THE LIF I FE O F DOCTOR SWIFT. SECTION I. SWIFT was defcended from an ancient family in Yorkshire, of no fmall note, and confiderable property. He was of the younger branch *. His grandfather, the Revd. Thomas Swift, was poffeffed of a good eftate, and was distinguished above any man of his station in life, for his attachment to Charles I, and the sufferings he underwent in fupport of the royal cause, by which his fortune was entirely ruined. He had ten fons, and three daughters. Five of his fons went to feek their fortune in Ireland: the fourth of whom, Jonathan, was father to the famous Dr. Swift. He had married Mrs. Abigail Erick, descended from an ancient family of that name in Leicestershire, but with little or no fortune. He died young, in about two years after his marriage, seven months before the birth of his only fon; and as he was but just beginning the world, left his widow in very diftreffed circumstances. * For farther particulars of Swift's family, vid. Appendix. JONATHAN SWIFT, afterwards the celebrated Dean of St. Patrick's, was born on the 30th of November 1667, in Hoey's-court, Dublin. When he was but a year old, he was, without the knowledge of his mother or relations, ftolen away by his nurfe, and carried to Whitehaven ; which place fhe was under a neceffity of vifiting, on account of the illness of a relation, from whom the expected a legacy; and, as is ufual among Irish nurses, the bore fuch an affection to the child, that she could not think of going without him. There he continued for almost three years; and fhe took fuch care of him, that he had learned to fpell, and could read any chapter in the Bible before he was five years old. At the age of fix he was fent to the fchool of Kilkenny; and at fourteen admitted into the University of Dublin. The expence of his education being defrayed by his uncle Godwin Swift, the eldest of the brothers who had fettled in Ireland. He was a lawyer of great eminence, and had made confiderable fums of money, which were for the moft part fquandered away in idle projects. By means of which, foon after his nephew had entered the College, he found himself involved in great difficulties; and being father of a numerous offfpring by four wives, he was under a neceffity of reducing the ftipend allowed to his nephew for his fupport at the University, as low as poffible. The real fituation of Godwin's affairs not being then known to the world, and as he was looked upon to be much the richeft of the family, Swift's other relations feemed at that time to think that their aid was not at all neceffary; fo that he was obliged to make the best shift he could, with the wretched allowance that his uncle gave him. Thus was one of the most afpiring and liberal minds in the world, early checked and confined, by the narrowness narrowness of his circumftances; with this bitter aggravation to a generous fpirit, that the fmall pittance afforded by his uncle, feemed to him, from the manner in which it was given, rather as an alms doled out for charity, than an act of beneficence due from fo near a relation; who was fuppofed by him, as well as by the reft of the world, to be in circumftances that might have afforded a much more liberal ftipend, without prejudice to his own family. Under this load did the fpirit of Swift groan for the space of near seven years that he refided in the College of Dublin; which made fo deep an impreffion on him, that he never afterwards could think with patience of his uncle Godwin, nor could heartily forgive the neglect fhewn him during that time by his other relations. The uneafy fituation of mind which a young man of high spirit must have been in, under fuch circumftances, produced confequences likely to prove destructive of his future fortunes. For, in fuch a state, he could not bear to give the neceffary application to fome of the more dry parts of the academick studies, for which he had indeed naturally no great relish; but paffed his time chiefly in reading books of history and poetry; which were better fuited to his taste, and more calculated to relieve the troubles of his mind. In confequence of this, when the time came for his taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he was ftopped, as he himself expreffes it, for dulnefs and infufficiency. It is to be fuppofed that the word dullness was on this occasion used by Swift jocofely, as the cause affigned for stopping any person of a degree, is anfwering badly in any branch of literature appointed for that particular examination; which does not neceffarily imply dullnefs, as it may as well proceed from idleness. But in Swift's cafe it was rather to be imputed to contumacy, than either the one or the other. For the fact is, there was one branch of the examination, on which the greateft stress was laid in thofe days, in which he could not be faid to answer badly, for he did not attempt to anfwer at all. This account I had from his own lips. He told me that he had made many efforts, upon his entering the College, to read fome of the old treatifes on logic writ by Smeglefius, Keckermannus, Burgerfdicius, &c. and that he never had patience to go through three pages of any of them, he was fo difgufted at the ftupidity of the work. When he was urged by his tutor to make himself mafter of this branch, then in high estimation, and held effentially neceffary to the taking of a degree; Swift asked him, what it was he was to learn from thofe books? His tutor told him, the art of reafoning. Swift faid that he found no want of any fuch art; that he could reafon very well without it; and that as far as he could observe, they who had made the greatest proficiency in logic, had, inftead of the art of reafoning, acquired the art of wrangling; and inftead of clearing up obfcurities, had learned how to perplex matters that were clear enough before. For his own part, he was contented with that portion of reafon which God had given him, and he would leave it to time and experience to ftrengthen and direct it properly; nor would he run the risk of having it warped or falfely biaffed, by any fyftem of rules laid down by fuch ftupid writers; of the bad effects of which he had but too many examples before his eyes, in thofe reckoned the most acute logicians. And accordingly he made a firm refolution that he never would read any of those books. Which he fo pertinaciously adhered to, that though he was stopped of his degree the first time of fitting for it, on account of his not answering in that branch, he went into the |