Tur life, writings, and character of SWIFT, have fucceffively employed the researches, exercised the frictures, and exhaufted the praises of Mrs. Pilkington, the Earl of Orrery, Deane Swift, Efq. Dr. Delany, Dr. Hawkefworth, Dr. Johnson, and George-Monk Berkeley, Efq. Their feveral publications, which place his character in very different, and often oppofite points of light, have occafioned great diversity in the judgments formed of them by the world, according to the different degrees of prejudice or candour in their feveral readers. On an attentive perufal, it will be found, that the narrations of Lord Orrery, Dr. Hawkefworth, Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Sheridan, entitle them to the exclusive appellation of his biographers. Dr. Delany, Mr. Swift, Mr. Berkeley, and Mrs. Pilkington, come under a different defcription. The three former must be confidered as his apologifts, and the latter as a retailer of entertaining anecdotes. These are the feveral fources from which the facts ftated in the present account are chiefly derived. Some particulars of his early life are taken from the Ancidates of the Family of Swift, a fragment, written by himfelf, which now exifts in his own hand-writing, in the Univerfity Library of Dublin.

Jonathan Swift was, according to the account written by himself, the fon of Mr. Jonathan Swift, an attorney, and was born in Hoey's-Court, in the parish of St. Werburgh, Dublin, on the 30th of November, 1667. He was defcended from a younger branch of an ancient family of that name in Yorkshire. His grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Swift, was Vicar of Goodrich in Herefordshire, and married Elizabeth Dryden, aunt of the great poet, by whom he had ten fons and three or four daughters. He died in 1658; and, of his fons, fix furvived him, Godwin, Thomas, Dryden, William, Jonathan, and Adam.

Thomas was bred at Oxford, and took orders: he married the eldest daughter of Davenant, and left an only fon, Thomas, who died rector of Puttenham in Surrey, May 1752, in the 87th year of his age. Godwin ftudied the law, in the Inner-Temple, and was called to the bar before the Reftoration. He had four wives, one of whom was a relation to the old Marchionefs of Ormond; and, upon that account, the old Duke of Ormond made him his Attorney-General, in the palatinate f Tipperary. He left feveral children, who obtained eftates. William, Dryden, Jonathan, and Adam, were attorneys, who all lived and died in Ireland; but none of them left male iffue except Jonathan, the father of Swift.

Jonathan, at the age of twenty-three, married Abigail Erick, defcended 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 weeks before the birth of his only fon; and, as he was but just beginning the world, left his widow and an infant daughter to the care of his brother Godwin.

When Swift was a year old, his nurse, who was a native of Whitehaven, finding it neceflary to, vifit a fick relation, and being extremely fond of the infant, stole him on fhipboard, unknown to his mother and uncle, and carried him with her to Whitehaven, where he continued for almost three years; for, when the matter was difcovered, his mother fent orders not to hazard a fecond voyage till he fhould be better able to bear it. The nurse was so careful of him, that, before he returned, he had learned to spell, and, before he was five years old, he could read any chapter in

the Bible.

His mother, about two years after his father's death, quitted the family of his uncle Godwin, and retired to Leicester, where fhe was chiefly fupported by prefents and contributions from her relations. The infancy of Swift paffed without any marks of distinction. At the age of fix he was fent to the School of Kilkenny, and, at fourteen, admitted into the Univerfity of Dublin. The expence of his education was defrayed by his uncle Godwin, who, having a numerous offspring, by four wives, was under the neceflity of reducing his allowance as low as poffible.

His other relations feemed at that time to think that their affiftance was not neceffary, fo that he was obliged to make the best shift he could with the fmall pittance afforded by his uncle; who was fuppofed by him, as well as by the reft of the world, to be in circumstances that might have afforded a much more liberal allowance, without prejudice to his own family.

This fuppofition made fo desplan impreflion on him, that he never afterwards could think with

patience of his uncle Godwin, nor could heartily forgive the neglect shown him during that time by his other relations.

During his refidence at College, he lived with great regularity and due obfervance of the flatutes; but he was so discouraged and funk in his fpirits, by the ill treatment of his relations, that he could not bear to give the neceflary application to the more dry parts of the academic ftudies, for which he had indeed naturally no great relish; and paffed his time chiefly in reading books of hiftory and poetry, which were better fuited to his taste, and more calculated to relieve the troubles of his mind. In confequence of this, when the time came for his taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he was flopped, as he himself expreffes it, " for dulnefs and infufficiency," and at last hardly admitted, in a inanuer little to his credit, as it was inferted in the College regifter that he obtained it speciali gratia, by special favour; where it still remains upon record.

He remained in the College near three years after this difgrace, not through choice, but neceffity, little known or regarded. By fcholars he was efteemed a blockhead; and, as the lownefs of his circumftances would not permit him to keep company of an equal rank, upon an equal footing, he fcorned to affociate with the of a lower clafs, or to be obliged to thofe of a higher.

Shame, however, had its proper effect in producing reformation; for he refolved, from that time, to ftudy eight hours a-day, and he continued his industry for feven years, with what improvement is generally known.

At this time the force of his genius broke out, in the first rude draught of the Tale of a Tub, written by him at the age of nineteen, though communicated to nobody but his chamber-fellow Mr. Waryng, the brother of the lady who received his juvenile addreffes, and with whom he corref ponded with all the romantic ardour attending a first passion, under the whimsical name of Varina. Soon after, his uncle Godwin was feized with a lethargy, and the broken ftate of his affairs was made public. He now loft even the poor fupport that he had before; but his uncle William fupplied the place of Godwin to him, though not in a more liberal way, which could not be expected from his circumftances, yet with fo much better a grace as engaged his gratitude afterwards.

His coufin Willoughby Swift, eldeft fon of his uncle Godwin, hearing of his father's unhappy. circumstances, and reflecting that Swift's deftitute fituation demanded immediate relief, sent him a prefent of a larger fum than ever he had been master of before.

This was the firth time that his difpofition was tried with regard to the management of money; and he faid, that the reflection of his conftant fufferings through the want of it, made him nurfe it do well, that he was never afterwards without fome in his purfe.

In 1688, when he was about one-and-twenty, he went to confult his mother, who lived at Leicefter, about the future course of his life; and, by her direction, folicited the advice and patronage of Sir William Temple, who had married one of her relations, and whose father, Sir John Temple, Mafter of the Rolls in Ireland, had lived in great familiarity of friendship with his uncle Godwin, by whom he had been till that time maintained.

Sir William Temple, who then refided at Shene; received him cheerfully into his house, and treated him with that hofpitable kindness to which family connections and his unfortunate fituation gave him a double claint. On a nearer acquaintance, his kindness to him was increafed from motives of perfonal regard, and he took upon him the direction and fuperintendence of his ftudies, in which he found his progrefs was far from being fo great as might have been expected from his course of education and time of life.

During his refidence at Sbene, he became known to King William, who fometimes vifited Sir William Temple when he was difabled by the gout; and, being attended by Swift in the garden, showed him how to cut afparagus in the Dutch way. King William exprefled his kindness to Swift by offering to make him a Captain of Horfe; but Swift appears to have fixed his mind very early on an ecclefiaftical life; and, it is therefore probable, that, un declining this offer, he obtained a promise of preferment in the church, for, in a letter to his uncle William, dated 1692, he fays, "I am not to take orders till the King gives me a Prebend."

When Sir William Temple removed to Moor-Park, after the fettlement of the government, he took Swift with him, and detained him two years, as his friend and domeftic companion.

Being much oppreffed by an illness which he contracted in Ireland by a furfeit of fruit, that brought on a coldnefs of stomach and giddinefs, with deafnefs, he was advised to try his native air, and went to Ireland; but, finding himself growing worse there, he foen returned to

Moor-Park, where he continued his ftudies, upon the abatement of his illhefs, which, with irregular intermiffions, pursued him through life, and at last sent him to the grave deprived of reafon.

He thought exercife of great neceffity, and ufed to run up and down a hill, about half a mile from the houfe, every two hours, and the distance backwards and forwards, in about fix minutes.

He now flood high in Sir William Temple's esteem, though he had written nothing that could give him a very high idea of his genius, except the Tale of a Tub, which he revised and corrected about this time, and probably fhowed to his patron.

He tried his ftrength only in Pindaric Odes to the King, to Sir William Temple, and to the "AtheLian Society," in which, though there appeared fome vigour of mind, and efforts of an uncom mon genius, yet it was apparent that it was vigour improperly exerted, and the efforts of a genius mifapplied. The fentiments were strained and crowded, and the numbers irregular and harth. When Sir William Temple was confulted by the Earl of Portland about the expedience of complying with a bill then depending for making parlianients triennial, he fent Swift to Kensington with the whole account in writing, to convince the King and the Earl that the propofal involved nothing dangerous to royal power. But the predetermination of the king made his argumicats, and his art of difplaying them, totally ineffectual; and the mea fure was rejected

The confequence of this wrong step in his Majesly, he observes, was very unhappy; for although it be held a part of the King's prerogative to refuse palling a bill, yet the learned in the law think otherwife, from that expreffion ufed at the coronation, wherein the Prince obligeth himself to confent to all laws, quas vulgus elegerit.

In this fituation Swift continued, ftill applying clofe to his ftudies, till 1692, when he went to Oxford to take his degree of Mañer of Arts. In the teftimonial which he produced from the Univerfity of Dublin, the words of disgrace were omitted, probably by the influence of his uncle William. He was admitted ad eundem, June 14. and took his Master's degree July 5th 1692; with fuch reception and regard as fully contented him.

From Oxford he returned to Moor-Park, where he remained two years longer, in expectation of getting fome preferment through Sir William Temple's intereft with the King, which he had promifed to exert in his favour; and, in this time, he affifted him in the revifal and correction of his writings, and added the digreffions to the Tale of a Tub.

At length, quite wearied out with fruitless expectation, he determined to leave Sir William Temple, and to take his chance in the world. When this refolution was made known to Sir William, he received it with ardent marks of difpleasure; but, that he might feem to fulfil his promife, he offered hum an employment then vacant, in the office of the rolls in Ireland, of about 100 l. a-year. Swift, with great readiness and fpirit, replied, “ that fince he had now an opportunity of living without being driven into the church for a maintenance; he was refolved to go to Ireland to take holy or ders;" and fo he went away in difcontent.

While he lived at Moor-Park, he used to pay his mother at Leicester an yearly vifit. He travelled on foot, unless the violence of the weather drove him into a waggon; he dined at obfcure alehoufes, among pedlars and oftlers; and at night, he would go to a penny lodging, where he protured clean fheets for fixpence. This practice fome have afcribed to avarice, and others, perhaps with more probability, to his defire of furveying human life through all its varieties.

He went over to Ireland, and was ordained in September 1694. He had at first no higher views in the church than the Chaplainfhip to the Factory at Lifbor; but being recommended to Lord Capel, then Lord Deputy of Ireland, he obtained the Prebend of Kilroot, in the diocese of Connor, of about rool. a-year.

Soon after, upon receiving a letter from Sir William Temple, with an invitation to Moc. -Park, he refigned his living to a poor curate who had only 401. a-year, for the maintenance of a very numerous family of children, and returned to England.

The circumstances attending this act of benevolence are well defcribed by Mr. Sheridan; and the following reflection on the " exquisite pleafure" which it afforded . heart of Swift, is fingularly happy, both for the thought and the expreffion: "Nor is this to be widered at, fince it was the fuit opportunity he ever had of letting loofe that fpirit of generofity and benevolence, whose greatrefs and vigour, when pent up in his own breaft by poverty and dependence, ferved only as an evil fpirit to torment him."

The editor of the late edition of the "Tatler," has afcribed his leaving Kilroot to no les a crime than an attempt to commit a rape. This ridiculous charge is refuted by Mr. Berkeley, with a mixture of contempt and indignation which it well deferves. It has also been contradicted in the "Gentleman's Magazine," by the perfon on whofe authority it was rested; and is too palpably abfurd to be credited, even by thofe who may meet with the accufation without feeing the defence.

He arrived at Moor-Park, in 1695, with fourfcore pounds in his pocket, after fomewhat more than a year's abfence. The infirmities of Sir William Temple made him more neceffary than ever; and having, perhaps, equally repented their feparation, they lived on together with mutual fatisfaction. In the four years that paffed between his return and Sir William Temple's death, he was fully and ufefully employed. He took upon himself the office of Preceptor to his niece teaching her English, and directing her in a proper courfe of reading. At the fame time, Mifs Johnson, daughter of his fteward, afterwards fo well known by the name of Stella, partook of the benefit of the fame inftruction. She was at that time about fourteen years of age, beautiful in her person, and poffeffed of fuch fine talents as made Swift take great delight in cultivating and improving her mind. At this time too he wrote the Battle of the Books, in honour of his great and learned friend.

In 1699, Sir William Temple died, and left a legacy, with his manufcripts, to Swift; for whom he had obtained from King William a promise of the first prebend that should be vacant at Westminster or Canterbury.

Upon the death of his patron, he removed to London, and foon after dedicated to the King the pofthumous works with which he was intrufted; but neither the dedication, nor a memorial which he thought proper to prefent, revived in King William the remembrance of his promise. He attended the court a while, but foon found his folicitations hopelefs. He exonerated the King fo far as to fay often that he believed the memorial was never received.

He therefore readily accepted of an offer made to him by the Earl of Berkeley to accompany him into Ireland as his Chaplain and Private Secretary; but after having done the bufinefs of "fecretary till their arrival at Dublin, he then found that one Bush had perfuaded his Lordship that a Clergyman was not a proper fecretary, and had obtained the office for himself.

He revenged himself by a severe copy of verfes against the governor and his new made secretary, which were everywhere handed about, to their no small mortification.

Lord Berkeley had foon after the difpofal of the Deanery of Derry, and Swift expected to obtain it; but by the fecretary's being fecured by a bribe of rcool. it was bestowed on another; and Swift was difmiffed with the Rectory of Agher, and the Vicarages of Laracor and Rathbeggan, in the diocese of Meath, which, together, did not equal half the value of the deanery.

He continued ftill in his office of Chaplain to Lord Berkeley, from the refpect which he had for his Lady, whofe virtues he has celebrated in the introduction to the Project for the Advancement of Religion.

About this time, his true humorous vein in poetry began to display itself in feveral little pieces, written for the entertainment of Lord Berkeley's family, particularly that incomparable piece of low humour, called The bumble Petition of Mrs. Frances Harris, &c.

When Lord Berkeley quitted the government of Ireland, Swift went to refide on his living at Laracor, where he read prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays, and performed all the offices of his profeffion with great decency and exactness.

Soon after his fettlement at Laracor, he invited to Ireland his lovely pupil Miss Johnson, to whom Sir William Temple, in confideration of her father's faithful fervices, had left 1000 1. With her came a lady of the name of Dingley, who was related to the Temple family, and whofe whole fortune was an annuity of 27 1. With these ladies he paffed his hours of relaxation, and to them he opened his bofom; but they never refided in the fame houfe. They lived at the parfonage when he was away, and when he returned, removed to a lodging, or to the house of Dr. Raymond, a neighbouring clergyman, at Trim.

Mifs Johnfon was then eighteen, and, by his own account, had the moft and finest accomplishments of any perfon he had ever known of either fex. Yet he ftudiously avoided the appearance of any tender attachment to her, and never faw or converfed with her but in the prefence of fome third perfon.

Whatever inclination he might formerly have had to matrimony, it was now much changed. A

few years absence, and fome newly discovered faults, made him wifh to put an end to a correfpondence in the style of courtship, which had been carried on for fome time with Mifs Waryng. The circumstances of that affair are laid open in an unlover-like and dictatorial epiftle to Mifs Waryng, dated May 4. 1700, the defign of which feems evidently to have been to break off the match, but in fuch a way as that the refusal might come from the lady. The fubfequent fortunes of Mifs Waryng are not known; but it is probable Swift's connection with her might occafion the mysterious conduct he obferved towards Mifs Johnson.

Ambition, not love, was his predominant passion. Urged by this restless spirit, he every year paid a vifit to England, in hopes of finding fome favourable opportunity of diftinguishing himself, and pufhing his fortune in the world.

His first political tract, intituled A Discourse of the Contests and Diffentions in Athens and Rome, was published in 1701, at the time when the nation was in a ferment on account of the impeachment of the Earls of Portland and Orford, Lord Somers and Lord Halifax, by the Houfe of Commons. He concealed his name; nor was he, though he fided with the Whigs, at that time connected with any of the leaders of that party. His motives were wholly of a public nature, and such as became his truly difinterested and patriotic fpirit. This was the only piece he ever explicitly avowed as his own production. With refpect to all his other publications, to which he did not affix his name, he left the world to make its own conjectures with regard to the author. He maintained a kind of dignified referve, and feemed always to court that equivocal shade which "half fhowed," and " half veiled" his intentions and pursuits.

The fame year, he took the degree of Doctor in Divinity.

In 1704, he published, The Tale of a Tub, which he had kept by him eight years. Mr. Sheridan confiders it as a work truly friendly to the interefts of religion, by weakening of the powers of popery and fanaticism; but, it is certain, that most of the serious part of the clergy and the laity, even among the high-church-men, blushed for the author, and thought religion the last thing he troubled himself about. It has been afcribed by Mr. Cookfey, in his "Life of Lord Somers," to that nobleman; but he himself did not deny that he was the author, when Archbishop Sharp and the Duchefs of Somerfet, by fhowing it to the Queen, debarred him from a bishopric.

After the publication of this work, his acquaintance was much fought after by all perfons of tafte and genius. There was, particularly, a very clofe connection between him and Addison, which ended in a fincere and lafting friendship; and he lived in the greatest intimacy with Congreve, Arbuthnot, Prior, Pope, Gay, Parnell, Garth, Berkeley, and others of inferior note.

In 1708, he published The Sentiments of a Church-of-England Man, the ridicule of aftrology, under the name of Bickerstaff, the Argument against abolifting Chriflianity, and the defence of the Sacramental Teft.

In thefe publications Swift does not rife fuperior to the prejudices which agitated the contending parties of thofe days. His principles of toleration may be clearly perceived to have been inimical to a general liberty of confcience. He speaks the language of thofe days, when bigotry, under the fpecious names of zeal and orthodoxy, fhook the very pillars of the Reformation; and, while it pretended to fecure the church from danger, was undermining the beft interefts of truth, religion, and liberty.

The attention paid to the paper published under the name of Bickerflaff, induced Steele, when he projected the "Tatler," to affume an appellation which had already gained poffeffion of the reader's notice.

1709, he published a Project for the advancement of Religion, addroffed to Lady Berkeley, by whose kindness it is not unlikely that he was advanced to his benefices, but chiefly calculated for the Queen's perufal, being covertly aimed at the destruction of the Whigs or Low-church-party.

After the publication of this piece, Swift went to Ireland, where he paffed much of his time with Addifon, then Secretary to the Earl of Wharton, Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom.

Upon the change of affairs at court the following year, when the Tory ministry was appointed, Swift was employed by the bifhops of Ireland to folicit the Queen for a remiflion of the first-fruits and twentieth-parts to the Irish clergy.

He arrived in London, with his credentials, in September 1710, and waited upon Harley, to