As he was undoubtedly much more tenderly and ftrictly connected with Stella than with any other woman, fo his friendship feems to have been more intimate and unreferved with Dr Sheridan than with any other man; his letters to him are evidently the fpontaneous effufions of his heart, whether he was chearful or fad, and feem to imply a perfect acquaintance with every peculiarity of his circumftances *.

DR Sheridan was a clergyman of confiderable partsand great learning. He had in particular an extensive and critical knowledge of the language and hiftory of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which he taught with great fuccefs in a grammar-fchool of which he was mafter; and it was remarked, that his fcholars brought to the univerfity, not only much learning, but good morals. This gentleman was by nature fuited to Swift as a companion in the highest degree. He had a vein of humour that was a conftant occafion of merriment; he had an abfence of mind, which rendered him a perpetual object of raillery, and an indolent good nature, which made him unapt to take offence; he was always difpofed to be chearful, and therefore readily concurred in the entertainment of Swift's hours of pleafantry; and could, without much pain or displeasure, give way to his petulance or his coldness, in his paroxifms of fretfulness and referve he alfo greatly contributed to Swift's amufement, by little fprightly pieces of the inferior kind of poetry which he was always writing; and yet more to his employment, by hints and materials which he was every moment throwing out.

WITH this eafy, negligent, contented creature, Swift pafed much of his time, as well during Mrs Johnson's life as afterwards. And tho' there is in general an air of fuperiority in his letters, and might be fometimes, in his behaviour, a want of that complacency which no familiarity fhould exclude; yet it appears that the Dean did not hold Sheridan cheap. Sheridan he loved for his own merit, and was content to have deserved his love by the intereft of another. Stella," fays he, "loved

g 3

66

* See his letters on Stella's fickness, and from Sir Arthur Achefon's, in vol. 4.

"loved you well; and a great share of the little merit "I have with you, is owing to her folicitations." [vol. 4. P. 244, 83, 84.]

In the year 1733, when an attempt was made to repeal the teft-act in Ireland, the diffenters often affected to call themselves brother Proteftants, and fellow Chriftians, with the members of the established church. Upon this occafion the Dean wrote a fhort copy of verfes [vol. 7. p. 29.], in which there is a paffage that fo provoked one Bettefworth, a lawyer, and member of the Irish parliament, that he fwore, in the hearing of many perfons, to revenge himfelf either by murdering or maiming the author and, for this purpose, he engaged his footman with two ruffians, to fecure the Dean whereever he could be found. As foon as this oath and attempt of Bettefworth were known, thirty of the nobility and gentry of the liberty of St Patrick's waited upon the Dean in form, and prefented a paper, fubfcribed with their names, in which they folemnly engaged, in behalf of themselves and the reft of the liberty, to defend his perfon and fortune, as the friend and benefactor of his country. [vol. 4. p.322.]

SUCH was the reverence and affection with which Swift was treated in his old age; not by domeftics or dependents, whom the hope of fome future advantage might induce to diffemble; but by perfons of rank and fortune, with whom he had no connection, but as a benefactor to the public, and who, as they had nothing future to hope, could be prompted only by gratitude for the paft; fuch gratitude as was never yet excited but by characters very different from actual mifanthropy, or fordid felfifhnefs.

WHEN this paper was delivered, Swift was in bed, giddy and deaf, having been fome time before feized with one of his fits; but he dictated an answer in which there is all the dignity of habitual pre-eminence, and all the refignation of humble piety. Though he acknowledged the kindnefs of his friends, yet he declared his trust to be in God. He bewailed his incapacity to receive and thank them, as in juftice and gratitude he ought; and concluded with a short but pathetic prayer

for

for their temporal and eternal happiness. [vol. 4, p. 322, 323.1

THESE fits of giddiness and deafness, which were the effects of his furfeit before he was twenty years old, became more frequent and more violent in proportion as he grew into years. And in 1736, while he was writing a fatire on the Irish parliament, which he called The legion-club [vol. 7. p. 45.] he was feized with one of thefe fits; the effect of which was fo dreadful, that he left the poem unfinished, and never afterwards attempted a compofition, either in verfe or profe, that required a course of thinking, or perhaps more than one fitting to finish. [vol. 4. p. 346.]

FROM this time his memory was perceived gradually to decline, and his paffions to pervert his understanding; a calamity to which many particulars seem to have concurred.

His folitude, which has been already accounted for, prevented the diverfion of his mind by converfation from brooding over his disappointments, and aggravating every injury that he had fuffered, by all the circumstances which ingenious refentment, if it does not find, is apt to create a refolution which he had taken, and to which he obftinately adhered, not to wear fpectacles, precluded the entertainment which he might otherwife have found in books; and his giddiness, though it was a mere corporal diforder, prevented the employment of his mind in compofition. In this fituation, his thoughts feem to have been confined to the contemplation of his own mifery, which he felt to be great, and which in this world he knew to be hopeless. The fenfe of his prefent condition was neceffarily complicated with regret of the paft, and with refentment both against thofe by whom he had been banished, and those who had deferted him in his exile. A fixed attention to one object, long continued, is known to destroy the balance of the mind; and it is not therefore ftrange, that Swift fhould by degrees become the victim of outrageous madness.

THAT he was weary of life, appears by many

In 1739,

in his letters and expreffions to his friends *. three years after his memory firft declined, he had been ftanding with a clergyman under a very large heay pier glass, which, just as they moved to another part of the room, fell down, and broke to pieces. The clergyman, ftruck with a fenfe of the danger from which they had efcaped, turned to Swift, and cried out, "What a mercy "it is that we moved the moment we did! for if we "had not, we should certainly have been killed." The Dean replied, that, as to himself, he was forry he had changed ground, and wifhed the glass had fallen upon him. [D. S. p. 217.]

TILL about the time of this accident, though his memory was become very defective, and his paffions more violent, yet his converfation was ftill fprightly and fenfible, but mingled with more fatire, and that fatire was more bitter. He alfo continued to correfpond by letter: with his friends in England; particularly Mr Pope, with whom he had contracted an early friendship, which continued till his death. It has been faid, that towards the end of their lives it grew cold: but the Dean, in a letter to Lord Orrery, which he wrote a fhort time before his incapacity, fays, "When you fee my dear "friend Pope, tell him, I will anfwer his letter foon ; "I love him above all the rest of mankind." [vol. 4. p. 3.1. He has alfo called Mr Pope, his dearest friend in his will [vol. 4. p. 339.]; and Mr Pope, in a letter which was written about the fame time, makes this request. “ Af"fure him [the Dean], the world has nothing in it [ "admire fo much, nothing the lofs of which I fhould "regret fo much, as his GENIUS and his VIRTUES." [vol. 4. p. 3.1

In the beginning of the year 1741, his understanding was fo much impaired, and his paffions fo much increa fed, that he was utterly incapable of conversation. Strangers

It was, for many years before the Doctor had loft his memory, a common saying of his, at the time of his parting in the evening with an intimate friend, that used to visit him twice or thrice a-week, "Well; God blefs you; good night to you; but I hope "I shall never see you again." In this manner he would frequently express the defire he had to get rid of the world, after a day spent in chearfulness, without any provocation from anger, melancholy, or disappointment. D. S. p. 217.

Strangers were not permitted to approach him, and his friends found it necefiary to have guardians appointed of his perfon and eftate. [vol. 4. P 346.]. Early in the year 1742, his reafon was wholly fubverted, and his rage became abfolute madness. The last perfon whom he knew was Mrs Whiteway; and the fight of her, when he knew her no more, threw him into fits of rage fo violent and dreadful, that fhe was forced to leave him; and the only act of kindness that remained in her power was, to call once or twice a week at the deanery, inquire after his health, and fee that proper care was taken of him. Sometimes fhe would fteal a look at him when his back was towards her, but did not dare to venture into his fight. He would neither eat nor drink while the fervant who brought him his provifions ftaid in the room: his meat which was ferved up ready cut, he would fometimes fuffer to ftand an hour on the table before he would touch it, and at last he would eat it walking; for, during this deplorable ftate of his mind, it was his conftant cuftom to walk ten hours aday. [vol. 4. p. 343.]

IN October 1742, after this frenzy had continued feveral months, his left eye fwelled to the fize of an eggs and the lid appeared to be fo much inflamed and difcoloured, that the furgeon expected it to mortify: feveral large boils alfo broke out on his arms and his body. The extreme pain of this tumour kept him waking near a month; and, during one week, it was with difficulty that five perfons kept him, by mere force, from tearing out his own eyes. [vol. 4. p. 343, 4• ! ;

IT has been obferved, that corporal pain, whether by forcing the mind from that object which has ingroffed it, or by whatever means, has restored lunatics to the ufe of reafon; and this effect, in a great degree, it pro duced upon the Dean: for juft before the tumor perfectly fubfided, and the pain left him, he knew Mrs Whiteway, took her by the hand, and fpoke to her with his former kindness. That day, and the following, he knew his phyfician and furgeon, and all his family, and appeared to have fo far recovered his understanding and temper, that the furgeon was not without hopes he might once more enjoy fociety, and be amufed by the company