Sunday night, though he did not understand music, to fee that the choir did not neglect their duty. [D. 3. P. 370, 1.]

As to his employment at home, he feems to have had no heart to apply himself to ftudy of any kind, but to have refigned himself wholly to fuch amufements as offered, that he might not think of his fituation, the miffortune of his friends, and the disappointment of his hope. Such at leaft is the account that he gives to Mr Gay, in his letter dated January 8. 1722-3. "I was "three years," fays he," reconciling myfelf to the ́ ́ scene and business to which fortune hath condemned me; and ftupidity was what I had recourfe to [vol. 4. P. 33.]

་

IT has been fuggefted, that the acquaintance he fell into with men of learning, made it neceffary for him about this time to review his Greek and Latin, and obtain fome acquaintance with church history. [7. R. p. 101. But furely he who had ftudied eight hours aday for seven years, or, according to Mr Deane Swift, [D. S. p. 271, 272, 276.] ten hours a-day for nine years; he who had read and extracted the fathers more than fixteen years before, had little, occafion to review his Latin and Greek, or acquaint himfelf with churchhistory, left he fhould not fuftain his character among learned men: for except it be pretended that others were able to acquire more knowledge in lefs time and with less labour, it must be allowed that Swift was likely to be always the most knowing of his company.

Lord

From the 1714, till he appeared, in 1720, a champion for Ire land against Wood's halfpence, his fpirit of politics and of patriotifm was kept almoft closely confined within his own breast. Idleness and trifles ingroffed too many of his hours; fools and fycophants too much of his converfation. However, it may be observed, that the treatment which he received after the death of Q. Anne, was almost a fufficient reafon to justify a contempt, if not an abhorrence, of the human race. He had bravely withstood all hoftile indignities during the lifetime of that princess; but when the whole army of his friends were not only routed, but taken prifoners, he dropt his fword, and retired into his fortification at Dublin, from whence he feldom ftirred beyond the limits of his own garden, unless in great indulgence to fome particular favourites. O, let. 6.

Lord Orrery fays, that he was little acquainted with the mathematics, and never confidered the fcience except as an object of ridicule *: but the author of the Obfervations affirms, on the contrary, that he had acquired confiderable mathematical knowledge; and that he had feen him more than once undertake to folve an algebraic problem by arithmetic. [J. R. p. 101.]

THE firft remarkable event of his life that occurred after his fettlement at the deanery, was his marriage to Mrs Johnfon, after a most intimate friendship of more than fixteen years. This was in the year 1716; and the ceremony was performed by Dr Afhe, then Bifhop of Clogher, to whom the Dean had been a pupil in Trinity college, Dublin t. [vol. 4. p. 14.] But whatever were the motives of this marriage, the Dean and I the Lady continued to live afterwards juft in the fame. manner as they had lived before 1. Mrs Dingley was Atill

See the notes, above, p. xiii.

+ Tho' it is admitted, that Dr Swift was married to Mrs Johnfon in 1716, yet it may be afferted with great truth, that he never had any ferious thoughts of marriage after he was one and twenty. Some time indeed before, while he was a ftrippling in the univerfity of Dublin, he had a paffion for Mifs Warren, the fifter of his chamber fellow. But whatever attachments he had to that lady, upon his going to live in England, where he applied himself clofe to politics and learning at Sir William Temple's, his paffion quick-ly fubfided, and he forgot his amour. Neither do I believe, further than common forms, that he ever paid his court, throughout his whole life, to any woman befides, in the character of a profeffed lover. D. S. p. 93, 94.-See Swift's letter to Mr Kendall, vol. 4. P: 288.

Mrs Johnfon, with regard to her manners, her virtues, her mind, and her perfon, was not undeferving to have been married to the greatest prince in Europe: but her defcent was from a fervant of Sir William Temple; and therefore he was by no means worthy to have been the acknowledged wife of Dr Swift.-If Dr Swift had acknowledged his marriage even with this improved, this adorable creature, he would, in fpite of his genius, and all the reputation he had acquired in the days of K. William and Q. Anne, have immediately funk in the efteem of the world. For among the rest of his enemies, (and these were not few), there were fome that were not unacquainted with the story of Mrs Johnson's birth and education, who, on account of fome particular difobligations they had received from the Doctor, would have been glad of an opportunity,

ftill the infeparable companion of Stella where ever she went; and the never refided at the deanery, except when the Dean was feized with violent fits of giddiness, which fometimes lafted near a month *.

TILL this time he had continued his vifits to Vaneffa; who, though she had fuffered very great pecuniary loffes, had yet preferved her reputation, and her friends: for the was vifited by many perfons of rank, character, and fortune, of both fexes; particularly Mrs Conolly, a Lady of very high reputation; Dr Berkeley, the late moft excellent Bishop of Cloyne; the late Judge Lindsay †, and the Lord Chief Justice Marley. [D. S. p. 262.] The Dean appears ftill to have preferved the character of her preceptor, to have directed her progrefs in literature, and explained and illuftrated the authors fhe had read. But foon after his marriage he visited her on another account; he went as an advocate for Mr Dean Winter,

whom

opportunity of expofing him to contempt and ridicule for the meannefs of his fpirit; and as in that cafe they would have had it full in their power, as well as strong in their inclination, they would have published and confirmed the obfcurity of Mrs Johnson's birth and education among all their acquaintance. They would have declared, among other particulars, that Mrs Johnson, when he was about ten or eleven years old, was appointed to wait upon the Doctor's fifter in the character of her little fervant, during the fummer that she spent at Moorpark in 1692. Neither can we fuppofe, that even the Doctor's fifter, with whom he had quarrelled to fuch a de-. gree as never to fee her face, on account of a match he thought greatly beneath her acceptance, [above, p. xxiv.], would have stined her indignation, or with any patience have forborn to retaliate the feverities of her brother upon his own back, when he himself had married and acknowledged a wife fo very meanly extracted, and particularly that individual person whom the defpifed and hated beyond all the inhabitants on earth. In one word, if Dr Swift, whofe ambition was not to be gratified without fome uncommon degree of admiration, had acknowledged Mrs Johnson for a wife, he would on all fides have been fo perfecuted with contempt and derifion, (as half mankind were in 1716 his professed enemies), that, unable to support himself under the burden of his affliction, he would have loft his fpirits, broken his heart, and died in a twelvemonth. And accordingly we find he had more wisdom than to acknowledge this beautiful, this accomplished woman, for his wife. D. S. p. 80, 83, 84, 85.

See vol. 4. p. 291, 292.

Sce vol. 7. p. 87, vol. 4. P. 342.

whom he took with him, a gentleman who was a profeffed admirer of Vanessa, and had made her some overtures of marriage: but though he had an eftate of near 800l. a-year, befides 300 l. a-year preferment in the church; yet Vaneffa rejected the propofal in fuch terms, as that it was never repeated. She was alfo addreffed by Dr Price, who was afterwards Archbishop of Cafhell, but without fuccefs. [D. S. p. 263. 265.] From this time the Dean's vifits were much less frequent. In the year 1717 her fifter died; and the whole remains of the family-fortune being then centered in Vaneffa, she retired to Selbridge,' a small house and estate, about twelve miles diftance from Dublin, which had been purchased by her father.

FROM this place fhe wrote frequently to the Dean, and he answered her letters. In thefe letters fhe ftill, preffed him to marry her; and in his answers he ftill rallied, and ftill avoided a pofitive denial. At length, however, fhe infifted with great ardour, and great tendernefs, upon his pofitive and immediate acceptance or refufal of her as a wife. The Dean wrote an answer, and delivered it with his own hand.

As this letter of Vaneffa's, which was written in 1723, is a demonftration that fhe was then utterly ignorant of the Dean's marriage with Stella, and as the appears to have known it almoft immediately afterwards, it is probable that the Dean's anfwer communicated the fatal fecret, which at once precluded all her hopes, and accounted for his former conduct: it is probable too, that the refentment which he felt at having it thus extorted from him, was the cause of the manner in which he delivered the letter; for having thrown it down upon her table, he hasted back to his horse, and returned immediately to Dublin. [D. S. p. 264. O. let. 9.]

THIS letter the unhappy lady did not furvive many weeks. However, fhe was fufficiently compofed to cancel a will that he had made in the Dean's favour, and to make another, in which she left her fortune, which long retirement and frugality had in a great measure restored, to her two executors, Dr Berkeley, the Bishop of Cloyne, and Mr Marshall, one of the King's ferjeants

at

.

at law, gentlemen whofe characters are excellent in the highest degree +.

SUCH was the fate of Vaneffa. And, furely, those whom pity could not reftrain from being diligent to load her memory with reproach, to conftrue appearances in the worft fenfe, to aggravate folly into vice, and distress into infamy, have not much exalted their own character, or ftrengthened their claim to the candour of others. If Vaneffa, by her fondness for the gaieties of life, encouraged by the example, and perhaps influenced by the authority of a mother, leffened her fortune at an age when few have been difcreet; it cannot be denied, that the retrieved it by prudence and œconomy, at an age when many have continued diffolute; and was frugal, after the habit of expence had made frugality difficult. If she could not fubdue a paffion which has tyrannized over the strongest and pureft minds, she does not appear to have known that it was criminal, or to have defired that it might be unlawfully gratified. She preffed a person · whom the believed fingle, to marry her. but it does not therefore follow, that the was his concubine; much lefs that she defired to be reputed fo, and was then folicitous to incur the infamy which has been fince thrown upon her. It cannot furely be believed, that the fhamelefs and reputed concubine, even of Swift, would have been vifited by ladies of credit and fashion, or folicited in marriage by two clergymen of eminence and fortune, to whom her ftory and character must have been well known. Befides, Dr Berkeley, after having carefully perused all the letters that paffed between them, which Vaneffa directed to be published, with the poem, found, that they contained nothing that could bring the leaft difgrace upon the Dean. Hers, indeed, were full of paffionate declarations of her love; his contained only compliments, excufes, apologies, and thanks for trifling prefents. There was not in either the least trace of a criminal commerce; which, if there had been any fuch, it would, in fo long an intercourse, have been extremely difficult to avoid and if the defiVOL. I.

↑ See vol. 6. p. 12. 13.

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