484 LIFE and CHARACTER of Dean SWIFT. Nov.. William Temple, now fettled at Sheene near Richmond, where he had frequent opportunities of conversing with king Wilham, who then offered to make him a captain of herfe, but as he had refolved to lift himfelf under the banner of the church, and as his refolutions, during his whole life, were, like the decrees of fate, immov- A able, he declined the offer, tho' he often afterwards feemed forry to have refused it. any other of his actions. He often went in a waggon, but more frequently walked from Holyhead to Leicester, London, or any other part of England. He generally chofe to dine with waggoners, hoftlers, and perfons of that rank; and he used to lie at night in houfes where he found written over the door, Lodgings for a Penny. He delighted in fcenes of low life. The vulgar dialect was not only a fund of humour for him, but acceptable to his nature; otherwife we cannot account for the many filthy ideas, and indecent expreffions, in point of cleanliness and delicacy, to be found throughout his works. This rambling difpofition occafioned to Thus determined, he again went over to Ireland, where he took orders, and having been recommended by Sir William Temple to lord Capel, then lord deputy, he was preferred by him to the first vacancy, a prebendary, worth about 100l. a year, which he foon after refigned to a B him the lofs of the rich deanry of Derry, friend, being naturally averfe to folitude and retirement. Upon this he returned to Sheene, where he lived domeftically as ufual, till the death of Sir William Temple, who, befides a legacy in money, left to him the care and truft of publishing his pofthumous works. Thefe works Mr. Swift dedicated to king C William, but the dedicator as well as dedication were neglected by his majesty, who never took the leaft notice of him after Sir William Temple's death, nor ever performed a promife he had made, to give Mr. Swift the first vacancy that should happen among the prebends of Westminster or Canterbury; which, probably, occafioned that bitterness towards kings and courtiers, fo univerfally difperfed throughout his works. D After having long follicited for a performince of this promife in vain, he accepted of an invitation from the earl of Berkeley, (appointed one of the lords juftices in Ireland) to attend him as his chaplain and private fecretary; but the laft of thefe offices he was foon divested of by the artifice of E one Bush, whom the earl appointed fecre tary in his room. However, his lordship gave him two livings in Ireland, Laracor, worth about :col, and Rathbeggan, worth about Ecl. a year. At the first he went to refide, and gave publick notice, that he would read prayers on every Wednesday and Friday. Accordingly, the fubfequent Wednesday he attended in his desk, when after having fate fome time, and finding the congregation to confift only of himself and his clerk Roger, he began with great compofure and gravity, Dearly beloved Roger, the fcripture moveth you and m: in fundry places, c. and fo proceeded regularly through the whole fervice. F A ftrict refidence at Laracor, was not in G the left fuitable to his difpofition. He was perpetually making excurfions, not only to Dublin, and other parts of Ireland, but alfo into England, to fee his mother at 1.ucelier, or his friends at London. But las manner of travelling was as fingular as which became vacant and was intended for him by lord Berkeley; but Dr. King, then bishop of Derry, and afterwards archbishop of Dublin, remonstrated lo ftrongly against him on this account, that he was set aside, and another appointed. In 1701, he took his doctor's degree, but I must not omit, that whilst he was chaplain to lord Berkeley, his only fitter, by the confent and approbation of her uncles and relations, was married to a man in trade, whofe fortune, character, and fituation, were esteemed, by all her friends, fuitable for her in every respect. But, the marriage was entirely difagreeable to her brother, who grew outragious at the thoughts of being brother-in-law to a tradesman, and utterly refused all reconciliation, tho' his mother made a journey to Ireland, on purpose to bring it about. Upon queen Anne's acceffion the doctor came over to England, and foon attached himfelf openly to the tories, which was the caule of his continuing without any publick notice, except as an author, until the year 1709; when his peculiar talents of levelling his writings to the lowest, and fuftaining their dignity to the highest capa. city, recommended him to the notice of the carl of Oxford, who adopted him as a particular friend and companion; and from that time the doctor became a champion for the tory minifters, whose cause he strenu oufly maintained in pamphlets, poems, and weekly papers. It is thought, that the queen intended an English bishoprick for him, as he always moft ardently defired a fettlement in England; but by Dr. Sharpe, archbishop of York, and by a lady of the highest rank and character, he was repre fented to her majesty as a perfon who was not a christian, which he refented as long as he lived, and tho' he kept himself within fome tolerable hounds when he spoke of the queen, yet his indignation knew no limits, when he mentioned the archbishop or the lady. Thus, 1751. LIFE and CHARACTER of Dean SWIFT. 485 Thus, notwithstanding his great fervices to the ministers, he remained without any preferment, until the year 1713, when he was made dean of St. Patrick's, in Dublin, which he only look'd on as an honourable and profitable banishment; and perhaps they defigned it as fuch; for his fpirit was ever untractable: The motions of his ge- A nius were often irregolar: He affumed more the air of a patron, than of a friend; and affected rather to dictate than advife; which made them with him happily and properly promoted, at a distance. The doctor went prefently over to Ireland, to take poffeffion of his deanry, at which he had little reafon to rejoice; for upon his arrival, he found the violence of B party raging in that kingdom to the highest degree. The common people were taught to look upon him as a Jacobite, and they proceeded fo far in their deteftation, as to throw dirt and ftones at him when he paffed through the streets. The chapter of St. Patrick's, like the reft of the kingdom, received him with great reluctance: They thwarted him in every point that he propofed: He was avoided as a peftilence : He was oppofed as an invader: He was marked out as an enemy to his country. Fewer talents, and lefs firmness, must have yielded to fuch an outragious oppofition, fed contra audentior ibat; and he foon reduced to reafon and obedience his reverend bre D thren, the chapter, fo much that not one it beneath him to acknowledge as fuch the daughter of a man who had been a fervant, tho' she had been well educated, and had cool. left her by Sir William Temple, on account of her father's faithful fervices. After marriage they lived feparately as before: He at the deanry, the in lodgings on the other fide of the river Liffy; and tho they often vifited, yet nothing ever appeared beyond the limits of platonick love; fo that it would by difficult, if not impoffible, to prove they had ever been together without fome third perfon. Tho' the lovely Stella never fhewed the leaft fign of refentment, yet this treatment, probably, fat heavy on her mind for the began to decline in her health in the year 1724, and after a lingering illness expired towards the end of January, 1727-8. In all probability her death occafioned great regret, if not remorfe, to the dean; for he never afterwards mentioned her name without a figh. Thus perifhed the virtuous and patient Stella; but I must not forget a correfponCdence the dean had in his younger years with another lady, which gave birth to his poem intitled Cadenus and Vaneffa, dated in 1713. Vaneffa's real name was Efther Vanhomrigh, daughter of a Dutch merchant, who foon after the revolution was appointed one of the commiffioners of the revenue in Ireland, and died worth 160col. the whole of which, but much impaired, center'd at laft in Vaneffa, who, having paffed fome years of her youth with her mother and fifter at London, became there acquainted with Dr. Swift, and as the was herself ambitious of being efteemed a wit, The not only admired the doctor's wit, but became enamoured of his perfon, and was even proud of being reputed his concubine. The mother and two daughters having wafted a confiderable part of their fortune at London, were obliged to return to Ireland, and the mother and fifter dying at Dublin, Vaneffa retired to Selbridge, a fmall house and estate that had been purchafed by her father, within ten or twelve miles of Dublin. Here he was often vifited by the dean, and entertained hopes that he would marry her; but her patience being at last worn out, the writ him a very tender epiftle, infifting peremptorily upon his immediate acceptance, or abfolute refufal of her, as his wife. The dean carried the answer himfelf, which contained not only an abfolute refufal, but fome fevere reproaches; and throwing it down upon her table, with great paffion haftened back to his horfe. Pride, difdain, guilt, and remorfe put an end to her life, not many days after; but during this interval of horror, she was fufficiently compofed to cancel a will the had made in the dean's favour, The dean now refolved, it feems, to fet- F tle in Ireland, during the remaining part of his life; and having, while he lived with Sir William Temple, contracted a love, or rather friendship, for Mifs Johnson, the daughter of Sir William's fteward, whom he has often celebrated under the name of Stella, he was in 1716 privately married to her, by Dr. Afhe, then bishop of Clogher. G This lady, both in mind and perfon, was one of the moft amiable of her sex, and excellently well accomplished; yet notwithstanding all her perfections, the dean would never openly own her as his wife ; becaufe, perhaps, his pride made him think and 486 Count TESSIN'S Speech to the Dyet of Sweden. and to make another, by which she left her whole eftate to Dr. Berkley, now bishop of Cloyne, and Mr. Marshall, one of the king's ferjeants at law, whom she appointed executors. Nov. were directed towards power; and his chief aim was to be removed into England; but when he found himself entirely difappointed, he turned his thoughts to oppofition, and became the patron of Ireland, in which country he was born. His lordship, in another letter, talking of the abovementioned pamphlet in defence of the Irish manufactures, fays, that the pamphlet is written in the ftyle of a man, who had the good of his country nearest his heart, who faw her errors, and wished to correct them; who felt her oppreffions, and wished to relieve them; and who had a defire to rouze and awaken an indolent nation from a lethargick difpofition, that B might prove fatal to her conftitution. And in another of thefe letters his lordship obferves, that the character of being a friend to liberty, and an enemy to tyranny and oppreffion in any shape whatever, was the character which the dean aimed at, and the character which indeed he deserved, From 1714 to 1720 nothing else remarkable happened with regard to the dean; but in the year 1720, he re-affumed the cha- A racter of a political writer, and published a fmall pamphlet in defence of the Irish manufactures, which gave a turn to the popular tide in his favour, fo that he now began to be diftinguished by the title of THE DEAN; and the letters he soon after published, commonly called The Drapier's Letters, against what were called Wood's balfpence, established his character to such a degree, that he became the idol of the whole people of Ireland. In this ftate he continued, without any other remarkable incident, until he entirely loft his fenfes in the year 1742, when he was feized with an outragious fort of madnefs, which afterwards funk him into a quite speechless idiot, in which helpless fituation he dragged C out the remainder of his life to the latter end of October, 1745. From this thort sketch of the dean's life, a great part of his character will appear; but the earl of Orrery has, in his first letter, drawn it up in a concife and masterly manner, as follows: "His capacity and ftrength of mind, fays his lordship, were undoubtedly equal to any task whatever. His pride, his fpirit, or his ambition, call it by what name you please, was boundless; but his views were checked in his younger years, and the anxiety of that disappoint. ment had a vifible effect upon all his actions. He was four and fevere, but not abfolutely ill-natured. He was fociable only to particular friends, and to them only at particular hours. He knew politeness more than he practifed it. He was a mixture of avarice and generofity: The for mer was generally prevalent, the latter feldom appeared, unless excited by compaffion. He was open to adulation, and could not, or would not distinguish between low flattery and just applause. His abilities D E This will fuffice to give the reader fome idea of the life and character of the famous dean Swift; but the letters from which it is extracted ought to be read by, and cannot fail of being entertaining to, every perfon in the kingdom. At the Opening of the general Dyet of the HE more thorny the affairs of a state Tare, to much the more neceffary it is, that its governors be firmly united, and act in concert. The principal objects which the king has always had, and will ever have in view, are the honour, the fafety, and the grandeur of the Swedish nation; and his majesty is perfuaded, that on all occafions, where this invaluable treasure may be at ftake, his defcendants will tread in his fleps with an ardent and difinterested zeal. He has proposed to himself to obtain by lenity what cannot be got by force, namely, the free love of his fubjects, an entire confidence on their part, with finF cere obedience, and conftant and inviolable fidelity. He is convinced, that by means of this confidence which he defires, they will chearfully aid him to fupport the weight of government, especially in important affairs. rendered him fuperior to envy. He was The king is firmly refolved to maintain religion in its purity, to confolidate the peace fubfifting with the neighbouring powers, to provide for the neceffities of the poor out of his own favings, to place his glory in protecting his fubjects, to take advice and execute all wholefome counfels, to be kind to those who have their duty more 1751. NECESSITY of a prudent DISTRUST. more at heart than their fortune and pri- The name of father of the country is His majefly expects that the ftates here affembled will proceed in their general deliberations with perfect harmony and union; that truth and candour will be the bafis of their refolutions, and that they will make a proper ufe of their power to enact new laws, which has been committed to them by the fundamental laws of the kingdom, by the royal authority, and by the form of regency. The profperity and glory of the country, and the immunities of the nation, are to 487 ftroy perfons of honour, and lay fnares for true patriots; in fine, woe to them, who fhall favour foreigners at the expence of their country. His majesty detefts and abhors them! A new harmony, a perfect union, plenty in the kingdom, and conftant peace, will be the fruits of a new regency. The country has already a foretaste of what is to be expected from this dyet, to which his majesty wifhes all imaginable happiness, and recommends the states of the kingdom to the divine protection, affuring them of his favour and good-will. From the RAMBLER, Nov. 19. N° ONE of the axioms of wisdom which recommended the ancient fages to veneration, feems to have required lefs knowledge or penetration than the remark of Bias, that i mλéoveç xaxòi, the majority are wicked. But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorifms confifts not fo much in the expreffiCon of fome rare or abftrufe fentiment, as in the comprehenfion of fome obvious and ufeful truth in a few words. We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of action are not known, but becaufe, for a time, they are not remembered; and he may therefore be justly numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of be the fubjects of your deliberations: D Let the ftates of the kingdom caft their eyes on the tender branches of the antient ftock of their kings, and then let them confult their hearts: His majesty is convinced they will be difpofed to prepare for them an easy career and pleasant days. E The folicitude of the Swedish nation to encrease the glory of the country and pro- F cure it real advantages, will have a great influence on the young men that shall fucceed us in the posts we now hold, as we have fucceeded the preceding generation : They will redouble their efforts for the welfare of the kingdom, and then the nation will abou..d with joy and bleffings. Woe to them, who, for the fake of filthy lucre, fhall facrifice the liberties of pofterity woe to them, who shall turn the dwellings of their fathers into horrid defarts: Woe to them, who shall wreft from their countrymen the root from whence they draw their nourishment, and by intrigues, ftralagems and machinations, halt feek to de G life into fhort fentences, which may be eafily impreffed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to recur habitually to the mind, whenever occafion calls them into use. However thofe who have paffed thro half the life of man may now wonder that any should require to be cautioned against corruption, they will find, that they have themselves purchafed their conviction by many disappointments and vexations, which an earlier knowledge would have fpared them, and may fee on every fide fome intangling themselves in perplexities, and fome finking into ruin, by ignorance or neglect of the maxim of Bias. Virtue reprefented fingly to the imagination or the reafon, is fo well recommended by its own graces, and so strongly supported by arguments, that they who are yet ignorant of the force of paffion and intereft, nor ever obferved the arts of feduction, the contagion of example, the gradual defcent from one vice to another, or the infenfible depravation of the principles by loofe converfation, naturally expect to find integrity in every bofom, and veracity on every tongue. Credulity is the common failing of unexperienced virtue, and he who is fpontaneoufly fufpicious, may be justly charged with radical corruption. If he has not known 488 DESCRIPTION of BLENHEIM-HOUSE. known the prevalence of dishonesty by information, nor had time to obferve it with his own eyes, whence can he take his meafures of judgment but from himself? They therefore, who beft deserve to e fcape the fnares of artifice, are most likely to be entangled. He that endeavours to live for the good of others, must always be A expofed to the arts of them who live only for themfelves, unlefs he is taught by timely precepts the caution required in common tranfactions, and shown at a distance the pitfals of treachery. To enumerate the various motives to deceit and injury, would be to count all the defires that prevail among the fons of men; fince there is no ambition however petty, no with however abfurd, that by indulgence, will not be enabled to overpower the influence of virtue. Many there are, who openly and almoft profeffedly regulate all their conduct by their love of money, and who have no other reason for action or forbearance, for compliance or refufal, than that they hope to gain more by one than by the other. These are indeed the meaneft and cruelest of human beings, a race with whom, as with fome peftiferous animals, the whole creation feems to be at war, but who, however detested or fcorned, long continue to add heap to heap, and when they have reduced one to beggary are ftill permitted to fasten on another. Others, yet lefs rationally wicked, pafs their lives in mischief, because they cannot bear the fight of success, and mark out every man for hatred, whose fame or fortune they believe increasing. B D Nov. Priene, who enabled him to become wife without the cost of experience. Having given in our Magazine for this Month a beautiful VIEW of BLENHEIM. HOUSE, or CASTLE, at Woodflock in Oxfordshire, erected in Honour of the late victorious JOHN Duke of MARL BOROUGH, after the famous Battle of Blen heim near Hockitet; tho' we bave given an Account of it in our Magazine for January, 1749, p. 23, we think proper, on this Occafion, to add to it the foll, wing Der fcription. HE palace of Blenheim is a vast and Tmagnificent pile of building, a royal gift to the high merit of the invincible duke of Marlborough. The roof is adorned with a ftone balustrade, and a good num ber of ftatues; but there are several towers, which have a very heavy aspect : They are far from being an ornament, and seem fuch an ufelefs weight, that one would think they were intended to fink the fabrick Cbeneath the furface of the earth. A stately bridge, or rialto, leads along the grand approach to this edifice, one arch of which is above 190 feet diameter: A cascade of water falls from a lake down some stone fteps into the canal that runs under it. The lofty hall of this palace was painted by Sir James Thornhill, the ceiling by La Guerre. The rooms are finely enriched with marble chimney-pieces, and furniture, but more by the incomparable paintings and hangings; which latter reprefent the princi pal actions of the duke's life. The gallery is worthy admiration, being lined with marble pilafters, and whole pillars of one piece, fupporting a most costly and curious entablature, excellent for matter and workmanfhip, the window-frames of the fame, and a basement of black marble quite round: Before it is ftretched out a moft agreeable profpect of the fine woods beyond the great valleys. The chapel is equal to the rest. The garden is a very large plot of ground, taken out of the park, well adorned with walks, greens, espaliers, and vista's. Over the pediment of the front of the house is a curious marble bufto of Lewis XIV. bigger than the life, taken from the gate of the citadel of Tournay. The orangery is a pretty room. At the entrance into the cattle from the town, the dutchefs erected a noble triumphal arch, to the memory of the duke her husband, and fet up a vaft obelifk in the principal avenue of the park, whereon is infcribed the beft account of the duke's actions and character, that ever was penned in the fame compafs. Our readers may fee this infcription at large, in our forementioned Magazine for January, 1749, P: 24-27. Many, who have not advanced to these degrees of guilt, are yet wholly unqualified for friendship, and unable to maintain any conftant or regular courfe of kindness. E Happiness may be destroyed by union with the man, whom a wild opinion of the dignity of perfeverance, in whatever cause, difpofes to purfue every injury with unwearied and perpetual refentment, or whose vanity inclines him to confider every man as a rival in every pretenfion; with him, whofe airy negligence puts his friend's af fairs or fecrets in continual hazard, and who thinks his forgetfulness of others vindicated by his inattention to himself; or with him, whofe inconftancy ranges without any fettled rule of choice thro' varieties of friendship, and who adopts favourites and difmiffes them by the fudden impulse of caprice. F f Thus numerous are the difficulties to G which the converfe of mankind expofes us, and which can be avoided only by prudent diftruft. He therefore that, remembring this falutary maxim, learns early to withold his fondness from fair appearances, will have reafon to pay fome honours to Bias of JOUR |