by the next poft to hear that she was dead, and intreated that he might be told no particulars, but the event in general, for that, his age being then within three months of fixty, his weakness and his friendfhip would bear no more. As he despaired of feeing her alive, he determined not to return to Ireland fo foon as he had intended, but to pass the winter either near Salisbury-Plain, or in France. That he might not be interrupted by company, and condemned to the torment of fuppreffing his forrow, to preferve the rules of good breeding, he quitted the houfe of Mr. Pope at Twickenham, and retired to a village near London, with a female relation for his nurse. The next letter that he received he kept an hour in his pocket before he could fufficiently fortify himfelf against the fhock which he expected when he fhould open it however, as Stella's life ebbed by flow degrees, and fometimes feemed at a stand, if not to flow, his hope of a parting interview revived, and he fet out for Ireland as foon as he was able to travel. He found her alive, but, after having languifhed about two months longer, fhe expired on the 28th of January, 1727, in the 44th year of her age, regreted by the dean with fuch excefs of affection and efteem as the keeneft fenfibility only could feel, and the most excellent character excite. Beauty, which alone has been the object of uni verfal admiration and defire, which alone has elevated the poffeffor from the lowest to the highest station, has given dominion to folly, and armed caprice with the power of life and death, was in Stella only the ornament of intellectual greatnefs; and wit, which has rendered deformity lovely, and conferred honour upon vice, was in her only the decoration of fuch virtue, as without either wit or beauty would have compelled affection, efteem, and reverence. Her ftature was tall, her hair and eyes black, her complexion fair and delicate, her features regular, foft, foft, and animated, her fhape eafy and elegant, and her manner feminine, polite, and graceful; there was a natural mufick 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 fay the best thing that was faid whenever she was in company, though her companions were ufually perfons of the best understanding in the kingdom. But this dangerous power was under the direction of such sweetness of temper, fuch general kindness, and reluctance to give pain, that fhe 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 express them in correct and harmonious verfe; of her wit in conversation some instances will be found in vol xii. under the name of Bons Mots, and two fpecimens of her poetry are added as an appendix to this tract. 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 prefence of a third perfon, are enquiries which no man can anfwer, or has attempted to answer without abfurdity, and are therefore unprofitable objects of fpecu lation. His peculiar connexion with Mrs. Johnson does, indeed, appear to have been fufpected, if not known by his particular acquaintance: One of whom had the courage, indirectly, to blame his conduct fe veral times, by fetting before him the example of a clergyman.of diftinguished merit, who married near ly in the fame circumstances; but, instead of concealing his marriage, retired into thrifty J. R.63. lodgings till he had made a provision for his wife, and then returned to the world, and became eminent for his hofpitality and charity. The dean, whether moved by these representations, or whether by any other motive, did at length earnestly defire that the might be publickly owned as his wife; but as her health was then de 7. R. 56. clining, and his ceconomy became more fevere, fhe faid 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 intirely of her own fortune by her own name to a publick charity when he died. J. R. 288. It appears by feveral little incidents, that Stella regretted and disapproved the dean's conduct, and that she sometimes 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 Heav'n intends, 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, though his judgment might be errroneous; and, and, whatever cenfure his behaviour to Stella may draw upon him, it must insure him fome praife, and fecure him against fome calumny, for it is a demonftration that he was the abfolute mafter of those pasfions, by which the greatest have been inflaved, and the best sometimes corrupted; and, if he could abftain from gratifying these paffions with a lady whom he most admired, after the gratification was become lawful, he cannot with any appearance of reafon be supposed 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 less and the obstacles more. From the death of Stella, his life became much more retired, and the aufterity of his temper naturally increased; he could not join in the focial chearfulness of his publick days, or bear fuch an intrufion upon his own melancholy as the chearfulness of others; these entertainments therefore were discontinued, and he sometimes avoided the company of his most intimate friends. But, when the lenient hand, of time had allayed the anguish of his mind, he seems to have regretted the effects of its first violence, and to wish for the return of thofe whom his impatience had banished. In the year 1732, he comD. S. 307. plains in a letter to Mr. Gay, that he had a large house and fhould 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 pass the evening with me. He complains also about the fame time in a letter to Mr. Pope, that he was in danger of dying poor and friendlefs, even his female friends having forfaken him; which, as he fays, was what vexed him moft. Thefe complaints were afterwards repeated in a strain of yet greater fenfibility and felf-pity. All my friends, fays he, have forfaken me. E 3 Ver Vertiginofus, inops, furdus, malè gratus amicis. D.S. 309. Yet he confeffes that, though he was lefs patient in folitude, he was harder to be pleased with company, fo that even now perhaps his behaviour did not much invite those whom before it had driven away. His complaint of being forfaken by his female friends fhews that at this time his house was not a conftant feraglio of very virtuous women, who attended him from morning till night as my lord Orrery has afferted; and it seems to imply that the Obfervator is also mistaken, when he says, that females were rarely admitted into his house, and never came but upon very particular invitations. The abfence of perfons whom he kept at fuch distance, and fo rarely admitted, could fcarce be fuppofed to vex him most; nor is it easy 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 intercourse with the dean and long intimacy with his moft intimate friends, that lord Orrery was grofly mifinformed, 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 fer J. R. 128, 129. vants. As he lived much in folitude, he frequently amufed himself with writing, as appears by the dates of many of his pieces which are fubfequent to this time; and it is very remarkable that although 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 |