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croffed the fea, except from England to Ireland, was out of all poffibility of a perfonal correfpondence with Sir William Temple, till fome years after her fon's birth; who, as before obferved, was born in 1667. [O. let. 1.]

Ar about the age of fix years [1673] he was fent to the school of Kilkenny; and having continued there eight years, he was at the age of fourteen [1681] admitted into the university of Dublin, and became a ftudent in Trinity college. There he lived in perfect regularity, and obeyed the ftatutes with the utmoft exactness. But the morofenefs of his temper often rendered him very unacceptable to his companions; fo that he was little regarded, and lefs beloved: and he was so much depreffed by the difadvantages of his fituation, deriving his prefent fubfiftence merely from the precarious bounty of an uncle, and having no other object of hope but the continuance of it *, that he could not resist the temptation to neglect many neceffary objects of acade

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While Swift was at the univerfity, one day as he was looking out of his window, penfive and melancholy, his pockets being then at the lowest ebb, he fpied a mafter of a fhip gazing about in the college-courts. Lord, thought he, if that perfon fhould now be inquiring and staring about for my chamber, in order to bring me fome prefent from my coufin Willoughby Swift, what a happy creature should I be! He had scarce amufed him felf with this pleafing imagination, when behold the fhipmafter having come into his chamber, asked him if his name was Jonathan Swift? who having told him it was; Why then, faid the other, I have fomething for you that was fent to you by Mr Willoughby Swift. Whereupon he drew out of his pocket a large greafy leather bag, and poured him out all the money that it contained on the table. As this fum was greater than ever Swift had been master of at any one time before, he pushed over, without reckoning them, a good number of the filver cobs (for it was all in that specie) to the honeft failor, and defired he would accept of them for his trouble. But the failor would not touch a farthing. No, no, Master, faid he, l'fe take nothing for my trouble; I would do more than that comes to for Mr Willoughby Swift. Whereupon Mr Swift gathered up the money as faft as he could, and thrust it into his pocket: for, by the Lord Harry, faid he when relating this story, I was afraid if the money had lain much longer upon the table, he might have repented his generofity, and taken a good part of it. But from that time forward, he declared that he became a better œconomist, and never was without fome little money in his pocket. D. S. p. 54. 55.

mic study, to which he was not by nature much inclined, and apply himself wholly to books of history and poetry; by which he could, without intellectual labour, fill his mind with pleafing images, and for a while fufpend the fenfe of his condition *. The facrifice of the future to the prefent, whether it be a folly or a fault, is feldom unpunished; and Swift foon found himself in the fituation of a man who had burned his bed to warm his hands; for, at the end of four years, in the 1685, he was refused his degree of Bachelor of Arts for infufficiency, and was at last admitted speciali gratia, which is there confidered as the higheft degree of reproach and difhonour. It is (fays Lord Orrery) a kind of dishonourable degree; and the record of it, notwithstanding Dr Swift's prefent established character throughout the learned world, muft for ever remain against him in the academical register at Dublin +.

BUT upon Swift this punishment was not ineffectual. He dreaded the repetition of fuch a difgrace as the last evil that could befal him, and therefore immediately set about to prevent it as the principal bufinefs of his life. During feven years from that time he studied eight hours a day [7. R. p. 50.] and by fuch an effort of fuch a mind fo long continued, great knowledge muft neceffarily have been acquired. He commenced thefe ftudies at the univerfity in Dublin, where he continued them three years, till 1688; and during this time he also drew the first sketch of his Tale of a Tub. ‡. VOL. I.

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He held logic and metaphyfics in the utmost contempt, and fcarce confidered mathematics and natural philosophy, unless to them into ridicule. Orrery, let. 1.

+ Ambition could fcarce have met with a feverer blow. Hercules found himself fet afide for want of ftrength, or, if admitted among the wrestlers, admitted only by favour and indulgence; yet ftill he must be confcious that he was Hercules. Difappointments, the earlier they happen in life, the deeper imrpeffion they make upon the heart. Swift was full of indignation at the treatment which he had received in Ireland, and therefore refolved to purfue his ftudies at Oxford. Orrery, let. 1.

Waffendon Warren, Efq; a gentleman of fortune near Belfast. in the north of Ireland, who was chamber-fellow with Dr Swift, declared, that he then faw a copy of the Tale of a Tub in Swift's own hand-writing. D. S. p. 31.

IN 1688, when he was about twenty-one, and had been seven years at the college, his uncle Godwin was feized with a lethargy, and foon after totally deprived both of his fpeech and his memory. As by this accident Swift was left without fupport, he took a journey to Leicester, that he might confult with his mother what course of life to purfue. At this time Sir William Temple was in high reputation, and honoured with the confidence and familiarity of K. William. [D. S. p. 33. 34.]. His father, Sir John Temple, had been Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and contracted an intimate friendfhip with Godwin Swift, which continued till his death; and Sir William, who inherited his title and estate, had married a lady to whom Mrs Swift was related. therefore advised her fon to communicate his fituation to Sir William, and folicit his direction what to do. This advice, which perhaps only confirmed a refolution that Swift had fecretly taken before he left Ireland, he immediately refolved to purfue.

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SIR William received him [in 1690] with great kindnefs, and Swift's firft vifit continued two years. William had been ambassador and mediator of a general peace at Nimeguen before the revolution. In this charafter he became known to the Prince of Orange, who afterwards when King frequently vifited him at Sheen, and took his advice in affairs of the utmost importance. Sir William being then lame with the gout, Swift used to attend his Majefty in his walks about the garden; who admitted him to fuch familiarity, that he fhewed him how to cut afparagus after the Dutch manner, and once offered to make him a captain of horfe. [D. S. p. 108.] Swift appears to have fixed his mind very early upon an ecclefiaftical life; and it is therefore probable, that, upon declining this offer, he obtained a promife of preferment in the church; for in a letter to his uncle William Swift, dated in 1692, [in vol. 4. p. 197.] he fays, "I am not to take orders till "the King gives me a prebend."

SIR William becoming ftill more infirm, and withing to retire farther from London, bought an eftate at Farnham in Surrey, called Moorpark, whither he was accompanied

accompanied by Swift. About this time a bill was brought into the house for triennial parliaments; against which the King, who was a ftranger to the English conftitution, was very averfe, by the advice of fome weak people, who perfuaded the Earl of Portland, that Charles I. loft his crown and life by confenting to fuch a bill. Upon this occafion the Earl was by the King difpatched to Moorpark, for Sir William's advice; who faid much to fhew him the mistake, but without effect; and therefore he foon afterwards difpatched Swift to Kenfington, with the whole account in writing, to convince the King and the Earl how ill they were informed. Swift, though he was then very young, was yet well acquainted with the English hiftory, and gave the King a compendious account of the matter, which he amplified to the Earl. But the measure was at laft rejected; and thus ended Swift's first embaffy to court, fo much to his diffatisfaction, that he then declared it was the first incident that helped to cure him of vanity. Soon after this tranfaction he was feized with the return of a diforder which he had contracted in Ireland by eating a great quantity of fruit; and upon this occafion returned thither by the advice of his phyficians, who hoped that his native air would contribute to the recovery of his health. But from this journey he

received no benefit; and therefore in a fhort time returned to Sir William, being ever afterwards fubject to that giddinefs, which gradually increased, though with irregular intermiffions, till it terminated in total debiliof body and mind *.

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BUT he was still indefatigable in his ftudies; and to prevent the lofs of health in the acquifition of knowledge, by the want of bodily exercife, it was his conftant practice to run up an hill that was near the house and

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To this furfeit (fays Lord Orrery) I have often heard him -afcribe that giddiness in his head, which, with intermiffions fometimes of a longer, and fometimes of a shorter continuance, purfued him till it seemed to compleat its conqueft, by rendering him the exact image of one of his own Struldbruggs, a miferable spectacle, devoid of every appearance of human nature, except the outward form. [vol. 2. p. 212.]

and back again every two hours. The diftance backwards and forwards was about half a mile, and he used to run it in about fix minutes. [D. S. p. 272.] By what books his ftudies were principally directed, cannot certainly be known. But feveral copious extracts from Cyprian, Irenæus, Sleidan's Commentaries, and Padre Paolo's history of the council of Trent, were found among his papers, which appear, by memorandums in his own hand-writing, to have been made while he lived with Sir William Temple. [ D. S. p. 276.]

ABOUT a year after his return from Ireland, he thought it expedient to take his degree of Master of Arts at Ŏxford. With this view he appears to have written to his uncle William Swift, to procure and fend him the testimonium of his Bachelor's degree. With this teftimonium, which is dated May 3. 1692, he went to Oxford where having received many civilities, he was admitted ad eandem June 14. and took his Master's degree July 5. following.

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IT has been faid, that the civilities which he received at Oxford, proceeded from a misunderstanding of the phrafe fpeciali gratia, which was there fuppofed to be a compliment paid to uncommon merit. [D. S. p. 30. 44. O. let. 1.] But these words are not to be found in that copy of the teftimonium which is entered in the congregation-book at Oxford *; and not to have inferted them there, when they were thought a compliment, would have been an affront. It is therefore probable, that, by the influence of Swift's uncle, they were omitted in the copy which he procured and fent; efpecially as fome fuch favour feems to be intimated in Swift's letter to him, [in vol. 4. p. 197.] after he had received it : "I am ftill," fays he, " to thank you for your care in 66 my teftimonium; and it was to very good purpose, for "I was never more fatisfied than in the behaviour of "the

* The certificate of his degree is as follows.

Omnibus quorum intereft falutem. Nos præpofitus foclique feniores Collegii Sacro-fancta et Individua Trinitatis juxta Dublin, teftamur JONATHAN SWIFT die decimo quinto Februarii 1685 gradum Baccalaureatûs in artibus fufcepiffe, præftito prius fidelitatis erga Regiam Majeftatem juramento; quod de prædico teftimonium, subscriptis fingu

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