verfes, faid, "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet;" and that this denunciation was the motive of Swift's perpetual malevolence to Dryden.

In 1699 Temple died, and left a legacy with his manuscripts to Swift, for whom he had obtained, from King William, a promife of the first prebend. that should be vacant at Westminster or Canterbury.

That this promise might not be forgotten, Swift dedicated to the King the pofthumous works with which he was intrusted; but neither the dedication, nor tenderness for the man whom he once had treated with confidence and fondness, revived in King William the remembrance of his promife. Swift awhile attended the Court; but foon found his folicitations hopeless.

He was then invited by the Earl of Berkeley to ac-, company him into Ireland, as his private fecretary; but after having done the business till their arrival at Dublin, he then found that one Bush had perfuaded the Earl that a Clergyman was not a proper fecretary, and had obtained the office for himself. In a man like Swift, fuch circumvention and inconftancy must have excited violent indignation,

But he had yet more to fuffer. Lord Berkeley had the difpofal of the deanery of Derry, and Swift expected to obtain it; but by the fecretary's influence, fuppofed to have been fecured by a bribe, it was beftowed on somebody elfe; and Swift was difmiffed with the livings of Laracor and Rathbeggin in the diocese of Meath, which together did not equal half the value of the deanery.

At Laracor he increased the parochial duty by reading prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays, and performed Bb 4

all

all the offices of his profeffion with great decency and

exactness.

Soon after his fettlement at Laracor, he invited to Ireland the unfortunate Stella, a young woman whofe name was Johnson, the daughter of the steward of Sir William Temple, who, in confideration of her father's virtues, left her a thousand pounds. With her came Mrs. Dingley, whofe whole fortune was twenty-feven pounds a year for her life. With thefe Ladies he paffed his hours of relaxation, and to them he opened his bofom; but they never refided in the fame house, nor did he fee either without a witnefs. They lived at the Parfonage, when Swift was away; and when he returned, removed to a lodging, or to the houfe of a neghbouring clergyman.

Swift was not one of thofe minds which amaze the world with early pregnancy: his first work, except his few poetical Effays, was the Diffentions in Athens and Rome, publifhed (1701) in his thirty-fourth year. After its appearance, paying a vifit to fome bithop, he heard mention made of the new pamphlet that Burnet had written, replete with political knowledge. When he feemed to doubt Burnet's right to the work, he was told by the Bishop, that he was a young man; and, ftill perfifting to doubt, that he was a very positive young

man.

Three years afterward (1704) was published The Tale of a Tub: of this book charity may be perfuaded 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 univerfally believed, was never owned by himfelf, nor very well proyed by any evidence; but

ΠΟ

no other claimant can be produced, and he did not deny it when Archbishop Sharpe and the Duchefs of Somerset, by fhewing it to the Queen, debarred him from a bishoprick.

When this wild work first raised the attention of the publick, Sacheverell, meeting Smalridge, tried to flatter him, feeming 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 "fhall have, fhould hire me to write the Tale of a Tub."

The digreffions relating to Wotton and Bentley muft be confeffed to difcover want of knowledge, or want of integrity; he did not understand the two controverfies, or he willingly mifreprefented them. But Wit can stand its ground against Truth only a little while. The honours due to Learning have been justly diftributed by the decision of pofterity.

The Battle of the Books is fo like the Combat des Livres, which the fame queftion concerning the Ancients and Moderns had produced in France, that the improbability of fuch a coincidence of thoughts without communication is not, in my opinion, balanced by the anonymous proteftation prefixed, in which all knowledge of the French book is peremptorily difowned.

For fome time after Swift was probably employed in folitary study, gaining the qualifications requifite 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 years afterwards that he became a professed author, and then one year (1708) produced The Sentiments of a Church-of-England Man; the ridicule of Aftrology, under the name of Bickerstaff;

5

the

the Argument against abolishing Christianity; and the dea fence of the Sacramental Test.

The Sentiments of a Church-of-England Man is written with great coolness, moderation, eafe, and perfpicuity. The Argument against abolishing Chriftianity is a very happy and judicious irony. One paffage in it deferves to be felected:

"If Christianity were once abolished, how could the "free-thinkers, the ftrong reafoners and the men of "profound learning, be able to find another subject fo

calculated, in all points, whereon to display their "abilities? What wonderful productions of wit fhould "we be deprived of from thofe, whofe genius, by continual practice, hath been wholly turned upon raillery and invectives against religion, and would therefore never be able to shine, or diftinguish them“felves, upon any other fubject? We are daily complaining of the great decline of wit among us, and "would take away the greateft, perhaps the only, tapick we have left. Who would ever have suspected

Afgill for a wit, or Toland for a philofopher, if the "inexhaustible flock of Chriftianity had not been at hand to provide them with materials? What other fubject, through all art or nature, could have produced Tindal for a profound author, or furnished "him with readers? It is the wife choice of the fubject that alone adorns and diftinguifhes the writer. "For had an hundred fuch pens as these been em"ployed on the fide of religion, they would have im"mediately funk into filence and oblivion."

The reafonablenefs of a Tejt is not hard to be proved; but perhaps it must be allowed that the proper teft has not been chofen.

The

The attention paid to the papers, publifhed under the name of Bickerstaff, induced Steele, when he projected the Tatler, to affume an appellation which had already gained poffeffion of the reader's notice.

In the year following he wrote a Project for the Advancement of Religion, addreffed to Lady Berkeley; by whofe kindness it is not unlikely that he was advanced to his benefices. To this project, which is formed with great purity of intention, and difplayed with fpriteliness and elegance, it can only be objected, that, like many projects, it is, if not generally impracticable, yet evidently hopeless, as it fuppofes more zeal, concord, and perfeverance, than a view of mankind gives reafon for expecting.

He wrote likewife this year a Vindication of Bickerstaff; and an explanation of an Ancient Prophecy, part written after the facts, and the reft never completed, but well planned to excite amazement.

Soon after began the bufy and important part of Swift's life. He was employed (1710) by the primate of Ireland to folicit the Queen for a remiffion of the First Fruits and Twentieth parts to the Irish Clergy. With this purpofe he had recourse to Mr. Harley, to whom he was mentioned as a man neglected and oppreffed by the laft ministry, because he had refused to co-operate with fome of their schemes. What he had refufed, has never been told; what he had fuffered was, I fuppofe, the exclufion from a bishoprick by the remonftrances of Sharpe, whom he defcribes as the harmless tool of others hate, and whom he represents as afterwards fuing for pardon.

Harley's defigns and fituation were fuch as made him glad of an auxiliary fo well qualified for his fer

vice: