DIRECTIONS TO SERVANTS.

"THE Directions to Servants, which is the tract immediately following Swift's Will, is imperfect and unfinished. The Editor tells us, that a preface and a dedication were to have been added to it. I think it was not published till after the Dean's death; but I remember the manuscript handed about, and much applauded, in his lifetime. To say the most that can be offered in its favour, the tract is written in so facetious a kind of low humour that it must please many readers; nor is it without some degree. of merit, by pointing out, with an amazing exactness, (and what, in a less trivial case, must have been called judgment,) the faults, blunders, tricks, lies, and various knaveries of domestic servants. How much time must have been employed in putting together such a work! What an intenseness of thought must have been bestowed upon the lowest and most slavish scenes of life! It is one of those compositions, that the utmost strength of wit can scarce sustain from sinking. A man of Swift's exalted genius ought constantly to have soared into higher regions. He ought to have looked upon persons of inferior abilities as children, whom nature had appointed him to instruct, encourage, and improve. Superior talents seem to have been intended by Providence as public benefits; and the person who possesses such blessings is certainly answerable to Heaven for those endowments which he enjoys above the rest of mankind. Let him jest with dignity, and let him be ironical upon useful subjects; leaving poor slaves to heat their porridge, or drink their small beer, in such vessels as they shall find proper. The Dean, it seems, had not this way of thinking; and having long indulged his passions, at last, perhaps, mistook them for his duty."-LORD ORRERY'S Remarks on the Life and Writings of Swift. Lond. 1752, p. 179.

Such is the opinion which Swift's aristocratic biographer has formed of one of his most humorous productions; a commentary

expressive of the noble lord's feelings of dignity, which deemed nothing worthy of attention that was unconnected with the higher orders of society. An editor of less exalted station may be permitted to entertain different sentiments. Although domestic happiness rests upon the kindly and virtuous qualities of the superior members of a family, as its essential basis, it is peculiarly liable to be ruffled, if not broken, by the irregularities of that inferior class, whom the rules of society render necessary for discharging subordinate offices. The sphere of domestic servants brings them into immediate contact with their master; nor can they be faithful, industrious, and regular, on the one hand, or, on the other, careless, dishonest, or vicious, without his comfort and his income prospering or suffering accordingly. Any attempt, therefore, either by satire or serious admonition, to introduce order and good morals among those who are deprived of the advantages of education enjoyed by their superiors, and are at the same time too much exposed to the contagion of their worst vices, cannot justly be termed a degrading exercise of superior faculties. Let it be remembered, of the class for whose reformation these directions are designed, that through the whole course of our lives, their services are almost as essential as if they were actually limbs of our own bodies; that they are the guardians of our childhood, the attendants of our sickness, the sharers of our toils, the nurses of our old age and decrepitude, and that, in a free country, an individual's happiness is more immediately connected with the personal character of his valet, than with that of the monarch himself.

How far the remedy applies to the disorder may be more dubious. But if dishonesty and profligacy in the servant cannot be cured by Swift's ridicule, it may, nevertheless, rouse the master from apathy and indifference, and thus indirectly contribute to the reformation of the household.

The Dean himself thought highly of the tract, considering it both as useful and humorous; and in 1739, when his memory was quite gone, and a general indifference to literature creeping upon him, he writes anxiously to Faulkner about the fate of the manuscript, which he had mislaid.

Faulkner, the Irish editor, gives the following account of "The Directions to Servants."- "The following treatise was begun some years ago by the author, who had not leisure to finish and put it into proper order, being engaged in many other works of greater use to his country, as may be seen by most of his writings. But as the author's design was to expose the villainies and frauds of servants to their masters and mistresses, we shall make no apology for its publication; but give it our readers in the same manner as we find it in the original, which may be seen in the printer's

custody. The few tautologies that occur in the characters left unfinished, will make the reader look upon the whole as a rough draught, with several outlines only drawn. However, that there may appear no daubing or patch-work by other hands, it is thought most advisable to give it in the author's own words. It is imagined that he intended to make a large volume of this work; but, as time and health would not permit him, the reader may draw, from what is here exhibited, means to detect the many vices and faults to which people in that kind of low life are subject. If gentlemen would seriously consider this work, which is written for their instruction, (although ironically,) it would make them better economists, and preserve their estates and families from ruin. It may be seen by some scattered papers, (wherein were given hints for a dedication and preface, and a list of all degrees of servants,) that the author intended to have gone through all their characters. This is all that need be said as to this treatise, which can only be looked upon as a fragment.”—G. F.

HEN your master or lady calls a servant by name, if that servant be not in the way, none of you are to answer, for then there will be no end of your drudgery; and masters themselves allow, that if a servant comes when he is called, it is sufficient.

When you have done a fault, be always pert and insolent, and behave yourself as if you were the injured person; this will immediately put your master or lady off their mettle. J

If you see your master wronged by any of your fellow-servants, be sure to conceal it, for fear of being called a tell-tale: however, there is one exception in case of a favourite servant, who is justly hated by the whole family; who therefore are bound, in prudence, to lay all the faults they can upon the favourite.

The cook, the butler, the groom, the market-man, and every other servant who is concerned in the expenses of the family, should act as if his master's whole estate ought to be applied to that servant's