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riment and amazement. It was received with fuch avidity, that the price of the firft edition was raifed before the second could be made; it was read by the high and the low, the learned and illiterate. Criticism was for a while loft in wonder; no rules of judgement were applied to a book written in open defiance of truth and regularity. But when diftinctions came to be made, the part which gave leaft pleasure was that which defcribes the Flying Island, and that which gave most difgust must be the hiftory of the Houyhnhnms.

While Swift was enjoying the reputation of his new work, the news of the king's death arrived; and he kiffed the hands of the new King and Queen three days

after their acceffion.

By the Queen, when he was Princess, he had been treated with fome diftinction, and was well received by her in her exaltation; but whether fhe gave hopes which fhe never took care to fatisfy, or he formed expectations which the never meant to raise, the event was, that he always afterwards thought on her with malevolence, and particularly charged her with breaking her promise of some medals which the engaged to fend him.

I know not whether she had not, in her turn, fome reafon for complaint. A Letter was fent her, not fo much entreating as requiring her patronage of Mrs. Barber, an ingenious Irifkwoman, who was then begging fubfcriptions for her Poems. To this Letter was fubfcribed the name of Swift, and it has all the appearances of his diction and fentiments; but it was not written in his hand, and had fome little improprieties. When he was charged with this Letter, he laid hold of the inaccuracies, and urged the improbability of the accufation; but never denied it: he fhuffles

between

between cowardice and veracity, and talks big when he fays nothing.

He feemed defirous enough of recommencing courtier, and endeavoured to gain the kindness of Mrs. Howard, remembering what Mrs. Masham had performed in former times; buthis flatteries were, like thofe of the other wits, unfuccessful; the Lady either wanted power, or had no ambition of poetical immortality.

He was seized not long afterwards by a fit of giddinefs, and again heard of the sickness and danger of Mrs. Johnson. He then left the house of Pope, as it seems, with very little ceremony, finding that two fick friends cannot live together; and did not write to him till he found himself at Chefter.

He returned to a home of forrow: poor Stella was finking into the grave, and, after a languishing decay of about two months, died in her forty-fourth year, on January 28, 1728. How much he wished her life, his papers thew; nor can it be doubted that he dreaded the death of her whom he loved moft, aggravated by the consciousness that himsef had haftened it.

Beauty and the power of pleasing, the greatest external advantages that womar can defire or poffefs, were fatal to the unfortunate Stella. The man whom the had the misfortune to love was, as Delany observes, fond of fingularity, and defrous to make a mode of happiness for himself, different from the general courfe of things and order of Providence. From the time of her arrival in Ireland he seems refolved to keep her in his power, and therefore hindered a match fufficiently advantageous, by accumulating unreasonable demands, and prefcribing conditions that could not be performed. While fhe was at her own difpofal he did not confider

his poffeffion as fecure; refentment, ambition, or caprice, might separate them; he was therefore refolved to make affurance double fure, and to appropriate her by a private marriage, to which he had annexed the expectation of all the pleasures of perfect friendship, without the uneafinefs of conjugal reftraint. But with this ftate poor Stella was not fatisfied; fhe never was treated as a wife, and to the world fhe had the appearance of a mistress. She lived fullenly on, in hope that in time he would own and receive her; but the time did not come till the change of his manners and depravation of his mind made her tell him, when he offered to acknowledge her, that it was too late. She then gave up herself to forrowful refentment, and died under the tyranny of him, by whom fhe was in the highest degree loved and honoured.

What were her claims to this excentrick tenderness, by which the laws of nature were violated to retain her, curiofity will enquire; but how shall it be gratified? Swift was a lover; his teftimony may be fufpected. Delany and the Irish faw with Swift's eyes, and therefore add little confirmation. That fhe was virtuous, beautiful, and elegant, in a very high degree, fuch admiration from fuch a lover makes it very probable; but fhe had not much literature, for fhe could not spell her own language; and of her wit, fo loudly vaunted, the smart sayings which Swift himself has collected afford no fplendid fpecimen.

The reader of Swift's Letter to a Lady on her marriage, may be allowed to doubt whether his opinion of female excellence ought implicitly to be admitted; for if his general thoughts on women were fuch as he exhibits, a very little fenfe in a Lady would enrapture,

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and a very little virtue would astonish him. Stella's fupremacy, therefore, was perhaps only local; fhe was great, because her affociates were little.

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In fome Remarks lately published on the Life of Swift, this marriage is mentioned as fabulous, or doubtful; but, alas! poor Stella, as Dr. Madden told me, related her melancholy ftory to Dr. Sheridan, when he attended her as a clergyman to prepare her for death; and Delany mentions it not with doubt, but only with regret: Swift never mentioned her without a figh.

The rest of his life was spent in Ireland, in a country to which not even power almoft defpotick, nor flattery almoft idolatrous, could reconcile him. He fometimes wished to vifit England, but always found some reason of delay. He tells Pope, in the decline of life, that he hopes once more to fee him; but if ot, fays he, we must part, as all human beings have parted..

After the death of Stella, his benevolence was contracted, and his feverity exafperated; he drove his acquaintance from his table, and wondered why he was deferted. But he continued his attention to the publick, and wrote from time to time fuch directions, admonitions, or cenfures, as the exigency of affairs, in his opinion, made proper; and nothing fell from

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In a fhort poem on the Prefbyterians, whom he always regarded with deteftation, he bestowed one ftricture upon Bettefworth, a lawyer eminent for his infolence to the clergy, which, from very confiderable reputation, brought him into immediate and univerfal contempt. Bettefworth, enraged at his difgrace and

lofs,

lofs, went to Swift, and demanded whether he was the author of that poem ? "Mr. Bettefworth," anfwered he, "I was in my youth acquainted with great "lawyers, who, knowing my difpofition to fatire, ad"vised me, that if any fcoundrel or blockhead whom "I had lampooned should ask, Are you the author of "this paper? I should tell him that I was not the au"thor; and therefore I tell you, Mr. Bettefworth, "that I am not the author of these lines."

Bettefworth was fo little fatisfied with this account, that he publickly profeffed his refolution of a violent and corporal revenge; but the Inhabitants of St. Patrick's diftrict embodied themfelves in the Dean's defence. Bettefworth declared in Parliament, that Swift had deprived him of twelve hundred pounds a year.

Swift was popular awhile by another mode of beneficence. He fet afide fome hundreds to be lent in fmall fums to the poor, from five fhillings, I think, to five pounds. He took no intereft, and only required that, at repayment, a fmall fee should be given to the accomptant; but he required that the day of promised payment should be exactly kept. A fevere and punctilious temper is ill qualified for tranfactions with the poor; the day was often broken, and the loan was not repaid. This might have been easily foreseen; but for this Swift had made no provifion of patience or pity. He ordered his debtors to be fued. A fevere creditor has no popular character; what then was likely to be faid of him who employs the catchpoll under the appearance of charity? The clamour against him was loud, and the refentment of the populace outrageous; he was therefore forced to drop his fcheme,

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