with his genius, this modest undertaking resulted in a vivid and life-like portrait of the great Dean. His is by far the most interesting of all the biographies, but it is not invariably accurate. The spirit of historical criticism was not as vigorous in those days as it is now. In our own time Thackeray has treated of Swift in his English Humourists; Mr. Leslie Stephen has contributed a volume to the English Men of Letters series, and Mr. John Forster commenced a biography, but died when only the first of three volumes was completed. Mr. Craik then undertook the task. His narrative is not so interesting as Scott's, but, though his attitude is, to a certain extent, that of an advocate for Swift against his detractors rather than that of a judge, his book is the most trustworthy that has appeared, and must, henceforth, be recognised as a standard work on the subject.

The career of Swift divides itself, naturally, into three parts; the first terminating with Temple's death in 1699, the second covering the period of his political activity in London, and the last his settlement in Ireland. He was born at No. 7 Hoey's Court, Dublin, on the 30th of November 1667, the second child of Jonathan Swift and Abigail Erick. His father had died in the preceding spring, leaving the young mother in no easy circumstances. When Jonathan was a year old his nurse having to go to Whitehaven to visit a sick friend, could not bear to be parted from the child and took him with her secretly. He remained at Whitehaven for nearly three years, as the perils of the voyage were not inconsiderable in those days,

and his mother feared to expose him to them by bringing him back.

Mrs. Swift and her family were to no small extent dependent on her brother-in-law, Godwin Swift, for their support, and Jonathan owed the best part of his education to the assistance given by this uncle. He was not grateful for it, whether because he felt the undue sensitiveness of a poor relation or because the aid was given ungraciously, cannot now be determined. Godwin Swift was a lawyer in excellent practice, but he ultimately lost his fortune by foolish speculations.

At

At the age of six Jonathan was sent to the Kilkenny Grammar School, and he remained there until he was fourteen. William Congreve was one of his school-fellows. fourteen he went to Trinity College, Dublin (24th April 1682). "By the ill-treatment of his nearest relatives," he says, in a fragment of autobiography which he wrote, "he was so discouraged and sunk in his spirits that he too much. neglected his academic studies, for some parts of which he had no great relish by nature, and turned himself to reading history and poetry." The consequence was he passed his B.A. degree only with difficulty. Before he reached his Master's degree his uncle failed and the supplies for his education were consequently stopped. This uncle died in 1688, insane.

Mrs. Swift had removed to Leicester, where she resided. during the remainder of her life. When war broke out in

Ireland, in 1688, Swift came to her.

She was not rich, and

could not have supported him for long; but it is not to be

supposed he would have allowed her to do so in any case. As it was, he soon found employment with Sir William Temple, a kinsman of hers. The post of clerk or secretary to which he was appointed was not a desirable one; he must have found it difficult to determine whether he was to rank as a menial or as a confidential adviser. "He read to and wrote for his patron; kept the accounts, and made himself useful as a sort of superior valet." However, the connection on these conditions did not last long. In less than a year Swift had to return to Ireland to recover his health. In the fall of 1691 he returned to England, and again settled with Temple in a capacity of greater independence and comfort.

At Temple's house Swift first met King William III., from whom for some time he expected advancement, but in vain. More important to him was his meeting with Esther Johnson (the famous Stella)—then a child of seven years, whose mother was in the service of Sir William and whose reputed father was Sir William himself. Swift was much interested in the child and troubled himself to instruct her. She grew to be a beautiful and accomplished woman, and the centre of the most mysterious as well as the most romantic episode in Swift's career.

At this time, too, with Temple's assistance, Swift secured at Oxford the Master's degree which he had failed, through his removal, to get at Dublin. He left Temple for the second time in May 1694, went to his mother at Leicester and thence to Ireland, where he entered the Church. He was ordained deacon 25th October 1694, and priest three

months later. Immediately after, Lord Capel presented him to the prebend of Kilroot, near Belfast, a living worth

£100 a-year.

affair, the lady being Miss students of Swift as Varina. On the 29th April 1696 he

Here began a small love Waring, an heiress, known to It did not amount to much. offered her marriage in a letter couched in terms too extravagant to be genuine, or at least, deeply earnest. Varina's answer is lost, but evidently, while not refusing him outright, she left the matter somewhat in suspense; inclining, it would seem, to an assent rather than to a refusal. sort of correspondence seems to have continued between them until 1700, when matters reached a climax, and Swift put a peremptory stop to the affair by writing a letter deliberately insolent.

Some

Meanwhile (May 1696) Swift had returned to England on a visit to Temple, which developed into a third settlement. The following year he resigned his living at Kilroot. England always had attractions for him, and now he was beginning to interest himself in the exciting politics of the time. This residence with Temple ended with Temple's death on the 27th of January 1688.

During the time he was with Temple, Swift had been busy with his pen. On the 11th of February 169 he wrote to the Rev. John Kendall that he had already "writ and burnt and writ again, upon all manner of subjects, more than perhaps any man in England." His first notable literary enterprise dates somewhat later. This was the Battle of the Books, written and circulated in 1697, but not

published until 1704. This important work was provoked by a controversy in which Temple had become involved with Bentley and others. The question was the relative merits of ancient and modern authors, a dispute often renewed-and trivial enough at best-in the contest between the champions of science and the champions of literature.

Swift returned to Ireland in the summer following Temple's death, and six months later was appointed to the livings of Laracor, Agher and Rathbeggan in Meath, worth altogether about £200 a-year. He had gone over to Dublin as secretary to Lord Berkeley, and even after his appointment to those livings he continued for a time to reside at the castle. Lady Berkeley had "a pious love of sermons," and used to engage Swift in the not too agreeable task of reading them to her from a ponderous volume of Boyle's Discourses. One day, to lighten his work, he wrote, strictly in the style of Boyle, a Meditation on a Broomstick, to which the good Lady Berkeley listened with delight, remarking on the singularity of the subject, but praising the discourse to her visitors. It is brief, and will bear reproduction here :—

"This single stick, which you now behold ingloriously lying in that neglected corner, I once knew in a flourishing state in a forest it was full of sap, full of leaves, and full of boughs; but now, in vain does the busy art of man pretend to vie with nature, by tying that withered bundle of twigs to its sapless trunk it is now, at best, but the reverse of what it was, a tree turned upside down, the branches on the earth, and the root in the air; it is now handled by every dirty wench,