never rich. The revenue of his deanery was not much more than 700 l. a-year. * His beneficence was not graced with tenderness or civility; he relieved without pity, and affifted without kindness; so that those who were fed by him could hardly love him. He made a rule to himself to give but one piece at a time, and therefore always ftored his pocket with coins of different value. "Whatever he did, he seemed willing to do in a manner peculiar to himself, without fufficiently confidering that fingularity, as it implies a contempt of the general practice, is a kind of defiance which juftly provokes the hoftility of ridicule; he therefore who indulges peculiar habits is worfe than others, if he be not better. In the intercourfe of familiar life, he indulged his difpofition fo petulence and farcafm, and thought himself injured if the licentiousness of his raillery, the freedom of his cenfures, or the petulance of his frolics, was resented or repreffed. He predominated over his companions with very high afcendency, and probably would bear none over whom he could not predominate. To give him advice was, in the ftyle of his friend Delany, ❝ to venture to speak to him." This cuftomary fuperiority foon grew too delicate for truth; and Swift, with all his penetration, allowed himself to be delighted with low flattery. "On all common occafions, he habitually affects a style of arrogance, and dictates rather than perfuades. This authoritative and magifterial language he expected to be received as his peculiar mode of jocularity: but he apparently flattered his own arrogance by an affumed impcricufnefs, in which he was ironical only to be refentful, and to the fubmiflive fufficiently ferious. VOL. IX. b. "He told ftories with great felicity, and delighted in doing what he knew himself to do well; he was therefore captivated by the refpectful filence of a fteady liftener, and told the fame tales too ⚫ften. "He did not, however, claim the right of talking alone; for it was his rule, when he had spoken a minute, to give room by a paufe for any other speaker. Of time, on all occafions, he was an exact computer, and knew the minutes required to every common operation. "It may be justly fuppofed, that there was in his conversation, what appears fo frequently in his letters, an affectation of familiarity with the great, an ambition of momentary equality fought and enjoyed by the neglect of those ceremonies which custom has established as the barriers between one order of fociety and another. This tranfgreffion of regularity was, by himself and his admirers, termed greatnefs of foul. But a great mind difdains to hold any thing by courtesy, and therefore never ufurps what a lawful claimant may take away. He then encroaches on another's dignity, puts himself in his power; he is either repelled with helpless indignity, or endured by clemency and condefcenfion. "Of Swift's general habits of thinking, if his letters can be fuppofed to afford any evidence, he was not a man to be either loved or envied. He feems to have wafted life in difcontent, by the rage of neglected pride, and the languishment of unfatisfied defire. He is querulous and faftidious, arrogant and malignant; he scarcely speaks of himself but with indignant lamentations, or of others but with infolent fuperiority when he is gay, and with angry contempt when he is gloomy. From the letters that pafs between him and Pope, it might be inferred that they, with Arbuthnot and Gay, had engroffed all the understanding and virtue of mankind; that their merits filled the world; or that there was no hopes of more. They show the age involved in darkness, and fhade the picture with fullen emulation. "When the Queen's death drove him into Ireland, he might be allowed to regret for a time the interception of his views, the extinction of his hopes, and his ejection from gay fcenes, important employment, and fplendid friendships; but when time had enabled reafon to prevail over vexation, the complaints, which at firft were natural, became ridiculous because they were ufelefs. But querulousness was now grown habitual, and he cried out when he probably had ceafed to feel. His reiterated wailings perfuaded Bolingbroke that he was really willing to quit his deanery for an Englith parifh; and Bolingbroke procured an exchange, which was rejected; and Swift ftill retained the pleasure of complaining. "The greatest difficulty that occurs, in analysing his character, is to discover by what depravity of intellect he took delight in revolving ideas, from which almost every other mind shrinks with difguft. The ideas of pleafure, even when criminal, may folicit the imagination; but what has diftafe, deformity, and filth, upon which the thoughts can be allured to dwell? Delany is willing to think that Swift's mind was not much tainted with this grofs corruption before his long vifit to Fope. He does not confider how he degrades his hero, by making him at fifty-nine the pupil of turpitude, and liable to the malignant influence of an ascendant mind. But the truth is, that GulLiver had defcribed his Yahoos before the vifit; and he that had formed those images had nothing filthy to learn. "In the poetical works of Dr. Swift there is not much upon which the critic can exercise his powers. They are often humorous, almost always light, and have the qualities which recommend fuch compofitions, eafinefs and gaiety. They are, for the most part, what their author intended. The diction is correct, the numbers are smooth, and the rhymes exact. There feldom occurs a hardlaboured expreffion, or a redundant epithet; all his verfes exemplify his own definition of a good style, they confift of " proper words in proper places." «To divide this collection into claffes, and fhow how fome pieces are grofs, and fome are trifling, would be to tell the reader what he knows already, and to find faults of which the author could not be ignorant, who certainly wrote not often to his judgment, but his humour. "It was faid, in a preface to one of the Irifh editions, that Swift had never been known to take a fingle thought from any writer, ancient or modern. This is not literally true; but perhaps no writer can eafily be found that has borrowed fo little, or that in all his excellencies and all his defects has fo well maintained his claim to be confidered as original." |