The Works of Jonathan Swift ... Carefully selected: with a biography of the author, by D. L. Purves; and original and authentic notes

Front matter

■ ■ ■ I I ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ I ■ I ■ I I I ■ ■ THE WORKS OF THE AA Jj la r# UJKLJiJj -ElilM AJ -ii A I 1 9 __J,_J, Dean of St Patrick's. Dublin. CAREFULLY SELECTED WITH A LIEE OF THE AUTHOR AND ORICINAL AND AUTHENTIC NOTES. EDINBURGH. WILLIAM P. NIMMO. i THE WORKS o? JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D., DEAN OF ST PATRICK'S, DUBLIN. CAREFULLY SELECTED: WITH A BIOGRAPHY OF THE A UTHOR, By D. LAING PUEVES ; AND ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC NOTES. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM P. NIMMO. 1869.

Preface

. Swift is not a popular author. "Gulliver's Travels," indeed, can find few rivals in popular favour; but, of all that Swift; wrote besides, and before that sweeping satire confirmed and crowned his fame, exceedingly little is familiar to the reading public of this day. Beyond most other authors whose renown came in their lifetime, he wrote for the people. His choice of language, of style, illustration, and idea, was sedulously and constantly directed to the end of reaching the understanding, and rousing the sympathy or passion, of the common folk. Whatever flowed from his pen, the rich, the powerful, the cul tivated, could not fail to read ; the people would read — and it was sometimes essential that the people should read — only if he made the matter striking, and the manner easy. "The Drapier's Letters" are an instance.

They descended to the mental capacity of every tavern-keeper and cobbler throughout Ireland; and, not in spite, but in consequence of that descent, they shook and baffled one of the strongest administrations that ever guided the councils of an English monarch. Still, Swift is not, in these days, a popular author out side the four comers of " Gulliver ; " and the reasons are not far to seek. Much that he wrote was designed to serve only the transient purposes of political agitation and party conflict. " So soon out of fashion are party papers, however well writ." Such was Swift's own account of his thirty three " Examiners ; " and such naturally and excusably has been posterity's treatment of much besides the "Examiners" that came from his hand. " Gulliver's Travels," and, in a less degree, the " Tale of a Tub," stand out pre-eminent, in present popular estimation, from the host of partisan, per ishable tracts and pamphlets ; their place in English literature is unmistak able and lofty.

But many minor compositions, affording rare displays of genius, wit, humour, social wisdom, and excellent, if somewhat caustic, moral teaching, float amid an ocean of political writings which arc valuable to the

PREFACE.

. student of history, but interesting to few general readers. The works of Swift, then, must be subjected to the process of selection, if those which survive the need and object of the moment are to become popular in the current sense of the term — known, read, and relished of all men. For such a selection as that now submitted to the public, there is ample room, if not urgent call. Endless editions of " Gulliver's Travels," more or less altered and improved from the state in which they were left by the author's hand, are continually appearing. But, excepting in the ponderous complete collections of Swift's works, there is no easy access to the "Tale of a Tub," and to most of the other writings included in the present volume. The few people who desire or need all Swift, no doubt, can usually afford to pay the -price of these large collections ; but the many who want only that which may please them, do not care to pay for what is beyond their concern or their use.

The aim of this volume, is to place within the reach of all those writings which at once shed the clearest light upon Swift's remarkable career — exceptionally eventful for a man of letters — and display most strik ingly the various qualities of his powerful character and rich genius. This purpose has necessitated the omission of much that he wrote on politics, church affairs, and Irish questions. Some of the more celebrated political papers, such as the " Conduct of the Allies," have been included ; but the matter has been mainly drawn from the purely literary, personal, and peren nially interesting portions of Swift's voluminous writings. The " Journal to Stella," although it occupies what may to some appear a disproportionate space, could not well have been omitted, consistently with the object of illustrating the career, character, and genius of Swift, by a fair " sampling" of all that he produced ; and an equal amount of matter tending in that direction, could not be found elsewhere among his works.

In conformity with the same ruling idea, an original biography of Swift has been drawn up, with especial reference to the writings comprised in this selection. The purpose of the biographer is simply to tell the story of Swift's life smoothly and clearly; and the points of keen controversy and unsolved doubt, which are presented by the incidents of that life, have been necessarily passed over with a light hand. The Editor has not presumed to take any liberty with the classical text of the " Tale of a Tub" and " Gulliver's Travels." In both, the reader of these days may meet with a good deal that will offend his taste, and shock his sense of deceucy. Still, the images and notions presented, though often

PREFACE.

. V disgusting, are rarely, if ever immoral — they repel from vice, rather than incite to it; and the scope and effect of the two works cannot be justly appreciated, unless they are studied in their unmodified form. Elsewhere — « in the "Journal to Stella," the " Directions to Servants," &c. — one or two very slight omissions have been made. The notes to the " Tale" and the " Travels" have been carefully selected and re-written, from those of Hawkesworth (marked H.), Sheridan, Scott, &c. ; while many new ones have been added, with the design of clearly elucidating the meaning and force of the allegory, and the allusions of the writer. The classical quota tions have been verified, and, in many cases for the first time, cited, and translated. Every care has been taken by the Editor and the printer to furnish a pure and correct text.

Although fault and error must creep into all that is done by human hands, the Publisher sends forth the Selected Works of Swift, in the confidence that this edition will be found useful, interesting, and not unworthy of gaining for the great Satirist a wider popularity, founded on a clearer knowledge of his genius and labours. D. L. P. London, November 1803. CONTENTS. PAGE LIFE OF SWIFT, 1 A TALE OF A TUB, 41 THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS 99 GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, 110 Part I. — A Voyage to Lilliput, ...... 114 Part II. — A Voyage to Brobdingnag, . . . . .138 Part III. — A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnago, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan, ........ 162 Part IV. — A Voyage to the Country op the Houyhnhnms, . . . 188 MEMOIRS RELATING TO THAT CHANGE WHICH HAPPENED IN THE QUEEN'S MINISTRY IN THE YEAR 1710, 217 SWIFT'S JOURNAL TO STELLA, 226 A DISCOURSE OF THE CONTESTS AND DISSENSIONS BETWEEN THE NOBLES AND THE COMMONS IN ATHENS AND ROME, . . 404 THE CONDUCT OF THE ALLIES ; AND OF THE LATE MINISTRY, IN BEGINNING AND CARRYING ON THE WAR, .... 420 THE SENTIMENTS OF A CHURCH-OF-ENGLAND MAN WITH RESPECT TO RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT, ..... 442 VARIOUS PAPERS, ON RELIGION, MORALS, LITERATURE, ETC— AN ARGUMENT AGAINST ABOLISHING CHRISTIANITY, .... 452 A PROJECT POR THE ADVANCEMENT OF REUGION, ..... 457 A LETTER TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN, ...... 465 A LETTER TO A VERY YOUNG LADY ON HER MARRIAGE, .... 471 A MODEST PROPOSAL FOI!

UTILISING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND, . 475 A SCHEME TO MAKE AN HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLES, .... 478 AN ESSAY ON MODERN EDUCATION, ...... 485 A TREATISE ON GOOD MANNERS AND GOOD BREEDING, .... 488 A PROPOSAL FOR CORRECTING AND IMPROVING THE ENGLISH TONGUE, . . 490 HINTS TOWARDS AN ESSAY ON CONVERSATION, . . . . 495 A LETTER OF ADVICE TO A YOUNG POET, . . . • . . . 498 A TRITICAL ESSAY UPON THE FACULTIES OF THE MIND, .... 506 A MEDITATION UPON A BROOMSTICK, ...... 507 MEMOIRS OF P. P., ........ 508. ON THE DEATH OF MRS JOHNSON (STELLA), ..... 511 THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, ....... 513 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN JOHN CREICHTON, CONTENTS.

PAGB THE " BICKERSTAFF " PAPERS— PREDICTIONS FOR THE YEAR 1708, ...... 544 AN ANSWER TO BICKERSTAFF, ....... 547 ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF MR PARTRIDGE, ..... 549 SQUIRE BICKERSTAFF DETECTED, ..'..... 550 A VINDICATION OF ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, ESQ., ..... 553 A FAMOUS PREDICTION OF MERLIN, TIIE BRITISH WIZARD, .... 555 DIRECTIONS TO SERVANTS, 556 SELECTED POEMS— ODE TO KING WILLIAM, ........ 578 MRS FRANCES HARRIS'S PETITION, ...... 578 TO THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH, ....... 5S0 ON THE UNION, . . . . . . . . . 5S0 APOLLO OUTWITTED, ........ 5S0 A DESCRIPTION OF THE MORNING, . . . . . . .581 A DESCRIPTION OF A CITY SHOWER, ...... 581 THE VIRTUES OF SID HAMET THE MAGICIAN'S ROD, . 582 THE WINDSOR PROPHECY, . . . . . . . . 5S2 THE FABLE OF MIDAS, ........ 583 THE AUTHOR UPON HIMSELF, ....... 584 CADENUS AND VANESSA, ........ 584 TO LOVE, .......... 591 IMITATION OF PART OF TIIE SIXTH SATIRE OF THE SECOND DOOK OF HORACE, . 592 THE SOUTH SEA PROJECT, ........ 593 A SATIRICAL ELEGY ON TIIE DEATH OF A LATE FAMOUS GENERAL, . . . 595 VERSES ON BLENHEIM, ........ 595 THE JOURNAL OF A MODERN LADY, ...... 595 ON THE DEATH OF DR SWIFT, ....... 597 ON POETRY : A RHAPSODY, ....... 602 BIRTHDAY POEMS TO STELLA, ....... 605 DAPHNE, .......... 607 EPIGRAMS, .........

LIFE OF JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D., DEAN OF ST PATRICK'S. The story of Swift's life points its own moral — teaches its own lesson of en couragement or warning. Sprung from comparatively low degree — thrown upon the world indigent and hopeless, with nothing save his own genius and efforts whereon to depend — Swift rose, through patronage,, the ungeniality of which he converted into esteem and affection, to a position no higher than such as enabled him to develop and employ the splendid powers of his mind. The display of these powers brought him the favour of men high in the State ; first the one, and then the other, of the two great parties which divide English history, sought his aid. Drawn from his earlier political allegiance by the force of his ecclesiastical conviction and reverence, he fought, single-handed, the battle of the Tory Administration during four years of peril and crisis.

He became the intimate friend, almost the arrogant dictator, of mighty Ministers ; he ruled as a power in the State; he was practically, for the time, the foremost man in England. But all his genius and influence did not avail to avert the political suicide of his friends. Torn by intestine dissensions, assailed by rancorous foes, foredoomed by the course of events, the Ministry and party of Oxford and St John went down into irretrievable ruin ; and he fell from his high estate in England, into an exile in Ireland, against which his whole nature revolted. Yet here his powers re-asserted themselves. His patriotism spurned the paltry bounds of professional etiquette, and the dictates of personal fear. He became the idol of Ireland — the foremost man in that island, as he had previously been in England.

He was punished for his hesitation between the two political parties, by failing to receive from either the preferment he coveted and merited from both. He was punished for his paltering between the contending claims of two devoted and accomplished women, by the enjoyment of neither and the premature death of both. Then he dragged out a long series of lonely, loveless, bitter years, in a banishment from which he repeatedly hoped to be recalled, but hoped in vain. By the burden of his regrets, by the failure of his faculties, he that had so transcendently risen above all con temporaries in the might of his intellect, ere the close of his career sank below the mental level of the meanest clown. He that had swayed the Court of Queen Anne, A and roused all Ireland to patriotic frenzy, became a silent, weeping, apathetic idiot.

It has been fitly said that " from the life of Swift may be derived the important lesson, that, as no misfortunes should induce genius to despair, no rank or fame, however elevated, should encourage its possessor to presumption. And those to whom fate has denied such brilliant qualities, or to whom she has refused the necessary opportunities of displaying them, may be taught, while perusing the history of this illustrious man, how little happiness depends upon the possession of transcendent genius, of political influence, or of popidar renown." Jonathan Swift, although born in Ireland, was of English descent. The younger branch of the Swift family — surviving the elder, which died in the person of the childless Viscount Carlingford, about the middle of the seventeenth century — had been settled in Yorkshire for many generations.

One of its scions, Thomas Swift, vicar of Goodrich, in Herefordshire, was the grandfather of the Dean ; and his intense and self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of King and Church seems to have reproduced itself in the famous grandson. Of Thomas's ten sons by his wife Elizabeth Dryden — whose brother was the father of the poet Dryden — five sought their fortune in Ireland. Among them were Jonathan, the fourth, who had been bred to the law, and had already sunk into somewhat difficult circum stances by marrying a poor lady of old Leicestershire family, Abigail Ericke by name; and Godwin, the eldest, a barrister of Gray's Inn, whom the Duke of Ormond made Attorney-General of tha Palatinate of Tipperary. Jonathan — who held no very distinct position in the world — in 1665 became steward to the Society of the King's Inns, at Dublin; but when he died, in 1667, he left his widow so poor, that only by the aid of the Society could she meet the cost of burying her husband.

She was thus left, with an infant daughter and an unborn child, to the care of two brothers-in-law — Godwin, who had lost much money in speculations, and Dryden, who was less wealthy than his losses were supposed to have left Godwin. About seven months after her husband's death, the widow gave birth to Jonathan, on St Andrew's Day — 30th November — 1667, in a little house in Hoey's Court, Dublin. The future Dean did not come into the world amid those circumstances of comfort and independence which conduce to making men amiable and contented. His mother mainly depended on the begrudged pecuniary aid of a connexion • his own prospects were of the gloomiest character; "poverty's unconquerable bar" seemed to shut him out from that great world in which he was destined to mingle and even to bear command.

But all this coming hap was hidden from him when only a year old, he first became the sport of wayward chance. His nurse a native of Whitehaven, was called home by the illness of a relative from whom she had expectations; and so strong was her affection for her infant charge, that she secretly carried him off to England, where he was kept for four or five years his mother fearing to imperil his already delicate health by a second sea-voyage Before he came back to Ireland, Jonathan had been taught to spell, and could read the Bible with ease. About his sixth year, he returned to his mother's house; but almost immediately afterwards he was sent, at the charges of his uncle Godwin, to the school of Kilkenny — a foundation of the Ormond family where he carved his name on the desk, made httle English-Latin quips and puns and employed and amused himself much after the manner of commonplace scholars.

It would seem that even then the iron of indigence and dependent station had entered his soul ; and, long years afterwards, Swift, being provoked in public by an insolent question, declared that his uncle Godwin had "given him the educa tion of a dog." Godwin Swift, however, was not in reality so well to do as he seemed; his speculations had told injuriously upon his fortune; and there was some injustice in Jonathan's bitter detestation for his memory — though . the manner in which his aid was given appears to have aggravated the pain of being obliged to receive it. When fourteen years of age, Jonathan, still at his uncle Godwin's charges, was admitted into Trinity College, DubUn, as a pensioner, under the tuition of Dr St George Ashe, afterwards Bishop of Dromore. At the same time his cousin Thomas (son of his English uncle Thomas), who afterwards impertinently claimed a great share in the authorship of the " Tale of a Tub," was entered of the college ; and he seems to have taken more kindly to the dreary and formal logical studies which were then much in vogue, than did his infinitely abler kinsman.

Jonathan, indeed, fairly rebelled against the schoolmen and philosophical commentators, whose very names were repeUing and execrable — as Burgersdicius, Keckermannus, Smiglecius, and the like. He devoted himseU, instead, to books of history and poetry; and was even imprudent enough to object openly, on some occasions, to the studies which the rules of the coUege prescribed. The bitterness of mind caused by his dependent condition and uncertain future, also did much to prompt his rebeUion against the order and discipline of the university ; and in the society of a knot of young men affected with the same irregularity and Ucense, at least of Uterary life, Swift prepared for himself the grave mortification of "stoppage" that awaited him on coming to take his degree. Perhaps he might have pleaded, with Johnson, that " it was bitterness they took for froUc;" certainly some palliation is required to cover the errors of Swift's university career.

But though irregular, eccentric, inattentive to prescribed studies, and a frequenter of unscholastic haunts, there does not appear to be any soUd reason for the belief that his Use was viciously depraved. StUl he was " sacrificing the future to the pre sent." During his residence, his uncle Godwin died ; and the charge of his main tenance was assumed by Dryden — who, less wealthy than his brother had at least appeared, yet conferred his benefits with a more gracious air. The knowledge of his dependence, at the same time that it rendered SwUt bitter and reck less, made him also excessively careful of money, even to parsimony. His expenses were aU recorded with rigorous exactitude ; and that habit of caring for little sums grew upon him, which afterwards unpleasantly marked his conduct in social Use, and helped to mar the prospect of happiness for his much-loved SteUa.

It was a pity that this scrupulous care for the right bestowal of what his friends granted for Ms support, was not extended to the sphere of study and be haviour. If it had been, Swift might have escaped a cruel mortification, his memory a stain of discredit which his genius ought to have avoided. For he was refused his degree of Bachelor of Arts, for " dulness and insufficiency," to use his own words; and when he at last obtained the distinction, in 1685-86, it was conferred speciali gratia — that is, as an honour unmerited by the recipient, and THE LIFE OF SWIFI. bestowed out of the mere generosity of the university. This stigma, as it was only natural to expect, but made more bitter Swift's disappointment with Use, and impelled him to commit yet more marked breaches of college decorum and discip- Une.

No fewer than seventy penalties for irregularity were imposed upon him by the university authorities, between November 1685 and October 1687 ; in March 1688, he and several other refractory spirits received a public admonition for their offences ; and at last, in November of the same year, Swift's degree was suspended, and he was called upon to make a public apology to the Junior Dean, (Lloyd,) whom he had insulted. It does not plainly appear that Swift's unhappy career at college had dis heartened or offended his uncle Dryden ; but the step which Jonathan now took might allow of the inference that such had been the result. After the outbreak of the revolutionary war in Ireland, at the close of 1688, Swift quitted Dublin Uni versity for England. He was then in his twenty-first year; and he left his uncon genial Alma Mater without repute for learning or steadiness of character, without funds, friends, or prospects.

In this sorry plight, with what anguish of soul may well be conceived, he presented himself at his mother's house in Leicestershire, weary with foot-travel. His mother's pecuniary circumstances were not such as enabled her to give her son any direct assistance. But the lady of Sir William Temple was a relative of Mrs Swift's, and had been well acquainted with all the family ; and from his mother Jonathan received the counsel to seek Temple's patronage. That counsel, it is said, coincided with the determination which Swift had formed before leaving Ireland. The appUcation was made, and succeeded; and the embittered and disgraced student took up his residence with the accom phshed and learned statesman, at Sheen. The benevolence of Sir William's intentions need not be doubted ; but he does not seem to have taken kindly to his young companion, whose manners and temper were far from being those of a man of the world.

Swift, however, gradually forced himseU upon his patron's estima tion, by his endeavours to please, and his sedulous attention to study. Ei«ht strenuous hours each day were devoted to repairing the defects of his colle°-e course ; and this continued during the five years of his first residence with Temple — excepting in so far as his studies were interrupted by the disease which afflicted all his life, and at the last deplorably impaired his faculties. The generally accepted account of this affection is, that it arose from a surfeit of stone-fruit bringing on vertigo and coldness of the stomach, which at the time brought him almost to the brink of death ; and, although Swift's enemies traced the illness to abuse of his powers while he was spending a reckless lUe at college, there is no evidence that the first is not the correct explanation — as it is the more charitable.

As time wore on, Swift won not only the respect, but the confidence, of Temple • and when the patron was confined to bed by gout, it sometimes fell to the lot of the humble companion to receive William III., when he came to take advice on important State affairs, from Sir William, whom he had famdiarly known and greatly esteemed during his residence as Ambassador at the Hague. Swift used to attend the King in his walks about the Sheen gardens ; and his Majesty con descended to converse in considerable famUiarity with his companion. He taught him how to cut asparagus in the Dutch fashion, and eat it economically " with the stalks ; " and once he offered to make Swift a captain of horse — a proposal eminently characteristic of WUliam's engrossing military predilections. Swift, naturally, declined this offer — for his mind seems to have been already set upon the Church ; and it is inferred, from an expression in one of his letters, that the King altered the offer so as to suit the young man's clerical incUnations.

After Sir William Temple's health became more infirm, and he retired to Moor Park, in Surrey, Swift was sent to Kensington Palace, to present to the King reasons why he should not urge his opposition to the bid for introducing triennial ParUa ments. The written arguments of his patron, and Swtft's enforcement of them from his own historical reading, however, failed to shake the royal resolve. The bill was rejected ; and Swift laid the lesson of his miscarriage to heart, telUng his friends that his first entrance on the stage of politics had been so mortifying to him, that it had helped to cure him of vanity. He had undertaken, during his first residence with Sir WUliam Temple, a short journey to Ireland for his health, but without much advantage ; indeed, his studies at this time appear to have been so severe, that no merely temporary relaxation could avail to prevent his disorder becoming confirmed.

His unfortunate career at Dublin University, and the stigma attached to his name there, might naturally render him desirous to wash out the memory of tho past by a more brilliant re-entrance upon the field of learning. In 1692, he went to Oxford, with the purpose of taking his degree of Master of Arts. Entering Harts-Hall on the 14th June, on the 5th July he was admitted to the degree ; and in the university he received many attentions, for which it has been sought to account on the ground that the damaging words special! gratia in his DubUn diploma were misinterpreted as a compliment. It is most improbable, however, that the English university knew so little of the ways of her Irish sister, as to mistake the true import of a phrase like this. It appears, on the contrary, that Swift feared the effect of the phrase at Oxford, and found means to procure its omission in the copy of the diploma necessarily sent over there ; and it was surely sufficient that Swift had become the intimate companion of Temple — and therefore known and esteemed by men of mark and learning who resorted to his patron's house — to secure for him a good reception at Oxford.

Certain it is, that Swift always professed warm gratitude and attachment to that university. On several occasions he compliments its members; and in the "Journal to Stella" he indicates that he had been most cordially received by the " Christ-Church wits," »mong whom Boyle and Atterbury were conspicuous. On the other hand, Swift never felt otherwise than harshly towards his native university, of which he bitterly said that he " was ashamed to be more obUged in a few weeks to strangers, than in seven years to Dublin College." During his residence with Sir W. Temple, however, he had done so much to atone for the errors of his Dublin career, that the comparison was unfair ; since Oxford did not do him justice, until he had done justice to himself. He read much, wrote much, and learned much ; he had begun to court the poetic Muse, especially in his Pindaric Odes after the manner of Cowley — one of which called forth the cruel but just prediction from Dryden, that the writer would never be a poet ; and the " Tale of a Tub," the outline of which was undoubtedly drawn during his wilder Dublin days, received many touches of that wonderful research and learning which abound throughout it.

As yet, Swift had given nothing to the world. The relations between patron and protege became gradually colder and more distrustful, after the return of the latter from his flattering stay at Oxford. Swift felt his dependence more keenly, as he saw his value to his patron, and his reputation in the lettered world, increase ; and he blamed Sir WilUam on account of the delay in providing for him, which he ascribed to the selfish desire to retain his com panionship and literary aid. Temple, on his part, regarded Swift's impatience as a proof of ingratitude, and offered him a smaU post in the Rolls Office in Ireland. Swift, however, decUned the stingy provision so coldly offered. Since he was now reUeved, he said, from the imputation that he had entered the Church only for a maintenance, he would go to Ireland, and take holy orders.

So the two parted in mutual displeasure ; and Swift, after another foot-journey to Leicester, and a short stay with his mother, proceeded to Ireland. There, after some delay, caused by his reluctance to ask Sir W. Temple for a certificate of conduct during the five years' residence with him, Swift was admitted to deacon's orders, in October 1694, and to priest's orders, in January 1694-5. The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Capel, had, probably by the influence of Temple, been interested in his behalf ; and he obtained immediately the prebend of Kilroot, in the diocese of Connor, worth £100 a year — to which he retired, only for a short time. For Sir William Temple speedily became aware that he had lost a most valuable, nay, an absolutely indispensable companion ; while Swift as speedily became weary of the comparative solitude, and dull, rude society of KUroot.

The haughty young man is said to have still hesitated between pride and friendship, when he was induced, by a sudden impulse of compassion and generosity, to resign his benefice in favour of an old, poor, and worthy curate whom he encountered in one of his walks. At all events, the overtures of Sir William for a reconciliation were successful. Swift returned to Moor Park, nominally as confidential secretary, but really as an esteemed and trusted friend ; and during the four years that remained of Sir WilUam's life, the most cordial good understanding and the sincerest friendship subsisted between them. So genuine was the devotion of Swift to his patron, that, as he tells us himself, he felt unhappy for days if he but received a cold look; and when Sir William died, in January 1698-9, Swift closes a journal of his Ulness by the testimony that " with him died all that was good and amiable among men."