plied by petition to king William for the firft vacant prebend of Canterbury or Westminster, for which the royal promise had been obtained by his late patron, whofe pofthumous works he dedicated to his majefty, to facilitate the fuccefs of this application. But is does not appear that after the death of fir William, the king took the leaft notice of mr. Swift; his pe tition and dedication were equally neglected, and aft ter a fruitless attendance at court, which probably increased the aufterity of his temper, he accepted an invitation of the earl of Berkeley, who had been ap pointed one of the lords juftices of Ireland, to attend him as chaplain and private fecretary; it might reafonably have been hoped, that although he had been disappointed of the preferment for which he follicited, yet the employment to which he was invited would have been fecure; but it happened, that after he had acted as fecretary during the whole journey to Dublin, one Bufb found means to infinuate to lord Berkeley, that the poft of fecretary was not fit for a clergyman, and his lordship suffered himself to be so easily convinced of this impropriety, that after making fome apology to mr. Swift, he appointed Bufb fecretary in his ftead.

This disappointment was foon after followed by another; it happened that the deanery of Derry became vacant, and it was the earl of Berkeley's turn to difpofe of it; yet whatever attonement was due to Swift for his lordship's late breach of engagement, the fecretary having received a bribe, the deanery was given to another upon pretence that Swift who was then more than thirty years old was too young, and he received instead of it the two livings of Laracor and Rathbeggin in the diocese of Meath, which together did not amount to half the value of the deanery.

• As Swift did not receive thefe livings till after the deanery was given to another, his

non-refidence could not, as lord Orrery fuppofes, be the reafon why it was not given to him.

As

fect. xxvii.

41.

R. 40%

As Swift had refused a commiffion under king William and a fecular employment under fir Sketch, William Temple, it appears that his attachment to a religious life; however early and however strong, was not the effect of temporary views but of zeal for the fuccefs of the great work in which he was about to engage, and a confcioufnefs of his own ability to acquit himself with advantage. That religious purposes were at this time predominant in his mind he used frequently to declare; he hoped, he faid, that by diligent and conftant application he fhould fo far excel that the fexton might fometimes be asked on a Sunday morning, Pray does the doctor preach to-day'? and when after having taken poffeffion of his livings he went to refide at Laracor, he gave public notice that he would read prayers on every Wednesday and Friday, a labour which he would not have brought upon himself if he had been principally concerned about the value of his dues which had been long before customarily paid for much lefs fervice.

The duties of the church which he thus rendered more frequent, he performed with the utmost punctuality and the most rational devotion; he was indeed devout, not only in his public and folemn addreffes to God, but in that tranfient Act of adoration, which is called faying grace, and which generally confifts only in a mutter and a bow, in which the fpeaker appears to compliment the company and the company each other; Swift always used the feweft words that could be uttered on the occafion, but he pronounced them with an emphasis and fervor which every one around him faw and felt, and with his hands clafped in each other and lifted to his breaft; and it is hoped that those who can no otherwise emulate the character of Swift, will attempt it in this act of religious decorum, and no longer affect either to be wits or fine VOL. I. gentle

C

gentlemen by a conduct directly contrary to so great an example.

But Swift with all this piety in his heart could not refift the temptation to indulge the peculiarity of his humour when an opportunity offered, whatever might be the impropriety of time and place.

On the first Wednesday after he had fummoned his congregation at Laracor, he afcended his desk, and having fat fome time with no other auditor than his clerk Roger, he rose up and with a composure and gravity that upon this occafion was irrefiftibly ridiculous, he began, Dearly beloved Roger, the fcripture moveth you and me in fundry places, and so proceeded to the end of the fervice.

90.

During Swift's refidence at Laracor, he invited to Ireland a lady whom he has celebrated by D. S. 86, the name of Stella. With this lady he became acquainted while he lived with fir William Temple, fhe was the daughter of his fteward, whose name was Johnson, and fir William when he died left her one thousand pounds in confideration of her father's faithful fervices; at the death D. S. 85. of fir William which happened in 1699, the was in the fixteenth year of her age, and it was about two years afterwards that at Swift's invitation fhe left England, accompanied by mrs. Dingley, a lady who was fifteen years older, and whofe whole fortune though fhe was related to fir William, was D. S. 86. no more than an annuity of twenty-feven pounds. Whether Swift at this time defired the company of Stella as a wife or a friend is not certain, 'but the reafon which fhe and her companion then gave for their leaving England, was, that in Ireland

Mr. Deane Swift fays 18, but it appears by the poem on her birth-day in 1718, that the was then but 34; the Dean fays

fhe was in Ireland from 18, in his introduction to Bons Mots de Stella, Vol. XiI.

the

D. S. 86,

87.

the intereft of money was high and provifions were cheap; it appears however that other reafons were fufpected in the neighbourhood of Moorepark; for mr. Thomas Swift, the rector of Puttenham, in a letter which he wrote a few years afterwards, enquires whether Jonathan was married, or whether he had been able to refift the charms of both thofe gentlewo men who marched from Moorepark to Dublin, with a refolution to engage him. It appears too, that Swift, if he did not addrefs her himfelf, yet contrived to break off a treaty of marriage with another, by perfuading her to infift upon terms with which the gentleman could not comply. But whatever was Swift's attachment D. S. 89. to mrs. Johnson, every poffible precaution was taken to prevent fcandal; they never lived in the fame houfe; when Swift was abfent, mrs. Johnson and her friend refided at the parfonage; when he returned, they removed either to the houfe of doctor Raymond, vicar of Trim, a gentleman of great hofpitality and Swift's intimate friend, or to a lodging provided for them in the neighbourhood, neither were they ever known to meet but in the prefence of a third perfon. Swift made fres quent excurfions to Dublin and fome to London, but mrs. Jobnfon was buried in folitude and obfcurity, the was known only to a few of Swift's most intimate acquaintance, and had no female companion except mrs. Dingley.

D. S. 95.

In 1701, Swift took his doctor's degree, and in 1702, foon after the death of king William, he went to England for the first time, after his fettlement at Laracor; a journey which he frequently repeated during the reign of queen Anne. Mrs. Johnson was once alfo in England in 1705, but returned in a few months, and never afterwards croffed the channel. He foon became eminent as a writer, and in that

C 2

D. S. 9.

charaç

character at least was known to the great men in both the factions, which were diftinguifhed by the names of whig and tory; he had been educated among the whigs, but he at length attached himself to the tories, because, as he said, the whigs had renounced their old principles and received others, which their forefathers held in utter abhorrence; he did not however write any political pamphlet from the year 1701 to

Orrery, 27.

D. S. 148.

the year 1708.

But though by his frequent excurfions to England and a long abfence from his cures, he appears to have delayed the execution of his purpose to excel as a preacher, yet he used to declare that he did not re

J. R. 41, 42, 265.

nounce it till his acquaintance with Harley, nor did he ever mention his fubfequent attachment to politics without indubitable figns of penitence and regret.

It is probable that he hoped to exert himself more effectually in the church by acquiring fome other preferment, and that with this view, he was follicitous to be near the court, for before his acquaintance with lord Oxford, a bishoprick was intended for him by the queen, but archbishop Sharpe and a certain great lady having mifreprefented his principles and character, her majesty gave it to another; of this injury, however, the archbishop was afterwards

J.R. 271.

truly fenfible, expreffed great forrow for it, and defired his forgiveness.

After this difappointment it was not long before a new scene opened before him, for in 1710, being then in England, he was impowered by his grace the lord primate of Ireland to follicit the queen to exonerate the clergy of Ireland from paying the twenSeelet- tieth parts and first fruits. And upon this occafion his acquaintance with Harley commenced.

ters, Vol.

XII.

As foon as he had received the bishop's letter, inftructions,