for his profession; he had taken his degree of Master of Arts at Oxford, in 1692; and two years afterwards, during his secession from Sir William's mansion, he entered into holy orders, and obtained, through the interest of Lord Capel, the prebend of Kilroot in Connor, of about a hundred pounds a year. This however he resigned, on his return to Moor Park, under the assurance from Sir William of future English preferment in exchange. Temple had, in fact, obtained from King William a promise of the first prebend for Swift that should be vacant at Westminster or Canterbury; but his majesty, though Swift took care to place himself in his way by attending the court, either had forgotten, or did not choose to recollect, the obligation.

Another disappointment awaited him; the Earl of Berkeley had requested his assistance as his private secretary in Ireland; but shortly after their arrival in Dublin, his lordship was persuaded by a person of the name of Bush, that a clergyman was not qualified for such a duty, and procured the office for himself. The injury arising from this circumvention did not rest here; Swift had reason to expect the deanery of Derry, which was in his lordship's gift; but the influence of the new secretary directed this preferment into another channel. The indignation of

Swift was strongly expressed on this occasion; and Lord Berkeley, conscious of the ill treatment he had undergone, and apprehensive of public exposure from his pen, presented him with the rectory of Agher, and the vicarages of Laracor and Rathbeggin, in the diocese of Meath; the united revenue of which, however, did not exceed onethird of the value of the deanery.

On the living of Laracor, Swift usually resided when in Ireland, and here he at length embraced the resolution of publishing his Tale of a Tub. This celebrated work he had commenced so early as at the age of nineteen, and during his residence at Dublin-college; he completed it whilst with Sir William Temple, and kept it by him nearly eight years in its finished state; a piece of forbearance very unusual with a young author.

This keen but humorous satire appeared anonymously in 1704, and speedily excited very considerable attention, some applauding, and some vehemently reprobating its tendency and design. The invective, however, which has been so lavishly poured upon this production, seems to have been greatly misplaced; and what is somewhat extraordinary, considering the purport of the work, the members of the church of England were its severest adversaries, and carried their resentment to such a pitch, that, some years

subsequent to its publication, our author was precluded the honours of a bishopric through the representations of Archbishop Sharpe to the Queen, on the supposed hostility of this fiction to the church. The idea could only have arisen from the occasional, and certainly, in some instances, indecent levity of the author; for the incidents of the tale form an allegory, which places in a very conspicuous light the beauty and simplicity of the established worship of this kingdom, when compared with the gorgeous superstitions of popery on the one hand, and the stern fanaticism of presbyterianism on the other.

There was a peculiarity in the character of Swift, which, both in his writings and conduct, frequently laid him open, in the eyes of common observers, to the charge of levity or even impiety; he had such a rooted abhorrence of hypocrisy, that, rather than be liable, in the smallest degree, to its imputation, he would conceal his religious feelings and habits with the most scrupulous care; and a friend has been known to have resided under his roof for six months, before he discovered that the Dean regularly read prayers to his servants morning and evening.

"To the horror he entertained of this vice," says Mr. Monck Berkeley, "must be attributed the cautious manner in which he concealed that

--

sense of religion which seems to have been early impressed on his mind. It is a certain fact, that while the power of speech remained, the Dean continued constant in the performance of his private devotions: and in proportion as his memory failed, they were gradually shortened, till at last he could only repeat the Lord's prayer. That, however, he continued to do till the power of utterance for ever ceased. This information I had from the servant who attended him. Now, an address to Heaven by one whose reason was on the wane, must have arisen from habit. Hypocrisy cannot be supposed to have influenced him, who was unmindful of the past, unconscious of the present, and indifferent to the future *."

The literary merit of the Tale of a Tub is great, and, in this respect, exceeding every thing which he afterwards produced. The style has more nerve, more imagery, and spirit, than any other portion of his works: the wit and humour are perfectly original, and supported throughout with undiminished vigour; but, it must be confessed, occasionally coarse and licentious; and the digressions exhibit erudition of no common kind, though not always applied in illustration of that side of the question on which justice and impartiality have since arranged themselves.

* Swift's Works, Nichols's edition, 1801, vol. xix, p. 222.

The reputation which accrued to Swift in consequence of this singular production being generally attributed to his pen, speedily introduced him to an intimacy with the first literary characters in the kingdom; and among these with none was he more familiar than with Addison, who, the year succeeding the publication of the Tale of a Tub, sent him a copy of his travels, in a blank leaf of which he had written the following lines:

TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT,
The most agreeable companion,
The truest friend,

And the greatest genius of his age,
This Book is presented by his
Most humble servant,

THE AUTHOR.

Though bashful, and more thau ordinarily timid n mixed society, Addison was, as we have recorded in his life, extremely pleasant and companionable with a few intimate friends; and Swift used to say of him, "that his conversation in a tête-à-tête was the most agreeable he had ever known in any one; and that, in the many hours which he passed with him in that way, neither of them ever wished for the coming in of a third person

* "

* Sheridan' Life of Swift, Nichols's edit. vol. i. p. 49.