fa, in the 44th year of her age, regretted by the Dean, with fuch excefs of affection, as the keeneft fenfibility only could feel, and the most excellent character excite; fhe had been declining from the year 1724. Stella. was a most amiable woman, both in perfon and mind. Her ftature was tall, her hair and eyes black, her complexion fairand delicate, her features regular, foft, and animated, her shape easy and elegant, and her manner feminine, polite, and graceful: There was natural mufic in her voice, and complacency in her afpect: she abounded with wit, which was always accompanied with good nature; her virtue was founded upon humanity, and her religion upon reafon; her morals were uniform, but not rigid, and her devotion was habitual, but not oftentatious. "Why "the Dean did not fooner marry this moft "excellent perfon; why he married her at "all; why his marriage was fo cautiously "concealed; and why he was never known " to meet her but in the presence of a third perfon, are inquiries which no man can "anfwer," fays the writer of his life, "with"out abfurdity." Nor fo far at least, if not fomething farther, we think, may be anfwered, and without abfurdity too. "He did 66 "not marry her fooner," we fay, because his original intention was not to marry her at all: he never fuffered his behaviour towards females to exceed the limits of Platonic love; and the innocence of his commerce with Va neffa much retired, and the aufterity of his temper increased: he could not enjoy his public days; thefe entertainments were therefore difcontinued, and he fometimes avoided the company of his moft intimate friends: but in time he grew more defirous of company. In 1732, he complains, in a letter to Mr. Gay, that "he had a large house, and should "hardly find one vifitor, if he was not able " to hire him with a bottle of wine:" and in another to Mr. Pope, that " he was in dan་་ ger of dying poor and friendless, even his "female friends having forfaken him; which," as he fays, "vexed him moft." These complaints were afterwards repeated in a ftrain of yet greater fenfibility and felf-pity: "All my friends have forfaken me:" Vertiginofus, inofs, furdus, male gratus "Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, As he lived much in folitude, he frequent ly amufed himself with writing, and it is ve ry remarkable, that although his mind was greatly depreffed, and his principal enjoyment at an end when Mifs Johnson died, yet there is an air of levity and triting in fome of the pieces he wrote afterwards, that is not to be found. in any other: fuch in particular are his directions to fervants, and feveral of his letters to nis friend Dr. Sheridan. In 1733, when the attempt was made to repeal the teft act in Ireland, the diffenters often affected to call themselves Brother- proteftants, and Fellow-Chriftians, with the members of the established church. Upon this occafion the Dean wrote a fhort copy of verses*, which fo provoked one Bettefworth, a lawyer and member of the Irish parliament, that he fwore, in the hearing of many perfons, to revenge himself either by murdering or maim-. ing the author; and, for this purpose, he engaged his footman, with two ruffians, to fecure the Dean wherever he could be found. This being known, thirty of the nobility and gentry, within the liberty of St. Patrick's, waited upon the Dean in form, and prefented a paper fubfcribed with their names, in which they folemnly engaged, in behalf of themselves and the reft of the liberty, to defend his perfon and fortune, as the friend and benefactor of his country. When this paper was delivered, Swift was in bed, deaf and giddy, yet made a fhift to dictate a proper anfwert. These fits of deafness and giddiness, which *Thus at the bar that Blockhead Bettefworth, The Dean's anfwer was as follows. • Gentlemen, I receive, with great thankfulness, these many kind expreffions of your concern for my fafety, as well as 'your which were the effects of his furfeit, before he was twenty years old, became more frequent and violent in proportion as he grew into years: and in 1736, while he was writing a fatire on the Irish parliament, which he called The Legion Club, he was seized with one of thefe fits, the effects of which was fo dreadful, that he left the copy unfinished, and never afterwards attempted a compofition either in profe or verfe that required the courfe of thinking, or perhaps more than one fitting to finish. your declared refolution to defend me (as far as the laws of God and man will allow) against all murderers and ruffians, who shall attempt to enter into the liberty with any bloody and wicked defigns upon my life, my limbs, my house, or my goods. Gentlemen, my life is in the hands of God, and, whether it may be cut off by treachery, or open violence, or by the • common way of other men, as long as it continues, I fhall ever bear a grateful memory for this favour you have fhewn, beyond my expectation, and almoft exceeding my wifhes. The inhabitants of the liberty, as well as thofe of the neighbourhood, have lived with me in great amity for near twenty years; which I am confident will never diminish during my life. I am chiefly forry, that, by two cruel diforders of deat• nefs and giddinefs, which have purfued me for four months, I am not in a condition either to hear or receive you, much less to return you my molt fincere acknowledgements, which in justice and gratitude I ought to do. May God bless you and your families in this world, and make you for ever happy in the next.' From this time his memory was pe ceived gradually to decline, and his paffions to pervert his understanding; and in 1741 he was fo very bad, as to be utterly incapable of converfation. Strangers were not permitted to approach him, and his friends found it neceflary to have guardians appointed of his perfon and estate. Early in 1741, his reason was fubverted, and his rage became abfolute madness. In October his left eye fwelled to the fize of an egg, and feveral large oils broke out in his arms and body; the extreme pain of which kept him awake near a month, and, during one week, it was with difficulty that five perfons reftrained him by mere force from pulling out his own eyes. Upon the fubfiding of thefe tumours, he knew thofe about him; and appeared fo far to have recovered his understanding and temper, that there were hopes he might once more enjoy fociety. These hopes, however, were but of short duration: for, a few days afterwards, he funk into a state of total infenfibility, flept much, and could not, without great difficulty, be prevailed on to walk cross the room. This was the effect of another bodily disease, his brain being loaded with water. Mr. Stevens, an ingenious clergyman of Dublin, pronounced this to be the cafe during his illness; and upon opening his body, it appeared that he was not mittaken. After the Dean had continued filent a whole year, in this ftate of helpless idiotifm, his houfe-keeper went into his |