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had contracted fome debts in their own right, which it was not in their power immediately to pay: aud therefore to avoid an arreft, they followed the Dean into Ireland .

UPON his arrival to take poffeffion of his deanery, and his return after the Queen's death, he was received, according to the account of Lord Orrery [vol. 6. p. 58. note] and Mr Deane Swift, with every poffible mark of contempt and indignation, especially by the populace, who not only reviled and curfed him, but pelted him with ftones and dirt as he paffed along the streets. [D. S. p. 178. 183.] The author of the Obfervations, on the contrary, affirms, that he was received by all ranks of men, not only with kindness, but honour; the Tories being then in full power, as well in Ireland as in England, and Swift's fervice to the church and credit at court being well known, [7. R. p. 87.] This indeed was true when he went to take poffeffion: but when he returned to his deanery, the power of the Tories and the Dean's credit at court were at an end; circumftances which might well cause the rabble at least to forget his fervices to the church. It is certain, that great clamour was then raised by the new men against the late miniftry, with whom Swift had been closely connected: they were charged with a defign to bring in the pretender; and the fame defign was confequently imputed

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After the death of her husband and fons, with this increase of wealth, and with heads and hearts elated by affluence, and unreftrained by forefight or difcretion, the widow Vanhomrigh and her two daughters quitted the luxurious foil of their native country, for the more elegant pleasures of the English court. During their refidence at London, they lived in a courfe of prodigality that ftretched itself far beyond the limits of their income, and reduced them to great diftrefs; in the midft of which the mother died, and the two daughters hastened in all fecrecy back to Ireland, beginning their journey on a Sunday, to avoid the interruption and importunities of a certain fierce kind of animals called bailiffs, who are not only fworn foes to wit and gaiety, but whose tyranny, altho' it could not have reached the deified Vanessa, might have been very fatal to Efther Vanhomrigh. Within two years after their arrival in Ireland, Mary the youngest sister died, and the small remains of the fhipwrecked fortune centered in Vanefla. 0. let. 9.See Orrery's account of Vaneffa's character, and of Swift's conduct with her, in vol. 6. p. 10. et feqq. in the notes.

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to Swift, whom it was therefore confidered by fome as a qualification for preferment to revile and oppose: which party the mob took, whofe fault it has never been to coincide implicitly with a court, pofterity must judge for themselves. But it feems probable, that these accounts, however contradictory, may both be true; and that Swift at this time might be the Sacheverel of Ireland, followed by the mob of one faction with execrations, and by the other with fhouts of applaufe *.

Ir is however agreed, that the Archbishop of Dublin, and fome of his old friends in the chapter, fet themselves against his measures with all their force, and laboured to disappoint him in the exercife of his power by every art of oppofition and delay. But whatever prejudice they had conceived agafnft him was foon removed by the difinterested integrity of his conduct, which was fo apparent and ftriking, that they foon regarded him with respect and veneration, and almost implicitly acquiefced in whatever he propofed.

THIS removal from England to Ireland was the great event which determined the colour of his life, bounded his views, and fhewed him at once what he might poffefs, and for what he might hope...

THERE is a time when every man is ftruck with a fenfe of his mortality, and feels the force of a truth to which he has confented merely from custom, without confidering its certainty or importance. This time feldom happens in the chearful fimplicity of infancy, or in the first impatience of youth, when" the world is all before us,"

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We are now no longer to behold Dr Swift of any importance in England: his hopes there are crushed for ever; his ministerial friends are degraded, banished, or imprisoned. Indecent rage, fanguinary zeal, and ill tempered loyalty, revelled at large throughout the three kingdoms, efpecially in Ireland, where duels were fought almost every week, and where the peft was fo univerfal, that the ladies were as violent as the gentlemen. Even children at fchool quarrelled for kings, inftead of fighting for apples.As Swift was known to have been attached to the Queen's laft ministry, to have written against the Whigs, and " to have oiled many a fpring which Harley moved," he met with frequent indignities from the populace, and indeed was equally abufed by perfons of all ranks and denominations. Such a treatment foured his temper, confined his acquaintance, and added bitterness to his ftyle, O. let. 6. See vol. 6. p. 58. in the notes.

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when every object has the force of novelty, and every defire of pleasure receives auxiliar ftrength from curiofity: but after the first heat of the race, when we stop to recover from our fatigue, we naturally confider the ground before us, and then perceive that at the end of the course are clouds and darkness; that the grave will foon intercept our pursuit of temporal felicity; and that, if we cannot ftretch to the goal that is beyond it, we run in vain, and spend our ftrength for nought. Great disappointments which change our general plan, and make it neceffary to enter the world as it were a second time, feldom fail to alarm us with the brevity of life, and repress our alacrity, by precluding our hopes.

THE Dean, whether by the vigour and activity of his imagination, the multitude of his ideas, or the ardour of his pursuits, efcaped the force of this thought, till his retreat to Ireland on the death of the Queen: and then indeed it came upon him with fuch influence, that, after fifteen years, it conftantly recurred when he first awaked in the morning, and was not difmiffed till he again began to fleep. [vol. 4. p. 100.]

As foon as he was fettled at Dublin, Mrs Johnson removed from the country to be near him; but they still lived in separate houses: his refidence was at the deanery, and hers in lodgings on the other fide of the river Liffy.

THE Dean kept two public days every week; and though the circle of his vifitors is faid at first to have been fmall, yet it foon increased, and always confisted of the beft company. [D. S. p. 91. 180.] Those who were more particularly the companions of his choice, were fuch as would have done honour to any character. They were the Grattons, feven brothers, the fons of Dr Gratton, a venerable and hofpitable clergyman, who them all a liberal education. The eldeft was a gave juftice of peace, and lived reputably on his patrimony in the country; another was a phyfician, and another a merchant, both eminent in their profeffions; three others were clergymen, who had a competent provifion in the church; and the youngest was fellow of Dublin college, and mafter of the great free fchool at Enniskilling. They were all perfons of great merit, as general

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ly acquainted, and as much beloved as any in the king dom. The Jack fons, a family of which both men and women were genteel, agreeable, and well bred, fuch companions as no wife man ever wanted, if they could be had; George Rochford, and Peter Ludlow, men of fortune, learning, wit, humour, and virtue; and Mr Matthew Lord, deemed the best lay fcholar of his time: Thefe, with the fellows of the college, Dr Walmefley, Dr Helfham, Dr Delany, Dr Stopford, now Bishop of Cloyne, and Dr Sheridan; Lady Euftace, Mrs Moore, Lady Betty Rochford, and Mrs Ludlow, with Mrs Johnfon, and her friends, were the persons with whom Swift fpent his leifure-hours, from the year 1714 to the year 1720, [7. R. p. 90. &c.]; a period in which it has been injuriously faid, that his choice of companions fhewed him of a depraved tafte *. There was indeed among his companions one perfon who could derive no honour from his lineage, a foundling, whom Swift therefore ufed to call Melchifedek, because Melchifedek is faid to have had neither father nor mother. This gentleman's name was Worral; he was a clergyman, a master of arts, a reader, and a vicar of his cathedral, and mafter of the fong. He was nearly of the Dean's own ftanding in the college, had good fenfe, and much humour. He was married to a woman of great sprightlinefs, good-nature, and generofity; remarkably cleanly and elegant in her perfon, in her house, and at her table. But there is another particular in Mr Worral's character which greatly contributed to his intimacy with the Dean he was a good walker. The Dean used this exercise in an immoderate degree, under the notion of its being abfolutely neceffary, not to health only, but to cleanlinefs, by keeping the pores of the fkin clear, and throwing off impurities by perfpiration. Mr Worral's fituation in the church naturally engaged his frequent attendance upon the Dean. This attendance commonly ended in a walk; and the walk in their di

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"It is matter of astonishment to find the fame perfon, who had enjoyed the highest and the best converfation, equally delighted with the loweft and the wort: and yet it is certain, that from Swift's fettlement in Dublin as Dean of St Patrick's, his choice of compánions in general fhewed him of a very depraved taffe. 0. let. 6.

ning together, either at Mr Worral's, or at the deanery. The Dean, being a fingle man, was oftner a guest to Mr Worral, than Mr Worral was a guest to him. And this brought on an agreement, that the Dean fhould dine with him whenever he would at a certain rate, and invite as many friends as he pleased upon the same terms. This gentleman is lately dead, and left a large fum of money to be difpofed of to public charities, at the dif cretion of his executors; 500 1. of which was appropriated to the Dean's hofpital. [D. S. p. 299. J. R. p. 92. vol. 4. 340, 1.]

THE Dean, when he first fettled at Dublin, was in debt; a fituation which ill fuited his fpirit, and determined him to a fevere œconomy, with which this agreement with Worral well fuited. [F. R. p. 92.] On his public days, however, the dignity of his ftation was sustained with the utmoft elegance and decorum, under the direction of Mrs Johnfon, who yet appeared in the circle without any character diftinct from the rest of the company. She was however frequently invited with the Dean, whether to entertainments, or parties of pleafures, though not fo generally as if he had been his wife. She vifited, and received vifits, as far as the practice is a mere ritual of good breeding. Her friendships feem to have been ftill among the men, but she was treated with great politeness by the ladies. [D. S. p. 92.]

THE Dean's mind had been now fo filled with politics, that he found it impracticable to excel as a preacher, his first and moft laudable ambition; and frequently declared, that though he fometimes attempted to exert himself in the pulpit, yet he could never rife higher than preaching pamphlets. [7. R. p. 42.] He was however ftill a good dean, and a good prieft: He applied himself to the care of his deanery, his cathedral, its regulations, its income and œconomy, with great diligence; he renewed the primitive practice of celebrating the holy communion every Sunday; and at this facrament he was not only conftantly prefent, but he confecrated and adminiftrated it with his own hands, in a manner equally graceful and devout; he attended at church every morning, and generally preached in his turn; he alfo conftantly attended the performance of the anthem on a Sunday

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