is querulous and faftidious, arrogant and malignant; he scarcely fpeaks of himfelf but with indignant lamentations, or of others but with infolent fuperiority when he is gay, and with angry contempt when he is gloomy. From the Letters that pafs between him and Pope it might be inferred that they, with Arbuthnot and Gay, had engroffed all the understanding and virtue of mankind, that their merits filled the world; or that there was no hope of more. They thew the age involved in darkness, and fhade the picture with fullen emulation.

When the Queen's death drove him into Ireland, he might be allowed to regret for a time the interception of his

views, the extinction of his hopes, and his ejection from gay fcenes, important employment, and fplendid friendships; but when time had enabled reafon to prevail over vexation, the complaints, which at firft were natural, became ridiculous because they were useless. But querulousness was now grown habitual, and he cried out when he probably had ceafed to feel. His reiterated wailings perfuaded Bolingbroke that he was really willing to quit his deanery for an Englifh parith; and Bolingbroke procured an exchange, which was rejected, and Swift ftill retained the pleasure of complaining.

The greatest difficulty that occurs, in analyfing his character, is to discover G 4

by

by what depravity of intellect he took delight in revolving ideas, from which almost every other mind fhrinks with disguft. The ideas of pleasure, even when criminal, may folicite the imagination; but what has difeafe, deformity, and filth, upon which the thoughts can be allured to dwell? Delany is willing to think that Swift's mind was not much tainted with this grofs corruption before his long vifit to Pope. He does not confider how he degrades his hero, by making him at fifty-nine the pupil of turpitude, and liable to the malignant influence of an afcendant mind. But the truth is, that Gulliver had defcribed his Taboos before the vifit, and he that had formed thofe images had nothing filthy to learn..

I have here given the character of Swift as he exhibits himfelf to my per

ception; but now let another be heard -who knew him better; Dr. Delany, after long acquaintance, defcribes him to Lord Orrery in these terms.

66

My Lord, when you confider "Swift's fingular, peculiar, and moft "variegated vein of wit, always rightly "intended (although not always. fo rightly directed), delightful in many

66

inftances, and falutary, even where it is "moft offenfive; when you confider his "ftrict truth, his fortitude in refifting "oppreffion and arbitrary power; his "fidelity in friendship, his fincere love "and zeal for religion, his uprightness in making right refolutions, and his

fteadi

"steadiness in adhering to them; his

"care of his church, its choir, its œco

166

nomy, and its income; his attention

"to all thofe that preached in his ca"thedral, in order to their amendment "in pronunciation and ftyle; as alfo "his remarkable attention to the inte"reft of his fucceffors, preferably to "his own prefent emoluments; invin"cible patriotifm, even to a country "which he did not love; his very va"rious, well-devifed, well-judged, and "extenfive charities, throughout his "life, and his whole fortune (to say "nothing of his wife's) conveyed to the "fame chriftian purposes at his death; "charities from which he could enjoy

( no