other. This tranfgreffion of regularity was by himself and his admirers termed greatness of foul. But a great mind difdains to hold any thing by courtesy, and there, fore never ufurps what a lawful claimant may take away. He that encroaches on another's dignity, puts himself in his power; he is either repelled with helpless indig nity, 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 languifhment 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 hope of more, They fhew the age involved in darknefs, 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 first were natural, became ridiculous because they were useless. But queruloufnefs was now grown habitual, and he cried out when he probably had ceafed to feel. His reiterated wailings perfuaded Bolingbrokę

that

that he was really willing to quit his deanery for an English parish; and Bolingbroke procured an exchange, which was rejected; and Swift still retained the pleafure 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 fhrinks with difguft. The ideas of pleasure, even when criminal, may folicit the imagination; but what has difeafe, 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 Pope. 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 afcendant mind. But the truth is, that Gulliver had defcribed his Tahoos before the vifit; and he that had formed thofe images had nothing filthy to learn.

I have here given the character of Swift as he exhibits himself to my perception; but now let another be heard, who knew him better. Dr. Delany, after long acquaintance, defcribes him to Lord Orrery in these terms:

"My Lord, when you confider Swift's fingular, peculiar, and moft variegated vein of wit, always "rightly intended (although not always fo rightly "directed), delightful in many inftances, and falutary, ❝even where it is moft offenfive; when you confider "his strict truth, his fortitude in resisting oppreffion "and arbitrary power; his fidelity in friendship, his "fincere love and zeal for religion, his uprightness in

making right refolutions, and his fteadiness in ad

"hering,

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hering to them; his care of his church, its choir, "its economy, and its income; his attention to all "thofe that preached in his cathedral, in order to "their amendment in pronunciation and ftyle; as also "his remarkable attention to the intereft of his fucceffors, preferably to his own prefent emoluments; his invincible patriotifin, even to a country which he did not love; his very various, well-devifed, welljudged, and extensive charities, throughout his life, and his whole fortune (to fay nothing of his "wife's) conveyed to the fame Christian purposes at "his death; charities from which he could enjoy no "honour, advantage, or fatisfaction of any kind in "this world: When you confider his ironical and "humorous, as well as his ferious schemes, for the "promotion of true religion and virtue; his fuccefs "in foliciting for the First Fruits and Twentieths, to "the unspeakable benefit of the established Church "of Ireland; and his felicity (to rate it no higher) | "in giving occafion to the building of fifty new A churches in London:

"All this confidered, the character of his life will appear like that of his writings; they will both bear "to be re-confidered and re-examined with the utmost attention, and always difcover new beauties and "excellences upon every examination.

"They will bear to be confidered as the fun, in which the brightnefs will hide the blemishes; and *whenever petulant ignorance, pride, malice, malignity, or envy, interpofes to cloud or fully his fame, I will take upon me to pronounce that the eclipfe will not last long.

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"To conclude-no man ever deferved better of his country than Swift did of his. A fteady, perfe"vering, inflexible friend; a wife, a watchful, and “a faithful counsellor, under many fevere trials and "bitter perfecutions, to the manifeft, hazard both of "his liberty and fortune.

"He lived a bleffing, he died a benefactor, and his "name will ever live an honour to Ireland.”

IN the poetical works of Dr. Swift there is mor much upon which the critick can exercife his powers. They are often humorous, almoft 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 cor rect, the numbers are smooth, and the rhymes exact. There feldom occurs a hard-laboured expref, fion, or a redundant epithet; all his verfes exemplify his own definition of a good ftyle, they confift of pro per words in proper places.

To divide this collection into claffes, and fhew 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 often not to his judgement, but his humour.

It was faid, in a Preface to one of the Irish edi tions, 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 excellences and all his defects has fo well maintained his can to be confidered as original.

BROOME.

.

BROOM E.

WILLIAM

BROOME was born in Cheshire,

as is faid, of very mean parents. Of the place of his birth, or the firft part of his life, I have not been able to gain any intelligence. He was educated upon the foundation at Eaton, and was captain of the school a whole year, without any vacancy, by which he might have obtained a scholarship at King's College. Being by this delay, fuch as is faid to have happened very rarely, fuperannuated, he was fent to St. John's College by the contributions of his friends, where he obtained a small exhibition.

At his College he lived for fome time in the fame chamber with the well-known Ford, by whom I have formerly heard him described as a contracted scholar and a mere verfifyer, unacquainted with life, and unfkilful in converfation. His addiction to metre was then fuch, that his companions familiarly called him Poet. When he had opportunities of mingling with

mankind,