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in any other; fuch in particular are his directions to fervants, and several of his letters to Dr. Sheridan.

See his letters on Stella's fickness, and from

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 fir Arthur or fad, and seem to imply a perfect acquaint- Achefon's. ance with every peculiarity of his circumftances.

Dr. Sheridan was a clergyman of confiderable parts and 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 university, 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 absence 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 disposed to be chearful, and therefore readily concurred in the entertainment of Swift's hours of pleafantry; and could without much pain or difpleafure give way to his petulance, or his coldnefs, in his paroxyfms 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 paffed much of his time as well during Mrs. Johnson's life as afterwards; and though there is in general an

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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 deferved his love by the interest of another; "Stella, fays he, loved you well, and a great fhare of the little mérit I have with you is owing to her follicitations.'

Vol. XII. 209.

See Vol. VII, p.

251.

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In the year 1733, when an attempt was made to repeal the teft act in Ireland, the diffenters often af fected 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 verses, in which there is a paffage that fo provoked one Bettefworth, a lawyer, and a member of the Irish parliament, that he swore in the hearing of many perfons to revenge himself either by murdering or maiming the author: and, for this purpose, he engaged his footman with two ruffians to fecure the dean wherever 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 person and fortune, as the friend and bene factor of his country.

Such was the reverence and affection with which Swift was treated in his old age, not by domestics or dependants whom the hope of fome future advantage might induce to diffemble, but by perfons of rank and fortune, with whom he had no connexion, but as a benefactor to the publick, 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

excited but by characters very different from actual mifanthropy or fordid selfishness.

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 kindness 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 fhort but pathetic prayer for their temporal and eternal happi

nefs.

Thefe 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, he was feized with one of these 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.

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

His folitude which has been already accounted for, prevented the diverfion of his mind by conversation from brooding over his disappointments, and aggravating every injury that he had fuffered by all the circumftances 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 spectacles, precluded the entertainment which he might otherwife have found in books, and his giddiness, though it was a mere corporal diforder, pre

vented 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 sense of his present condition was neceffarily complicated with regret of the past, and with refentment both against those by whom he had been banished, and those who had deserted him in his exile. A fixed attention to one object long continued is known to destroy the ballance of the mind, and it 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 paffages in his letters and expreffions to his friends. In 1739, three years after his memory firft declined, he had been standing with a clergyman under a very large heavy pier glass, which, juft as they moved to another part of the room, fell down and broke to pieces; the clergyman, ftruck with a sense of the danger from which they had escaped, turned to Swift and cried out, What a mercy it is that we moved the moment we did; for, if we had not, we fhould certainly have been killed. The dean replied, that, as to himfelf, he was forry he had changed ground, and wifhed the glafs had fallen upon him.

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 also continued to correspond 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 short time before his incapacity, fays, "When you fee my dear friend Pope, tell him I will answer his letter foon: I love him above all the rest of mankind."

He

He has alfo called Mr. Pope his dearest friend in his will, and Mr. Pope in a letter which was written about the same time makes this requeft: "Affure him [the dean] the world has nothing in it I admire so much; nothing the lofs of which I fhould regret fo much as his GENIUS and his VIRTUES."

Orrery, P.

98.

his rea

Orvery,

94, 186.

In the beginning of the year 1741, his understanding was fo much impaired, and his paffions fo much increased, that he was utterly incapable of converfati. on. Strangers were not permitted to approach him, and his friends found it neceffary to have guardians appointed of his perfon and estate. Early in the year 1742, fon 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 she 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; fometimes the would steal a look at him when his back was towards her, but did not dare to venture into his fight. would neither eat nor drink while the fervant who brought him his provisions stayed in the room; his meat, which was ferved up ready cut, he would fometimes fuffer to stand an hour on the table before he would touch it, and at laft he would eat it walking, for, during this deplorable state of his mind, it was his conftant custom to walk ten hours a day.

He

In October 1742, after this phrenfy had continued feveral months, his left eye fwelled to the fize of an egg, 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

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