fed his good offices till, from a junior fellow the of College, he raised him to that high rank, fo fuited to his merit. The good Bifhop, who always acknowledged that he owed every step of his preferment entirely to Swift, paid the following tribute to the memory of his deceased friend and benefactor.

MEMORIE JONATH. SWIFT, S.

Ο

nere.

UEM vivum ex animo coluit, amico liceat mortuum deflere, atque hoc qualicunque fungi mu

A. C. 1745 Octobris die 19. obiit JONATHAN SWIFT Decanus Ecclefiæ Cathedralis Sancti Patricii Dublinienfis; vixit annos feptuaginta feptem, decem menfes, 19 dies.

Vir ultra quam homini conceffum videtur, maximis ornatus virtutibus. Vires ingenii mirandæ potius, quam a quoquam exoptanda; quas exercuit præcipuè in politicis & poetica.

Incorruptus inter peffimos mores; magni atque con ftantis animi; libertatis femper ftudiofiffimus, atq; noftri reipublicæ ftatus, a Gothis quondam fapienter inftituti, laudator perpetuus, propugnator acerrimus. Cus jus tamen formam, ambitu & largitione adeo fædatam ut vix nunc dignofci poffit, fæpius indignabundus plo

rabat.

Patriæ amore flagrans fortem Hiberniæ, quoties deflevit! quoties laboranti fubvenit! Teftis epiftolæ illæ nunquam interituræ, quibus, infulam miferè labantem, jamque juga ahenea fubeuntem, erexit, confirmavit; impiis inimicorum conatibus fortiter infractis, proftratis. Privatam fi infpicias vitam, cum illo gratias, lepores, fales interiiffe dicas; quibus fuaviffime fermones conditi,

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conditi, fummo tamen cum decore, utpote cui unicè propofitum, quod verum, quod decens, amicis & civibus fuis affidue commendare.

Nec levior flagitiorum vindex, fraudes, ambitionem, avaritiam, dictis acerrimè laceravit, exemplo feliciter oppreffit.

Erga bonos comis, liberalis, pius, commodis amicorum anxiè inferviens; pro pauperibus femper follicitus; quorum egeftati in hac urbe mire confuluit, pecuniâ mutuo datâ infimis artificum, in ratâ, eâque exigua portione per feptimanas rependenda, unde multi paupertati jam fuccumbentes, fefe paulatim expedierunt.

Idem, abftinentiæ exemplar antiquum, parcè atq; duriter rem familiarem adminiftravit; quafq; fibi inutiles fpernebat opes, fedulo tamen comparatas, domui hofpitali condendæ, moriens magnifice legavit: ubi idiotæ & lunatici, collati muneris ignari, piè femper tractarentur.

Hic vir, tantus, talifque, qui vividis ingenii viribus longè genus humanum fuperabat, a civibus ingratis diu neglectus, magnatum invidiam fæpius, gratiam vix unquam expertus, triginta duos annos latuit in Hiberniâ, nullo ultra decanatum infignitus titulo; quod tamen illi pro votis accidiffe inter amicos conftat, quippe cui femper in ore erat; Non tam referre, quo genere honorum fis ornatus, quam a quibus & inter quos.

Tandem fenio, atq; intolerandis capitis doloribus confectus, mente, memoria, fenfu paulatim deficientibus, jamq; penitus extinctis, per quatuor poftremos vitæ annos, inter mærentes amicos mortuus vixit; quem tamen omni laude digniffimum ritè confecrant divina ingenii lumina.

I shall close my account of this extraordinary man, with laying open one leading part of his character,

which may ferve as a clue to the whole. He was perhaps the most difinterested man that ever lived. No selfish motive ever influenced any part of his conduct. He loved virtue for its own fake, and was content it fhould be its own reward. The means to arrive at rank, fortune, and fame, the three great objects of pursuit in other men, though all thrown in his way, he utterly defpifed, fatisfied with having deferved them. The fame principle operated equally on the author, as on the man; as he never put his name to his Works, nor had any folicitude about them, after they had once made their appearance in the world. The laft act of his life fhewed how far he made this a rule of conduct, in his choice of the charity to which he bequeathed his fortune; leaving it for the fupport of Idiots and Lunatics, beings that could never know their benefactor..

Upon the whole, when we confider his character as a man, perfectly free from vice, with few frailties, and fuch exalted virtues; and as an author, poffeffed of fuch uncommon talents, fuch an original vein of humour, such an inexhaustible fund of wit, joined to fo clear and folid an understanding; when we behold these two characters united in one and the fame perfon; perhaps it will not be thought too bold an affertion, to fay, that his parallel is not to be found either in the hiftory of ancient or modern times.

THE END.

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A PA

ANECDOTES

1

O F THE

FAMILY

O F SWIFT.

A FRAGMEN T.

Written by Dr. SWIFT.

The original Manufcript in his own Hand is lodged in the University Library of DUBLIN.

HE family of the Swifts was ancient in York

TH

fhire; from them defcended a noted perfon, who paffed under the name of Cavaliero Swift, a man of wit and humour. He was made an Irish Peer by King James or King Charles the Firft, with the title of Baron Carlingford, but never was in that kingdom. Many traditional pleasant stories are related of him, which the family planted in Ireland hath received from their parents. This Lord died without iffue male; and his heiress, whether of the firft or fecond defcent, was married to Robert Fielding, Efq; commonly called handfome Fielding; fhe brought him a confiderable eftate in Yorkshire, which he fquandered away, but had no children; the Earl of Eglington married another coheiress of the fame family, as he hath often told me.

Another

Another of the fame family was Sir Edward Swift, well known in the times of the great rebellion and ufurpation, but I am ignorant whether he left heirs or

not.

Of the other branch, whereof the greatest part fettled in Ireland, the founder was William Swift, Prebendary of Canterbury, towards the laft years of Queen Elifabeth, and during the reign of King James' the Firft. He was a Divine of some distinction: there' is a fermon of his extant, and the title is to be feen int the catalogue of the Bodleian Library, but I never could get a copy, and I fuppofe it would now be of

little value.

This William married the heirefs of Philpot, I fuppofe a Yorkshire Gentleman, by whom he got a very confiderable eftate, which however fhe kept in her own power; I know not by what artifice. She was a capricious, ill-natured and paffionate woman, of which I have been told feveral inftances. And it hath been a continual tradition in the family, that fhe abfolutely difinherited her only fon Thomas, for no greater crime than that of robbing an orchard when he was a boy. And thus much is certain, that except a church or chapter leafe, which was not renewed, Thomas never enjoyed more than one hundred pounds a year, which was all at Goodrich, in Herefordshire, whereof not above one half is now in the poffeffion of a greatgreat grandfon.

His original picture is now in the hands of Godwin Swift, of Dublin, Efq; his great grandfon, as well as that of his wife's, who feems to have a good deal of the fhrew in her countenance; whofe arms of an heirefs are joined with his own; and by the last he feems to have been a perfon fomewhat fantaftick; for in these he gives as his device a dolphin (in thofe days called

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