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known to be minutely repeated. She

was a young woman fond of literature, whom Decanus the Dean, called Cadenus by tranfpofition of the letters, took plcafure in directing and inftructing; till, from being proud of his praife, fhe grew fond of his perfon. Swift was then about forty-feven, at an age when vanity is ftrongly excited by the amorous attention of a young woman. If it be faid that Swift fhould have checked a paffion which he never meant to gratify, recourfe muft be had to that extenuation which he fo much defpifed, men are but men: perhaps however he did not at first know his own mind, and, as he reprefents himself, was undetermined. For his admiffion of her courtship, and his

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indulgence of her hopes after his marriage to Stella, no other honeft plea can be found, than that he delayed a dif agreeable difcovery from time to time, dreading the immediate burft of diftrefs, and watching for a favourable moment. She thought herfelf neglected, and died of disappointment; having ordered by her will the poem to be published, in which Cadenus had proclaimed her excellence, and confeffed his love. The effect of the publication is thus related by Delany.

"I have good reafon to believe, that they both were greatly fhocked and

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diftreffed (though it may be different"ly) upon this occafion. The Dean. "made a tour to the South of Ireland," "for

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"for about two months, at this time, to

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diffipate his thoughts, and give place "to obloquy. And Stella retired (upon "the earneft invitation of the owner) "to the house of a chearful, generous, "good-natured friend of the Dean's,

whom the alfo much loved and ho"noured. There my informer often faw "her; and, I have reafon to believe, "ufed his utmost endeavours to relieve, fupport, and amufe her, in this fad fituation.

"One little incident he told me of, "on that occafion, I think I fhall never forget. As her friend was an hofpitable, open-hearted man, well-beloved "and largely acquainted, it happened "one day that fome gentlemen dropt in

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to dinner, who were ftrangers to Stel"la's fituation; and as the poem of "Cadenus and Vanefa was then the ge"neral topic of converfation, one of "them said, Surely that Vanessa muft "be an extraordinary woman, that could "infpire the Dean to write fo finely (( upon her. Mrs. Johnfon fmiled, and "anfwered," that the thought that "point not quite fo clear; for it was "well known the Dean could write

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finely upon a broomstick."

The great acquifition of efteem and influence was made by the Draper's Letters in 1724. One Wood of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, a man enterprifing and rapacious, had, as is faid, by a prefent to the Dutchess of Munster,

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obtained a patent empowering him to coin one hundred and eighty thousand pounds of halfpence and farthings for the kingdom of Ireland, in which there was a very inconvenient and embarraffing fcarcity of copper coin; fo that it was poffible to run in debt upon the credit of a piece of money. The cook or keeper of an alehoufe could not refufe to fupply a man that had filver in his hand, and the buyer would not leave his money without change.

The project was therefore plaufible. The fcarcity, which was already great, Wood took care to make greater, by agents who gathered up the old halfpence; and was about to turn his brafs into gold, by pouring his treasures of

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