The choice works of Dean Swift in prose and verse

Front matter

THE CHOICE WORKS OF DEAN SWIFT. DEAN SWIFT THE CHOICE JVORKS OF DEAN SWIFT IN PROSE AND VERSE. Carefully gkprtrttrt from the Original O.0iti_ns. WITH MEMOIR, PORTRAIT, AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ICont-on : CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY. 1876. CONTENTS. PAGE MEMOIR OF DEAN SWIFT ix TRAVELS INTO SEVERAL REMOTE NATIONS OF THE WORLD. IN FOUR PARTS. BY LEMUEL GULLIVER. Part I. — A Voyage to Lilliput ----- e Part II. — A Voyage to Brobdingnag - - . - 45 Part III.— A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdribb, and Japan - - - . - 89 Part IV. — A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms 129 A TALE OF A TUB i79 A FULL AND TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE FOUGHT BETWEEN THE ANCIENT AND THE MODERN BOOKS IN ST.' JAMES'S LIBRARY - - - - -254 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE MECHANICAL OPERA- TION OF THE SPIRIT IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND.

A FRAGMENT - - 272 MISCELLANIES IN PROSE. Directions to Servants ..... 289 A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, according to the Most Polite Mode and Method now used at Court, and in the Best Companies of England, In Three Dialogues. .... -325 CONTENTS, VI PACE Resolutions when I Come to be Old - - - - 392 Thoughts on Various Subjects Moral and Diverting - 392 A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding - • 402 Hints ox Good Manners ------ 4°6 Character of Dr. Sheridan .-..-.- 407 The History of the Second Solomon '- . - - 408 Of Mean and Great Figures made by Several Persons - 411 A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind - 413 A Meditation upon a Broomstick - - - - 4J7 The Beggar's Opera -_-.---- 41**-* Hints towards an Essay on Conversation - - - 422 A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet ... - 427 An Account of the Court and Empire of Japan - • 440 A Discourse to Prove the Antiquity of the English Tongue 447 The Wonderful Wonder of Wonders - 453 The Wonder of all the Wonders, that ever the World Wondered at - - - - - - - 456 MISCELLANIES IN VERSE.

Written in a Lady's Ivory Table-book .... 459 To Mrs. Biddy Flo)'d ; or, the Receipt to form a Beauty, 170S - 460 Yanbrtigh's House, built from the ruins of Whitehall that was burnt, 1703 460 The History of Vanbrugh's House, 170S .... 463 The Petition of Mrs. Frances Harris - - . 464 Epigram on Wood's Brass Money - 4-55 Toland's Invitation to Dismal, to dine with the Calf s-head Club - 467 On the Union ------- .53 A Grub-street Elegy on the Supposed Death of Partridge the Almanack Maker, 1708 - - 469 A Description of a City Shower ----- 47I On the Little House by the Churchyard of Castle-knock, 17 10 - 473 A Town Eclogue, 1710 ...... ... The Fable of Midas, 171 1 — 12 ..... 7(r Cadenus and Vanessa ---.... . -g The Faggot. Written when the Ministry were at variance - - 496 Horace, Book I. Ep.

Appendix

I. Anecdotes of the Family of Swift. A Fragment - - 666

APPENDIX.

II. On the Death of Mrs. Johnson (Steila) - - . (,r2 IN the records of distinguished men who have done honour to their country, no name has been more a mark for slander and calumny, no career has been more misunderstood and misrepresented by prejudice and party rancour, than that of Jonathan Swift. Respecting the place of his birth, the events of his college career, his residence with Sir William Temple,his relations with two beautifulandaccomplished women, the sincerity of his political and religious creed, and of his warmest personal friendships, charges and imputations have been preferred against him by successive biographers, critics, and gossip-mongers, as baseless and unfounded as they are at variance with each other. The ill-disguised contempt of Johnson, the more rancorous hatred df Jeffrey, and, later on, the brilliant but misplaced sarcasm and invective of Thackeray, have so far disguised for us the features of one of the noblest Englishmen of the last two centuries, that they have become scarcely recognizable.

The honest, if somewhat quaint, narrative of his life by Thomas Sheridan, the son of one of Swift's most cherished and talented per sonal friends, may therefore — shorn of a little of its garrulity — be reverted to with advantage, as in the main a trustworthy version of that touching and romantic story of the struggles, sorrows, and disap pointments of genius. After all however, the best commentary on Swift's life are his own letters and journals and occasional poems— and indeed, more or less, the whole body of his writings. Whoever can read these honestly and in their integrity, and can doubt the tenderness, the piety, the sincerity, * Abridged from the original Life by Sheridan, with revisions and additions. b [1667. X and the nobleness of Jonathan Swift, any more than his genius or his wit, is much to be pitied.

Swift was descended from an ancient family in Yorkshire, of no small note, and considerable property. He was of the younger branch* His grandfather, the Reverend Thomas Swift, was possessed of a good estate, and was distinguished above any man of his station in life for his attachment to Charles I. and the sufferings he underwent in support of the royal cause, by which his fortune was entirely ruined. He had ten sons, and three daughters. Five of his sons went to seek their fortune in Ireland : the fourth of whom, Jonathan, was father to the subject of this memoir. He had married Abigail Erick, a young lady descended from an ancient family of that name in Leicestershire, but with little or no fortune. He died young, in about two years after his marriage, seven months before the birth of his only son ; and as he was but just beginning the world, left his widow in very distressed circumstances.

Jonathan Swift was born on the 30th of November, 1667, in Hoey's Court, Dublin. When he was but a year old, he was, without the knowledge of his mother or relations, stolen away by his nurse, and carried to Whitehaven,-*- which place she was under necessity of visit ing, on account of the illness of a relation, from whom she expected a legacy ; and, as is usual among Irish nurses, she bore such an affection to the child that she could not think of going without him. There he continued for almost three years ; and she took such care of him, that he had learned to spell, and could read any chapter in the Bible, before he was five years old. At the age of six he was sent to the school of Kilkenny, where during the latter part of the time, and afterwards at Trinity College, he had William Congreve as a schoolfellow.

At fourteen he was admitted into the University of Dublin ; the expense of his education beuig defrayed by his uncle Godwin, the eldest of the brothers who had settled in Ireland, a lawyer of great eminence, who had made considerable sums of money, which were for the most part squandered away in idle pro jects, by means of which, soon after his nephew had entered the college, he found himself involved in great difficulties ; and being father of a * For further particulars of Swift's family, see his own account in the Ap. pendix to the present volume. t He retained his affection for Whitehaven to the last, as if it were his native place ; and when one of his friends, who had spent a little time there in 17-9 told him in the spring following that a merchant from thence, with his son and daughter, were then in Dublin, he invited them to dinner, and showed them many civilities whilst they stayed in that city. i686.]

MEMOIR OF DEAN SWIFT. XI numerous offspring by four wives, he was under a necessity of reducing the stipend allowed to his nephew for his support at the university as low as possible. The real situation of uncle Godwin's affairs not bein°' then known to the world, and as he was looked upon as much the richest of the family, Swift's other relations seemed at that time to think that their aid was not necessary ; so that he was obliged to make the best shift he could with the wretched allowance that his uncle gave him. Thus was one of the most aspiring and liberal minds in the world early checked and confined by the narrowness of his circumstances ; with this bitter aggravation to a generous spirit, that the small pittance afforded by his uncle, seemed to him, from the manner in which it was given, rather as an alms doled out for charity, than an act of benefi cence due from so near a relation, who was supposed by him, as well as by the rest of the world, to be in circumstances that might have afforded a much more liberal stipend, without prejudice to his own family.

Under this load did the spirit of Swift groan for the space of near seven years that he resided in the college of Dublin ; which made so deep an impression on him, that he never afterwards could think with patience of his uncle Godwin, nor could heartily forgive the neg lect shown him during that time by his other relations. He took his bachelor's degree in February 1685-6. The "special grace " by which it was accorded has been apparently made too much of by his biographers, who have gratuitously inferred that he entirely neglected the usual college studies, though it appears from an exami nation of one of the college rolls that this was by no means the case, to the extent surmised. He is male, it is true, in philosophy, and neg ligenter in theology ; but in Greek and Latin he is bene. He compares on the whole favourably with many other students on the list, some of whom are mediocriter in everything.

Where the classification divides Latin and Greek there is no instance of bene put to both. And more opprobrious, superlative, or emphatic terms of censure than ?na£_ and negligenter are applied to the two other subjects, in which some students are vix mediocriter ___pessime. Meanwhile, his uncle Godwin was seized with a lethargy, which rendered him incapable of business ; and then it was that the broken state of his affairs was made public. Swift now lost even the poor support that he had before ; but his uncle William supplied the place of Godwin to him, though not in a more enlarged way, which could not be expected from his circumstances, yet with so much better a grace, as somewhat lightened the burden of dependence, and engaged Swift's gratitude' afterward, who distinguished him by the title of "the best of his b — [1689.

XII relations." He had no expectation, however, of receiving anything more from him than was absolutely necessary for his support ; and his chief hopes now for anything beyond that rested in his cousin Willoughby, eldest son of his uncle Godwin, a considerable merchant at Lisbon. Nor was he disappointed in his expectations. For, soon after the account of his father's unhappy situation had reached Willoughby Swift at Lisbon, he, reflecting that his cousin Jonathan's destitute condition demanded immediate relief, sent him a present of a larger sum than ever Jonathan had been master of in his life before. This supply arrived at a critical juncture, when Swift, without a penny in his purse, was despondingly looking out of his chamber window, to gape away the time, and happened to cast his eye upon a seafaring man, who seemed to be making inquiries after somebody's chambers.

The thought immediately came into Swift's head that this might be some master of a vessel who was the bearer of a present to him from his cousin at Lisbon. He saw him enter the building with pleasing expectation, and soon after heard a rap at his door, which eagerly opening he was accosted by the sailor with, " Is your name Jonathan Swift ?" " Yes !" " Why, then, I have something for you from master Willoughby Swift of Lisbon." He then drew out a large leathern baaand poured forth the contents, which were silver cobs, upon the table. Swift, enraptured at the sight, in the first transports of his heart, pushed over a large number of them, without reckoning, to the sailor as a reward for his trouble ; but the honest tar declined taking any, saying " that he would do more than that for good master Willoughby,'1 This was the first time that Swift's disposition was tried with regard to the management of money : and he said that the reflection of his constant sufferings through the want of it, made him husband it so well, that he was never afterward without something in his purse.

Upon the breaking out of the war in Ireland, in the opening of 16S9, Swift determined to leave that kingdom, and to visit his mother at Leicester, in order to consult with her upon his future plan of life. He was then little more than two months past his twenty-first birth day. After a residence of some months with his mother, he laid before her the discomfort of his present situation, and the gloominess of his future prospects ; requesting her advice what course he should pursue. She clearly saw that her son's case required the assistance of some powerful friend. She recollected that the wife of Sir William Temple was her relation • and that there had been a long intimacy between 1689.]. MEMOIR OF DEAN SWIFT. XIII Sir John Temple, father to Sir William, and the family of the Swifts in Ireland; she knew also that a cousin of her son's had been chaplain to Sir William Temple, and had been provided for by him in the Church, on the score of family connexions.

She accordingly recom mended her son to go to Sir William, and make his case known to him. He followed his mother's advice, and soon afterwards presented him self to Sir William Temple at Sheen,* requesting his advice and assistance. Sir William was a man of too much goodness and humanity not to taka^pmpassion on a young man born an orphan, without for tune, dist^^red from his cradle, and without friends or interest to push him fonvard in life ; who at the same time had a double claim to his favour, as related by blood to a wife for whom he had the highest honour and affection ; and as the offspring of a family with whom his father had lived in the closest ties of friendship. He accordingly received him cheerfully into his house, and treated him with that hos pitable kindness which family connexions and his unfortunate situation demanded of him.

Here Swift first saw Esther Johnson, then a girl of little more than seven, whose mother was a companion and governess of Lady Giffard, Sir William Temple's sister. He became first her playmate and afterwards her instructor, and in later years her name was destined to be linked indissolubly with his. Swift, during his residence with Sir William, applied himself with great assiduity to his studies ; in which for the space of eight years he was employed, by his own account, at least eight hours a day, with but few intermissions. The first of these was occasioned by an illness, which he attributed to a surfeit of fruit, that brought on a coldness of stomach, and giddiness of head, which pursued him more or less during the remainder of his life. After two years' residence at Moor Park, his state of health was so bad that he was advised by physicians to try the effects of his native air toward restoring it.

In pursuance of this advice he revisited Ireland ; but finding him self growing worse there, he soon returned to Moor Park, where, * At the Revolution, Moor Park, which he had purchased in 1686, growing unsafe, by lying in the way of both armies, Sir William came back to the house which he had given up to his son at Sheen ; and in the end of 1689 again retired to Moor Park. On a review of these dates, it will be seen that in the two years which Swift passed with Sir William Temple, he resided first at Sheen, where he had the honour of familiarly conversing with King William ; and afterwards at Moor Park, where his majesty likewise visited Sir William. [1692. XIV MEMOIR OF DEAN SWIFT. upon the abatement of his illness, he renewed his application to his studies. It does not appear that. Sir William Temple knew anything of the value of his young guest till about this time ; and Swift himself says that it was then he began to grow into some confidence with him.

Accordingly, we find that about this period he trusted him with matters of great importance. He introduced him to King William, and suffered him to be present at some of their conferences.* He employed him in a commission of consequence to the king,t when he was unable to attend him himself, which required dexterity, and knowledge in the history of England. And above all, he consulted him constantly and employed him in the revisal and correction of his own works. In this situation Swift continued, still applying closely to his studies till the year 1692, when he went to Oxford in order to take his master's degree, to which he was admitted on the 5 th of July in that year. From Oxford he paid a visit to his mother, and then returned to Moor Park ; not with a design of continuing there, for he now wanted to enter into the world, but in expectation of getting some preferment by means of Sir William's interest with the king, which he had promised to exert in his behalf, and had already indeed obtained an assurance of that sort from his majesty.

But Swift at this time entertained some suspicion that Sir William was not so forward on the occasion as he could wish; and the reason he assigned for it was, that Sir William was apprehensive Swift would leave him, and upon some accounts he Sir William had been ambassador and mediator of a general peace at Nimeguen, before the Revolution. In this character he contracted a close intimacy with the Prince of Orange ; who, after he had ascended the English throne, frequently visited him at Sheen, and took his advice in affairs of the utmost importance. Sir William being then lame of the gout, substituted Swift to attend his majesty in his walks round the gardens ; who admitted him to such familiarity, that he showed him how to cut asparagus in the Dutch fashion; and once offered to make him a captain of horse.

But Swift appears to have' fixed his mind very early on an ecclesiastical life ; and it is therefore probable that, upon declining this office, he obtained a promise of preferment in the Church ; for in a letter to his uncle William, dated 1692, he says, " I am not to take orders till the king gives me a prebend." t It appears that Swift had access to King William's ear at other times beside that of his residence at Moor Park; for, in his letter concernincr the repeal of the Sacramental Test, written in 1708, he says thus, "I remember when I was last in England, I told the king that the highest Tories we had with us (111 Ireland) would make tolerable Whigs there (in England) " i694-] MEMOIR OF DEAN SWIFT. XV thought him a little necessary to him* Swift was indeed by this time become very necessary to a man in the decline of life, generally in an ill state of health, and often tortured with the most excruciating dis orders.

The loss of such a companion as Swift, after such a long domestic intimacy, would have been like the loss of a limb. Besides, as he seems to have had nothing so much at heart in the latter part of his life as the leaving behind him a corrected copy of all his writings, done under his own inspection, he could not bear the thought that Swift should leave him till that point was accomplished. He had already experienced the use that he was of to him in that respect, and knew that his place was not easily to be supplied. And his ill state of health occasioned the work to advance but slowly, as it was only during the most lucid intervals he applied to it. On these accounts Sir William was in no haste to procure any preferment for his young friend, to the great mortification of Swift. In this uneasy state he con tinued at Moor Park two years longer, and then, quite wearied out with fruitless expectation, he determined at all events to leave Sir William, and take his chance in the world.!

Whenhis resolution was madeknown to Sir William, the latter received it with evident marks of displeasure; but that he might seem to fulfil his promise to Swift, of making some provision for him, he coldly told him, " that since he was so impatient, it was not at that time in his power to do any thing more for him than to give him an employment then vacant in the office of the Rolls in Ireland to the value of somewhat more than a hundred pounds a year." Swift immediately replied, " that, since he had now an opportunity of living, without being driven into the Church for a maintenance, he was resolved to go to Ireland to take holy orders." To comprehend the full force of this reply, it will be necessary to know that Sir William was well acquainted with Swift's intention of going into the Church, from which he had been hitherto restrained only by a scruple of appearing to enter upon that holy office rather from motives of necessity than choice.

He saw through Sir William's design, in making him the offer of an employment which he was sure would not be accepted. With great readiness and spirit therefore, Swift made use of this circumstance, at once to show a proper resentment of the indelicacy of Sir William's behaviour toward him, and to assign an unanswerable motive for immediately carrying his long-formed resolution into action. * Thus Swift expresses himself in a letter to his uncle William, dated Moor Park, Nov. 29, 1692. t See his account of this in his letter to his cousin Deane Swift, dated June 3. I694- [1696. XVI Their parting on this occasion was not without manifest displeasure on the side of Sir William, and some degree of resentment, not ill-founded, on the part of Swift. He procured a recommendation to Lord Capel, then Lord Deputy of Ireland, from whom is uncertain, but it may be presumed, from the smallness of the provision made for him in consequence of it, that it was not a powerful one ; and, therefore, that Sir William Temple had no share in it.

He went over to Ireland, and was ordained in September, 1694, being then almost twenty-seven years old. Soon after this, Lord Capel gave him the prebend of Kilroot in the diocese of Connor, worth about a hundred pounds a year. To this place Swift immediately repaired, in order to reside there and discharge the duties of his office. He now for the first time enjoyed the sweets of independence ; but these sweets were not of long duration, as he soon saw that the scene of his independence could not possibly afford him any other satisfaction in life. He found himself situated in an obscure corner of an obscure country, ill accommodated with the conveniencies of life, without a friend, a companion, or any conversation that he could relish. But still the spirit of Swift so far prized liberty above all other blessings, that, had he had no other alternative, he would certainly have preferred that uncomfortable situation to any state of dependance.

But he now began to feel his own strength, and, conscious of his powers, could not conceive they were meant for so narrow a sphere as that of a small country living. He felt an irresistible impulse once more to launch into the world, and make his way to a station more suited to his disposition. In this temper of mind, he received accounts from his friends, that Sir William Temple's ill-founded resentment had subsided soon after his de parture, and that he was often heard to lament the loss of his company. Soon after, upon receiving a kind letter from Sir William himself, with an invitation to Moor Park, his resolution was at once fixed. He determined upon returning to England, and the duty was undertaken during his absence by a Mr. Winder, to whom he eventually resigned the living in 1697-8.

With about fourscore pounds in his pocket, which by his own ac fcount was all his worldly wealth at that time, Swift once more embarked for England, and arrived at Moor Park in 1696, after somewhat more than a year's absence. To all appearance he had but little bettered his condition by his journey to Ireland. He was now returned to the same state of de pendence which had before proved so irksome to him that he deter- 699-] MEMOIR OF DEAN SWIFT. XV II mined to break away from it at all hazards. But there were several circumstances which contributed to make his present state, though still dependent, of a very different nature from the former. In the first place, his situation now was not the effect of necessity or constraint, but the object of his choice. In the next, he was highly gratified with an opportunity of showing his regard and attachment to Sir William by returning voluntarily to him when it was in his power to have lived independently, though he scorned to be compelled into it from motives of necessity.

Then, by so readily complying with Sir William's request, and giving up all his visible support in order to do so, he had laid him under such an obligation as entitled him to all future favours which it might be in his power to bestow. Accordingly we find that Swift's mind being now perfectly at ease, and Sir William considering his return, with all its circumstances, in the most obliging light, they lived together to the time of Sir William's death in the most perfect har mony, and with marks of mutual confidence and esteem. In the year 1699 Sir William Temple died, leaving Swift a small legacy, and the care, trust, and advantage of publishing his posthumous writings. As he had also obtained a promise from King William that he would give Swift a prebend either of Canterbury or Westminster, he thought he had made a sufficient return for all his merits towards him, and that he left him in the high road to preferment.

Upon the death of Sir William Temple, Swift immediately removed to London ; where his first care was to discharge the trust reposed in him — that of publishing a correct editionof Sir William Temple's Works; which he effected as speedily as possible, and presented them to King William, with a short dedication Vvritten by himself as editor. He thought he could not pay a more acceptable compliment to the king, than by dedicating to him the posthumous works of a man for whom, from his earliest days, when Prince of Orange, he had professed the highest friendship and esteem ; and with whom he lived, after his arrival at the crown of England, on the most intimate footing ; frequently visiting Sir William in his retreat, after he had found his endeavours vain to draw him out of it, by the tempting offer of making him his first minister.

There was another reason, too, which must have made the publication of these works peculiarly acceptable to the king; which was, that some of the most important transactions mentioned in those writings were relative to himself ; and many personal anecdotes with regard to him were now brought to light, which could have been dis closed by no one but Sir William, and which put the character of that prince in a high point of view. On these accounts Swift thought that [1700. XVIII such a dedication was not only the politest method of reminding the king of his promise made to Sir William Temple in his behalf, but the likeliest means of having it speedily carried into execution. However, as he did not find the event answer his expectation, he applied to that monarch by memorial. But after waiting some time, he found that his memorial produced no better effect than his dedication.

He therefore readily accepted of an offer made to him by Lord Berkeley, then appointed one of the lords justices of Ireland, to attend him to that kingdom in the double capa city of chaplain and private secretary. Swift acted as secretary to Lord Berkeley till they arrived at Dublin ; when he was supplanted in that office by one Bush, who had by some means ingratiated himself with my lord ; and representing the office of secretary as an improper one for a clergyman, he was appointed in Swift's room, Lord Berkeley making the best apology to him that he could, and at the same time promising to make him amends by be stowing on him the first good church preferment that should fall in his gift. Swift was not a man to be treated in this manner with impunity.. Accordingly, he gave free scope to his resentment, in a severe copy of verses, which placed the governor and his new-made secretary in a most ridiculous point of light, and which was everywhere handed about to their no small mortification.