as he had fuffered Addifon's correction with approbation, received this admonition with kindness; he fighed, and faid, with great appearances of regret, that it was too late, and from that day took all occafions to distinguish Delany by the name of Friend. He had, indeed, no skill in mufick, and fo was not able to entertain his company with a fong, to which fome men of great dignity, and great parts, have condefcended: but his power of ridicule extended even to mufick, of which he gave an instance too fingular to be forgotten: Dr. Pratt, who was then provoft of Dublin college, had acquired much of the Italian tafte for mu→ fick in his travels, and Tom Roffengrave, a celebrated performer, being just returned from Italy, played a voluntary at St. Patrick's cathedral, where Dr. Pratt heard him, and Swift was alfo prefent: the doctor happened to dine at the deanery the fame day, and was fo extravagant in his encomiums on Roffengrave's voluntary, that several of the company faid, they wifhed they had heard it: Do you, said Swift, then you fhall hear it ftill, and immediately he fung out fo lively, and yet fo ridiculous an imitation of it, that all the company were kept in continual laughter till it was over, except one old gentleman, who fat with great compofure, and, though he liftened, yet fhewed neither curiofity nor approbation. After the entertainment, he was asked, by fome of the company, How it happened that he had been no more affected by the mufick? To which he answered with great gravity, That he had heard Mr. RofSengrave himself play it before. Such was Swift as a companion; as a master, he. was not less remarkable or meritorious. As he expected punctual, ready, and implicit obedience, he always tried his fervants when he hired them by fome teft of their humility. Among other questions, he always afked whether they understood VOL. I. F cleaning cleaning fhoes; because, faid he, my kitchen-wench has a fcullion that does her, drudgery, and one part of the business of my groom and footman is conftantly to clean her fhoes by turns: if they fcrupled this, the treaty was at an end; if not, he gave them a farther hearing. His kitchen-wench, however, was his cook, a woman of large fize, robuft conftitution, and coarfe features, whofe face was very much feamed with the fmall-pox, and furrowed by age: this woman he always diftinguished by the name of Sweetheart. It happened one day that Sweetheart greatly overroafted the only joint he had for dinner; upon which he fent for her up, and, with great coolness and gravity, Sweetheart, fays he, take this down into the kitchen and do it lefs. She replied, that was impoffible. Pray then, faid he, if you had roasted it too little, could you have done it more? Yes, fhe said, she could eafily have done that: Why then, Sweetheart, replied the dean, let me advise you, if you must commit a fault, commit a fault that can be mended. To the rest of his fervants, indeed, he appeared to be churlish and auftere, but, in reality, was one of the best mafters in the world: he allowed them board-wages at the highest rate then known; and if he employed them about any thing out of the ordinary course of their fervice, he always paid them to the full value of the work, as he would have paid another with thefe emoluments, and the fragments from his table, he expected they fhould find themselves in victuals, and all other neceffaries, except the liveries which he gave them; if in this fituation their expences were greater than their income, it was judged a fufficient reafon to discharge them; but, on the contrary, as foon as they had faved a full year's wages, he conftantly paid them legal interes for it, and took great pleasure in feeing it accumulate to a fum, which might fettle them in fome em ployment ployment if he fhould die, or if they found it advifeable to quit his fervice, which feldom happened; and he with whom his fervants live long, has indubitable witneffes that he is a good mafter. It is alfo certain, that, notwithstanding the apparent aufterity of his temper, he did not confider his fervants as poor flaves, to whofe fervice Orrery, he had a right, in confideration merely of his money, and owed them no reciprocal obligation. 200. He had a fervant whom he ufed to call Saunders, that lived long with him, and at length fell fick and died. In his ficknefs, which lafted many months, Swift took care that all poffible relief and affiftance fhould be afforded him, and when he died he buried him in the fouth ifle of his cathedral, and erected a fmall piece of, ftatuary to his memory, with this infcription: Here lieth the body of Alexander Magee, fervant to doctor Swift; His grateful mafter caused this monument to be e rected in memory of his discretion, fidelity, and dilis gence in that humble station. Ob. Mar. 24, 1721, Ætát. 29. In the original copy, which the author of the Obe fervations faw in the dean's own hand, the expreffion was still stronger, and more to the dean's honour, thus: His grateful friend and mafter. But a perfon of the dean's acquaintance, who is much more distinguished for vanity than wildom, prevailed upon him to leave out fri nd, even in oppofition to his own well known maxim, that a faithful fervant fhould always be confidered not as a poor flave, but an bumble friend. Of this perfon the name is not told; but to conceal it is rather injuftice than mercy, for he ought, on this occafion to inherit a difgrace, at least, proportionate to the honour which he found means to with-hold from Swift. As a member of civil fociety, he was a zealous advocate for liberty, the detecter of fraud, and the fcourge of oppreffion. In his private capacity, he was not only charitable but generous; and whatever mifanthropy may be found in his writings, there does not appear to have been any in his life. His writings in defence of the poor infatuated people of Ireland are well known; and that he might not be wanting himself while he pleaded their cause with others, he conftantly lent out a large fum of money in fmall portions to honeft, diligent, and neceffitous tradesmen, who paid it with a small gratuity by way of intereft to the person who kept the account of the difbursements and weekly payments, for he received back thefe loans by a certain J.R. 203, fum out of the weekly profit of the bor rowers trade, in fuch proportions as that the whole should be repaid in a year. 4. Befides this he frequently gave away 5 and 101. when proper objects offered, without any parade. He was indeed diligent to relieve the poor, and at the fame time to encourage industry, even in the lowest station, and used regularly to vifit a great number of poor, chiefly women, as well in the public ftreets as in the bye allies; and, under the arches of Dublin, fome of these fold plums, fome bobnails, others tape, and others gingerbread; fome knitted, fome darned ftockings, and others cobbled fhoes; thefe women were most of them old, deformed, or crippled, and fome were all three. He faluted them with great kindness, afked how they throve, and what stock they had; if the ware of any of them was fuch as he could poffibly use, or pretend to ufe, he bought fome, and paid for every half-penny worth fix pence; if not, he always added fomething to their ftock, and strictly charged them to be induftrious and honeft. It must be confeffed that these acts of bounty did not appear to be the effects of compaffion, for of the soft sympathy with distress that sometimes fparkles in the eye, and fometimes glows upon the cheek, he fhewed no fign, and he may therefore be fuppofed to have wanted it; however, it is certain, that he was wholly free from ill-nature, for a man can have no complacence in that evil which he is continually busy to remove. His bounty had not indeed the indifcriminating ardour of blind instinct, and, if it had, it would not have been the inftrument of equal happiness: to feed idleness is to propagate misery, and difcourage virtue; but to insure the reward of industry is to bestow a benefit at once upon the individual and the publick; it is to preserve from defpair those who struggle with difficulty and disappointment, it is to fupply food and reft to that labour which alone can make food tafteful and reft sweet, and to invigorate the community by the full use of those members which would otherwife become not only useless but hurtful, as a limb in which the vital fluid ceases to circulate will not only wither but corrupt. In this view then the bounty of Swift was, like every other Chriftian duty, a reasonable fervice; and that he felt no fecret pleasure in the calamities of others, may be fairly concluded not only from his general practice, but from many particular facts in which he appears to have been watchful and zealous to alleviate diftrefs by unfollicited and unexpected liberality. It happened that a young gentleman of his choir, being abroad with his gun, fuffered irreparable hurt by its going off accidentally. When the dean.heard of it, he expreffed great concern, and, having paused a little, F 3 |