wit or beauty would have compelled affection, esteem, and reverence. HER ftature was tall, her hair and eyes black, her complexion fair and delicate, her features regular, foft, and animated, her fhape eafy and elegant, and her manner feminine, polite, and graceful; there was a natural mufic in her voice, and a pleasing complacency in her aspect when she spoke. As to her wit, it was confeffed by all her acquaintance, and particularly by the Dean, that the never failed to say the best thing that was faid whenever fhe was in company, tho' her companions were usually perfons of the best understanding in the kingdom, [vol. 4. p. 295.] BUT this dangerous power was under the direction of fuch sweetness of temper, fuch general kindness, and reluctance to give pain, that she never indulged it at the expence of another. NEITHER was her wit merely of the colloquial kind.. She had great force of poetical fancy, could range her thoughts in a regular compofition, and exprefs them in correct and harmonious verfe. Of her wit in converfation some instances will be found in vol. 4. p. 295 under the name of Bons mots; and two fpecimens of her poetry are to be found in vol. 6. p. 186. 270. 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 most 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 person, are inquiries which no man can anfwer, or has attempted to answer without abfurdity, and are therefore unprofitable objects of speculation *If any one should afk, why this renunciation of marriage-rites? I fhall anfwer that question by asking another. Why did not Swift marry this adorable creature in or about the year 1702? was he not. exactly at that æra thirty-five, juft rifing into the meridian of his abilities; and Mrs Johnfon nineteen, in the full fplendor of the most attractive beauty, furrounded with every grace, and bleffed with every virtue, that could allure the affections and captivate the foul His peculiar connection with Mrs Johnson does indeed appear to have been fufpected, if not known, by his particular acquaintance: one of whom had the directly to blame his conduct feveral times, by fetting courage inbefore him the example of a clergyman of diftinguished merit, who married nearly in the fame circumstances; but, inftead of concealing his marriage, retired into thrifty lodgings till he had made a provifion for his wife, and then returned to the world, and became eminent for his hofpitality and charity. [7. R. p. 63.] THE Dean, whether moved by thefe reprefentations, or whether by any other motive, did at length earnestly defire, that the might be publicly owned as his wife: but as her health was then declining, and his economy become more fevere, she said it was too late: and infifted that they fhould continue to live as they had lived before. To this the Dean, in his turn, confented; and fuffered her to difpofe entirely of her own fortune, by her own name, to a public charity when he died. [7. R. p. 56. 288.] VOL. I. foul of the most stubborn philofopher? And without difpute, if the meanness of her birth, like an evil genius, had not stood in the way to oppofe her felicity, not all the Dr Swifts upon earth could have refifted the force of her inchantments. As the prime intention of Mrs Johnfon's going over to Ireland was to captivate the affections of Dr Swift, in all probability the fecretly hoped, from time to time, to complete her conqueft. But finding upon the Queen's demife, when all the Doctor's hopes to gratify his ambition were totally at an end, that altho' her Platonic lover had quitted the noife and tumult of a political world, and had retired, like a fober honeft clergyman, within the precincts of his deanery, he thought no more upon the subject of wedlock than he had done. for the preceding fourteen years; her fpirits might have become dejected, by her frequent revolving in her mind the oddness of her fituation. If we fuppofe this to have been the cafe, it is not unreafonable to imagine, that Swift, thoroughly and fincerely her friend, and almost her lover, was unable to endure the leaft abatement in her chearfulness and vivacity: and therefore, to raise her fpirits, and to fecure the fame of her innocence from all poffibility of reproach, refolved to gratify her with the consciousness of being his legal wife. And this indeed, or fomewhat very like it, how ftrange foever and chimerical it may found in the ears of the world, was certainly the reafon that he ever married her at all. D. S. p. 93. 94. 95. Ir appears by feveral little incidents, that Stella regretted and difapproved the Dean's conduct, and that The fometimes reproached him with unkindness; for to fuch regret and reproach he certainly alludes in the following verfes on her birth-day, in 1726. O then, whatever heaven intends, Who gladly would your fuff'rings fhare. [Vol. 6. p. 137.] IT feems indeed to be generally agreed, that Stella was deftroyed by the peculiarity of her circumftances; and that the fabrick, however weak by the delicacy of its compofition, would not have fallen fo foon, if the foundation had not been injured by the flow minings of regret and vexation. But it is alfo generally allowed, that in this inftance, as in every other, the Dean's intention was upright, tho' his judgment might be erroneous; and, whatever cenfure his behaviour to Stella may draw upon him, it muft infure him fome praife, and fecure him against fome calumny: for it is a demonftration, that he was the abfolute mafter of those paffions by which the greateft have been enslaved, and the best fometimes corrupted; and if he could abflain from gratifying these pasfions with a lady whom he moft admired, after the gratification was become lawful, he cannot, with any appearance of reafon, be fuppofed to have indulged the fame paffion where there was lefs beauty to attract, and lefs affection to urge, where it would have been attended with guilt and infamy, where the motives were lefs and the obstacles more. [above, p. lxi.] FROM the death of Stella, his life became much more retired, and the aufterity of his temper naturally increafed. He could not join in the focial chearfulness of his public days, or bear fuch an intrufion upon his own melancholy as the chearfulncfs of others. These entertainments therefore were discontinued ; and he fometimes avoided the company of his moft intimate friends friends. But when the lenient hand of time had allayed the anguish of his mind, he feems to have regretted the effects of its first violence, and to wish for the return of those whom his impatience had banished. [D. S. p. 307, 8.] In the year 1732, he complains, in a letter to Mr Gay, [vol. 4. p. 136.] that he had a large house, and should hardly find one vifitor, if he was not able to hire them with a bottle of wine. "I generally," fays he, "dine alone; and am thankful if a friend will pafs "the evening with me." He complains alfo about the fame time, in a letter to Mr Pope, that he was in danger of dying poor and friendless, even his female friends having forfaken him; which, as he fays, was what vexed him most. [vol. 4 p. 178.] Thefe complaints were afterwards repeated in a ftrain of yet greater fenfibility and felf-pity. "All my friends," fays he," have for « faken me." [vol. 4. p. 275.] Vertiginofus, inops, furdus, malé gratus amicis. To all my friends a burden grown. [vol. 7. p. 154.] YET he confeffes, that, tho' he was lefs patient in folitude, he was harder to be pleafed with company; fo that even now perhaps his behaviour did not much g 2 in * Dr Swift generally spent his time from noon till he went to bed, which was ufually about eleven o'clock, in the pleasures of converfation among a fet of companions either felect or mixed: a courfe of life in which he continued for about thirteen years after the change of times, uutil the deceafe of Mrs Johnson in 1727-8. But when he loft that companion, whofe genius he himself had been improving and cultivating for at least five and twenty years, he could no longer endure thofe pleasures and amuíements which on his public days were conducted, under the eyes and direction of his beloved Stella, with the greatest elegance and decorum. And accordingly, having facrificed to her manes thefe polite and rational entertainments, he renounced his public days, and lived during the whole remainder of his life abundantly more retired. D. §. P. 181. invite those whom before it had driven away *. [vol. 4. P. 143.] .. Tis complaint of being forfaken by his female friends, fhews, that at this time his houfe was not a constant feraglio of very virtuous women, who attended him from morning till night, as my Lord Orrery has afferted [vol. 6. p. 4.]; and it feems to imply, that the Observator is also mistaken, when he fays, that females were rarely admitted into his house, and never came but upon very particular invitations. The absence of persons whom he kept at fuch distance, and fo rarely admitted, could fcarce be fuppofed to vex him meft: nor is it eafy to conceive, in what fenfe they could be faid to forfake him, who never came but upon particular invitation. However, as to the feraglio, the Obfervator affirms, in the most folemn manner, and from frequent intercourfe with the Dean, and long intimacy with his moft intimate friends, that Lord Orrery was grofsly misinformed, and that no fuch ever fubfifted; Mrs Whiteway, a near relation, who came to live with him fome time after Stella's death, being the only female in his family, except fervants. As he lived much in folitude, he frequently amufed himfelf with writing; as appears by the dates of many. of his pieces, which are fubfequent to this time: And it is very remarkable, that altho' his mind was certainly greatly depreffed, and his principal enjoyment at an end, when Mrs Johnfon died; yet there is an air of trifling and levity in fome of the pieces which he wrote afterwards, that is not to be found in any other. Such, in partiĉular, are his directions to fervants [vol. 7.], and feveral of his letters to Dr Sheridan [vol. 4.]. As The fe feveral caufes, added to the death of fome, the difperfion of others, and the ingratitude of thofe who forfook the Doc tor's acquaintance, after they had made their fortunes under the fhelter of his patronage, gave occafion to those melancholy, those tender complaints, of that once great and admired perfon; whofe converfation, even in his latter days, after the vigour and sprightlinefs of his genius had greatly fubfided, had somewhat in it ftrangely uncommon, which was not to be remarked in the reft-of human kind. D. S. p. 309. |