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dismissed with the livings of Laracor and Rathbeggin in the diocese of Meath, which together did not equal half the value of the deanery 1.

At Laracor he increased the parochial duty by reading prayers 23 on Wednesdays and Fridays, and performed all the offices of his profession with great decency and exactness 2.

Soon after his settlement at Laracor he invited to Ireland the 24 unfortunate Stella, a young woman whose name was Johnson, the daughter of the steward of Sir William Temple, who, in consideration of her father's virtues, left her a thousand pounds 3. With her came Mrs. Dingley, whose whole fortune was twentyseven pounds a year for her life. With these Ladies he passed his hours of relaxation, and to them he opened his bosom; but they never resided in the same house, nor did he see either without a witness. They lived at the Parsonage when Swift was away; and when he returned removed to a lodging or to the house of a neighbouring clergyman 6.

Swift was not one of those minds which amaze the world with 25 early pregnancy; his first work, except his few poetical Essays,

you both for a couple of scoundrels."" Works, 1803, i. 109. Swift describes the Earl as 'intolerably lazy and indolent, and somewhat covetous.' Works, xii. 231.

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Craik, p. 516. He had moreover the rectory of Agher. The three together, he says, were not worth above a third part of that rich deanery.' Ib. Five or six livings,' he says, 'are often joined to make a revenue of £50.' Works, xv. 361. His three livings he reckoned at about £230 a year. Works, 1803, i. 110n. For Laracor see Swift's Letters to Chetwode, pp. 7, 27, 86.

2

Delany, pp. 40, 64; post, SWIFT, 117.

She was baptized at Richmond on March 20, 1681, by the name of 'Hester ye Daughter of Edwd Johnson.' N. & 2.6 S. x. 287. In two deeds she signed her name 'Esther Johnston' (not Johnson). Ib. 8 S. ii. 302. 'Her father was a younger brother of a good family in Nottinghamshire; her mother of a lower degree.... Her fortune at that time was in all not above £1,500.' SWIFT,

Works, ix. 274. She was the daughter of Temple's steward.' Orrery, P. 22. 'Temple left her £1,000.' Deane Swift, p. 85. [Lord Orrery and Deane Swift were in error. For Temple's bequest and Stella's parentage see Appendix J.]

Deane Swift, p. 86, where it is added that she was fifteen years older than Stella. 'Dr. Swift, who allowed her £52 a year, pretended [not to her, but to others] he was only her agent for money that she had in the funds.' Ib. p. 346. See also Works, xviii. 237 n. In writing to one of the Temple family he calls her 'your cousin.' Ib. xix. 36.

5 Post, SWIFT, 70. To Tickell he wrote from London in 1726:-'I wonder how you could expect to see Mrs. Johnson in a morning, which I, her oldest acquaintance, have not done these dozen years, except once or twice in a journey.' Ib. xix. 283.

6

Deane Swift, p. 90. They lived always in lodgings; their domestics consisted of two maids and one man.' SWIFT, Works, ix. 281.

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was The Dissentions in Athens and Rome1, published (1701) in his thirty-fourth year. After its appearance, paying a visit to some bishop, he heard mention made of the new pamphlet that Burnet had written, replete with political knowledge. When he seemed to doubt Burnet's right to the work he was told by the Bishop that he was 'a young man,' and, still persisting to doubt, that he was 'a very positive young man 3.'

Three years afterward (1704) was published The Tale of a Tub: of this book charity may be persuaded to think that it might be written by a man of a peculiar character, without ill intention; but it is certainly of dangerous example. That Swift was its author, though it be universally believed, was never owned by himself, nor very well proved by any evidence; but no other claimant can be produced, and he did not deny it when Archbishop Sharpe and the Duchess of Somerset, by shewing it to the Queen, debarred him from a bishoprick'.

When this wild work first raised the attention of the publick,

* Works, iii. 193.

2 He had already written, though not published, The Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books. Ante, SWIFT, 17.

'Goldsmith,' said Johnson, 'was a plant that flowered late.' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 167. Richardson was fifty-two when he published Pamela, and Sterne forty-six when he published Tristram Shandy.

3 It was written against the impeachment of Somers, Halifax (ante, HALIFAX, 8), and three other peers. 'I sent it,' writes Swift, 'very privately to the press.' Burnet, he adds, 'told me afterwards that he was forced to disown it in a very public manner, for fear of an impeachment wherewith he was threatened.' Works, iii. 179. According to T. Sheridan the bishop was William Sheridan, deprived Bishop of Kilmore. "" Then pray," said he, “who writ it?" Swift answered, "6 My Lord, I writ it.' Swift's Works, 1803, i. 114. 'Returning next year for England,' writes Swift, 'I must confess the vanity of a young man prevailed with me to let myself be known for the author.' Works, iii. 180. Defending anonymous writing,

threatened by parliament, he says:'All persons of true genius or knowledge have an invincible modesty and suspicion of themselves, upon their first sending their thoughts into the world.' Ib. v. 150.

↑ Ib. x. 1; post, SWIFT, III.

5 Atterbury wrote in 1704 (Corres. iii. 218)The author, if it be the man I guess, hath reason to conceal himself because of the prophane stories, which would do his reputation and interest in the world more harm than the wit can do him good.'

6 'I doubt,' said Johnson, 'if it was his; it has so much more thinking, more knowledge, more power, more colour, than any of the works which are indisputably his. If it was his, I shall only say he was impar sibi. Boswell's Johnson, v. 44. See also ib. i. 452, ii. 318; John. Misc. ii. 331.

Swift's correspondence with Tooke the bookseller in 1710 proves that he was the author. Works, xv. 344. For his muttering 'in the last years of his life:-"Good God! what a genius I had when I wrote that book!" see ib. i. 81.

7 See Appendix C.

Sacheverell1, meeting Smalridge, tried to flatter him by seeming to think him the author; but Smalridge answered with indignation, 'Not all that you and I have in the world, nor all that ever we shall have, should hire me to write The Tale of a Tub3?

The digressions relating to Wotton and Bentley must be con- 28 fessed to discover want of knowledge or want of integrity; he did not understand the two controversies, or he willingly misrepresented them. But Wit can stand its ground against Truth only a little while. The honours due to learning have been justly distributed by the decision of posterity *.

The Battle of the Books is so like the Combat des Livres, 29 which the same question concerning the Ancients and Moderns had produced in France, that the improbability of such a coincidence of thoughts without communication is not, in my opinion, balanced by the anonymous protestation prefixed, in which all knowledge of the French book is peremptorily disowned.

For some time after Swift was probably employed in solitary 30 study, gaining the qualifications requisite for future eminence. How often he visited England, and with what diligence he attended his parishes, I know not'. It was not till about four

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1 Ante, KING, 13; ADDISON, 14. Ante, SMITH, 57. Addison wrote of him in 1718:-'He is to me the most candid and agreeable of all bishops.' Swift's Works, xvi. 303. Johnson praised his elegant style. Boswell's Johnson, iii. 248.

3 Miss Byron in Sir Charles Grandison had read it. Letter 12. 4 Ante, KING, 6. Boyle wrote to his tutor Atterbury in 1693 :-'There is no post in the world I could be better pleased with than a groom of the bedchamber's place.' Atterbury Corres. ii. 19. This was the man who had the impudence to match himself with Bentley in learning. He was long considered the victor. Budgell wrote in 1732:-The world was pleased to see a young man of quality and fortune get the better of an old critic.' Memoirs of the Earl of Orrery, p. 193.

5 Works, x. 205.

Swift quotes Wotton as saying: -'I have been assured that the battle in St. James's Library is taken out of a French book, entitled Com

bat des Livres, if I misremember not.' Swift replies that 'he has never seen any such treatise in his life, nor heard of it before.' Ib. x. 26.

In the Anecdotes of Pope, quoted in Gent. Mag. 1770, p. 159, it is said that it was taken from a French tract in 12mo, entitled Histoire poétique de la guerre nouvellement déclarée entre les Anciens et les Modernes.' Mr. Craik says that 'the trifling points of coincidence make it probable that it had passed under Swift's notice, along with a crowd of forgotten authorities.' Craik, p. 71. Of The Tale of a Tub, Voltaire wrote: -'Ce fameux Conte du tonneau est une imitation de l'ancien conte des trois anneaux indiscernables qu'un père légua à ses trois enfans. Ces trois anneaux étaient la religion juive, la chrétienne et la mahométane. C'est encore une imitation de l'Histoire de Méro et d'Enegu par Fontenelle.' Euvres, xxiv. 133.

7 For his visits to England see Appendix B.

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years afterwards that he became a professed author, and then one year (1708) produced The Sentiments of a Church-ofEngland Man'; the ridicule of Astrology, under the name of Bickerstaff; the Argument against abolishing Christianity3; and the defence of the Sacramental Test *.

The Sentiments of a Church-of-England Man is written with great coolness, moderation, ease, and perspicuity. The Argument against abolishing Christianity is a very happy and judicious irony. One passage in it deserves to be selected.

'If Christianity were once abolished, how could the freethinkers, the strong reasoners, and the men of profound learning be able to find another subject so calculated, in all points, whereon to display their abilities? What wonderful productions of wit should we be deprived of from those whose genius, by continual practice, hath been wholly turned upon raillery and invectives against religion, and would therefore never be able to shine, or distinguish themselves, upon any other subject? We are daily complaining of the great decline of wit among us, and would take away the greatest, perhaps the only, topick we have left. Who would ever have suspected Asgill 5 for a wit, or Toland for a philosopher, if the inexhaustible stock of Christianity had not been at hand to provide them with materials? What other subject, through all art or nature, could have produced Tindal' for a profound author, or furnished him with readers? It is the wise choice of the subject that alone adorns and distinguishes the writer. For had an hundred such pens as these been employed on the side of religion, they would have immediately sunk into silence and oblivion.'

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writers in 'The Pert Style' in The Art of Sinking. Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), x. 391.

'I know no genuine Saxon English superior to Asgill's. I think his and Defoe's irony often finer than Swift's.'. COLERIDGE, Table-Talk, 1884, p. 161.

6 Ante, MILTON, 117.

7 But art thou one whom new opinions sway,

One who believes as Tindal leads the way,

Who virtue and a church alike disowns,

Thinks that but words, and this but brick and stones?'

POPE, Imit. Hor., Epis. i. 6. 63.

The reasonableness of a Test is not hard to be proved; but 32 perhaps it must be allowed that the proper test has not been chosen 1.

The attention paid to the papers published under the name of 33 Bickerstaff induced Steele, when he projected The Tatler, to assume an appellation which had already gained possession of the reader's notice 2.

In the year following he wrote A Project for the Advancement 34 of Religion3, addressed to Lady Berkeley, by whose kindness it is not unlikely that he was advanced to his benefices. To this project, which is formed with great purity of intention, and displayed with spriteliness and elegance, it can only be objected that, like many projects, it is, if not generally impracticable, yet evidently hopeless, as it supposes more zeal, concord, and perseverance than a view of mankind gives reason for expecting 5.

1 Lord Eldon said much the same in 1828, when in vain he opposed the abolition of the test. 'He had never desired to retain the sacramental test, if any other equivalent security could be substituted.' Twiss's Eldon, 1846, ii. 206.

By this Act all officers, civil and military, had to receive the sacrament according to the Church of England within six months after their admission. Blackstone's Commentaries, ed. 1775, iv. 58.

In a debate in the House of Commons in 1736, it was stated that on account of the terrible indecencies some have been guilty of upon such occasions, it is the common practice for the curate to desire the legal communicants to divide themselves from those who come for the sake of devotion.' Parl. Hist. ix. 1050.

Swift wrote on Nov. 25, 1711:-'I was early with the Secretary to-day, but he was gone to his devotions, and to receive the sacrament; several rakes did the same; it was not for piety, but employments; according to act of parliament.' Works, ii. 412. The Secretary was St. John (Bolingbroke), Johnson's 'scoundrel, who charged a blunderbuss against religion and morality.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 268. Hume and Gibbon must have taken the test for the offices they held. Swift opposed its abolition

in Ireland. Works, viii. 345. For Dryden's exclusion by it see ante, DRYDEN, 136.

2 In the Preface to vol. iv Steele writes:-'I have in the Dedication of the first volume made my acknowledgments to Dr. Swift, whose pleasant writings, in the name of Bickerstaff, created an inclination in the town towards anything that could appear in the same disguise.' For Swift's Bickerstaff papers see Works, viii. 437-end. Pope addresses him in The Dunciad, i. 19:

'O Thou! whatever title please thine ear,

Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!'

3 Works, viii. 78. Swift begins his Project with a mystification, for he describes it as By a Person of Quality.'

Ante, SWIFT, 22. In his Dedication he says that she has been ‘grafted into a family, which the unmeasurable profusion of ancestors for many generations had too much eclipsed.' Works, viii. 80.

5 The great Reformer was to be the Queen. She should begin with her 'domestics of the middle and lower sort,' and 'oblige them to a constant weekly attendance, at least, on the service of the Church ... and to the appearance, at least, of temperance and chastity.' She should next re

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