BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

JONATHAN SWIFT was born in Dublin, on the

30th of March, 1667. His father, who had died a few months before, was a younger son of a Herefordshire rector, who had done much and suffered much for the Royalist cause during the Civil War; who had married into the family from which the poet Dryden afterwards sprang, and who left thirteen or fourteen children, several of whom sought their fortunes in Ireland. Godwin, the eldest son, rose rapidly to considerable wealth and position, though unfortunate speculations, a large family, and failing faculties seriously crippled him towards the end of his life. Jonathan, the father of our author, was the seventh or eighth son. He worked for some years at the law courts in Dublin, and was elected Steward of the King's Inn, but only held this position for about fifteen months, dying at the early age of twenty-five. He had married a Leicestershire lady of good family, strong religious views, and bright and estimable character, but with no private means, and on the death of her husband she was left with an infant daughter, an unborn son, some debts, and little or nothing to live on, except an annuity of £20 a year.

The Swift family, however, was a very large one,

and Godwin Swift' undertook the education of the posthumous child. Jonathan Swift was on affectionate terms with many members of his family, but of his Uncle Godwin he always spoke with bitterness. He considered him hard, penurious, and grudging in his favours, and he even accused him of having given him the "education of a dog." What measure of truth there may be in this description, it is impossible to say, but it is certain that Swift received the best education Ireland could afford. He was sent when only six years old to Kilkenny Grammar School, which was then probably the most famous in Ireland, and which had the rare fortune of educating, within a few years, Swift, Congreve, and Berkeley. At fourteen he entered Dublin University, and he remained there for nearly seven years. The stories that were afterwards circulated about his systematic defiance of college discipline and college studies were probably exaggerated, though it is evident that in the latter part of his university life he was guilty of some acts of not very serious insubordination, and that in his studies he followed rather the bent of his own tastes than the course of the university. He tells us that he studied history and poetry, and he attained a fair proficiency in Greek, Latin, and French; but his college course was entirely without brilliancy or promise; in his last term examination he failed in two out of the three subjects, and he only obtained his degree by "special favour." He afterwards spoke of himself as having been at this time "so discouraged and sunk in his spirits, that he too much neglected his academic studies, for some parts of which he had no great relish by nature."

Some anecdotes are preserved showing that at this early age he already suffered from the morbid melancholy, the bitter discontent with life, and what life had given him, which pursued him to the end. His Uncle Godwin died insane, and his own circumstances were utterly precarious. He received some assistance from another uncle who lived in Dublin, and on one occasion, when absolutely penniless, he was helped by an unexpected gift from a cousin at Lisbon. There are no proofs that his great literary talents were as yet born. The anecdote that he had shown a rough copy of the "Tale of a Tub" to a college friend when he was only nineteen, has been decisively disproved. He mentions, however, in an early letter, a characteristic saying of " a person of great honour in Ireland," " that my mind was like a conjured spirit that would do mischief if I did not give it employment."

The outbreak of the Revolution produced an immediate exodus of Protestants from Ireland, and Swift retired to Leicestershire, where his mother had for many years been living. His attachment to her was deep and tender, and lasted during his whole life. It was necessary for him to seek some immediate means of livelihood, and in this critical period of his life he had the great good fortune of finding a home which placed him in close connection with one of the first diplomatists and most experienced statesmen of his age. The father of Sir William Temple, when Master of the Rolls in Ireland, had been on terms of intimacy with the Swift family, and there was some relationship or connection between Swift's mother and the wife of Sir William Temple. Relying

on this claim, and acting on the advice of his mother, Swift applied to Temple, who at once received him into his house at Moor Park in Surrey, in the position of amanuensis or humble companion.

Sir William Temple was at this time sixty-one years of age, and completely withdrawn from active politics. He had a high and unblemished reputation, which was all the greater because he had long been outside the competitions of life. His experiences had been many and varied. He had represented the county of Carlow in the Irish parliament of 1660, had been brought into the diplomatic career by the favour of Arlington, and had won for himself an imperishable fame as the chief author of the triple alliance of England, Holland, and Sweden, which gave the first serious check to the ambition of Louis XIV., and forms the one bright page in the reign of Charles II. As ambassador at the Hague he enjoyed the confidence both of de Witt and of his great rival William of Orange, and the respect of all honest men, but when the Cabal made the treaty with France against Holland, Temple was dismissed, and retired without reward to his gardens and his books. The downfall of the Cabal and the great outburst of popular indignation against the French policy of Charles II. brought him again into prominence. He negotiated the peace with Holland, and refusing political office became again ambassador at the Hague, where he took a leading part in negotiating the marriage of William with Mary, and also the peace of Nimeguen. His reputation was now very great, and Charles II. several times offered him the post of Secretary of State, but Temple was well aware that his character, talents, and tastes were