JONATHAN SWIFT, by an account in his own handwriting, was the son of an attorney in the city of Dublin. He was born in 1667. Some doubt has

been felt concerning his origin, in consequence of his own angry or capricious declaration, when out of humour with Ireland,-"I am not of this vile country; I am an Englishman ;" and Sir William Temple has been said to be his real father. This piece of scandal, however, is disproved by circumstances of time and place. Swift was placed at Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of fourteen. Whether through idleness, or contempt of the prescribed studies, at the end of four years he could only obtain his Bachelor's degree speciali gratiâ; a term denoting want of merit. This disgrace so affected him, that for the following seven years he studied eight hours a day. In 1688 Sir William

Temple, whose lady was related to Swift's mother, took him under his protection, and paid the expenses of his residence at Oxford for a Master's degree. On quitting that University, Swift lived with Temple as his domestic companion. To a long illness contracted during this period in consequence of a surfeit he ascribed that frequently recurring giddiness which annoyed him through life, and sent him to the grave deprived of reason.

While under Sir William Temple's roof, Swift rendered material assistance in the revision of his patron's works, and corrected and improved his own Tale of a Tub,' which had been sketched out previously to his quitting Dublin. It was published in 1704. He never avowed himself its author; but he did not deny it when Archbishop Sharpe and the Duchess of Somerset, according to some accounts, showed it to Queen Anne, and thereby debarred him from a bishopric. From Temple's conversation Swift much increased his political knowledge; and his early impressions were naturally in favour of the Whigs: but he suspected his patron of neglecting to provide for him, from a desire of retaining his services. This produced a quarrel, and the friends parted in 1694. Swift took orders, and obtained a prebend in the north of Ireland; but at Temple's earnest request he soon resigned that preferment, and returned to England. A sincere reconciliation took place, and they lived together in the utmost harmony till Sir William's death in 1699. Swift, in testimony of his esteem, wrote 'The Battle of the Books,' of which his friend is the hero; and Temple by his will left him a legacy in money, and the profit as well as care of his posthumous works. Swift had indulged hopes, not without good reason, of being well provided for in the English church, through Temple's interest. Failing in these hopes, he ac

cepted the post of private secretary and chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, on the appointment of that nobleman to be one of the Lords Justices of Ireland. By this new patron he seems to have been ill used. He was soon displaced from his post, on the plea of its unfitness for a clergyman. He was then promised the rich deanery of Derry; but that preferment was bestowed on another person, and Swift could only procure the livings of Laracor and Rathbeggin, which together did not amount to more than half the value of the deanery. During his residence at Laracor, he performed the duties of a parish priest with punctuality and devotion, notwithstanding some occasional sallies of no very decorous or welltimed humour, which, coupled with the suspicions founded on the anonymous Tale of a Tub,' fixed on him an imputation of insincerity in his Christian. profession, from which the opinion of posterity seems to have absolved him.

During his incumbency at Laracor, he invited to Ireland a lady with whom he became acquainted while with Sir William Temple. She was the daughter of Temple's steward, whose name was John

son.

About the year 1701, at the age of eighteen, she went to Ireland, to reside near Swift, accompanied by Mrs. Dingley, a lady fifteen years older than herself. Miss Johnson was Swift's celebrated Stella. Whether Swift's first impulse in giving this invitation had a view to marriage, or the cultivation of friendship only, is uncertain. His whole conduct

with respect to women was most mysterious; apparently highly capricious, and whatever might be its secret motive, utterly unwarrantable. The reason assigned by the two ladies for transferring their residence to Ireland was, "that the interest of money was higher than in England, and provisions cheap.' Every possible precaution was taken to prevent

scandal: Swift and Miss Johnson did not live together, nor were they ever known to meet except in presence of a third person. Owing to this scrupulous prudence, the lady's fame, during fifteen years, was never questioned, nor was her society avoided by the most scrupulous. In 1716 they were privately married, but with no change in their mode of life: she never lodged in the Deanery, except during those fits of giddiness and approaching mental aberration, during which a woman, then of middle age, might venture without breach of decorum to nurse an elderly man.

In 1701 Swift had published his 'Dissensions in Athens and Rome;' his first political work, in behalf of King William and his ministers, against the violent proceedings of the House of Commons. According to Lord Orrery, from that year to 1708 he did not write any political pamphlet; but he made frequent journeys to England during the whole of Queen Anne's reign. Between 1708 and 1710 he changed his politics, worked hard against the Whigs among whom he had been educated, and plunged into political controversy, with a view to open the road to power for the Tories. The year 1710 produced the 'Examiner,' of which he wrote thirtythree papers. In that year commenced his acquaintance with Harley, who introduced him to St. John and the rest of the ministers. At this period he dined every Saturday at Harley's, with the Lord Keeper, Mr. Secretary St. John, and Lord Rivers, to the exclusion of all other persons. He may, therefore, be considered at this time as the confidential friend of the ministry, and almost a member of their cabinet. The company was afterwards enlarged to sixteen, including Swift; all men of the first class in society. He now put forth all his strength in support of the Tory party, in pamphlets,

periodical papers and political poems. Amidst all this political agitation, he wrote down the occurrences of every day, whether consisting of conferences with ministers, or quarrels with his own servant, in a regular journal to Stella.

In 1712, ten days before the meeting of parliament, he published a pamphlet, entitled The Conduct of the Allies,' to facilitate peace, on which the stability, almost the personal safety, of the ministers, seemed to depend. He professes that this piece cost him much pains, and no writer was ever more successful. A sale of eleven thousand copies in two months was in those days unprecedented: the Tory members in both houses drew their arguments from it, and the resolutions of parliament were little more than a string of quotations. During that year and the next he continued to exert himself with unwearied diligence. In 1713 he carried to the then latest date the first sketch of the 'History of the last Four Years of Queen Anne.' Lord Bolingbroke, when called on for his opinion, was sincere enough to speak of it as "a seasonable pamphlet for the administration, but a dishonour to just history." Swift himself was proud of it, but professed his willingness to sacrifice it to his friend's opinion. It was, however, published, but with no addition to the author's fame.

The Queen is said to have intended to promote him to a bishopric; but the story is involved in obscurity. That Archbishop Sharpe had dissuaded her from so doing by representing his belief in Christianity as questionable, is not ascertained by any satisfactory evidence; but whether that were so or not, Johnson's suggestion seems probable, that the difficulty arose from those clerical supporters of the ministry, "who were not yet reconciled to the author of the Tale of a Tub,' and would not, without much