light; and all the ingenuity of malice exerted to mifrepresent the conduct, and vilify the character of one of the best? But whatever pains the Doctor may have. taken in drawing all these portraits of our Poets, they will never be confidered as likeneffes; except his own, which he has unwarily handed down to future ages, in fuch strong features, that the refemblance never can be doubted.

In oppofition to all the maligners of Swift, most of whom were fuch

As neither knew his faculties or perfon-SHAKES.

I fhall oppofe the teftimony of two then, who were of his intimate acquaintance for more than twenty years, Dr. Delany, and Dr. Stopford. The firft concludes his anfwer to Lord Orrery in the following manner.

"My Lord, when you confider Swift's fingular, peculiar, and moft variegated vein of wit, always intended rightly, although not always rightly directed; delightful in many inftances, and falutary, even where it is moft offenfive; when you confider his ftri&t truth, his fortitude in refifting oppreffion, and arbitrary power; his fidelity in friendship; his fincere love and zeal for religion; his uprightnefs in making right refolutions, and his fteady adherence to them: his care of his church, its choir, its economy, and its income : his attention to all thofe that preached in his Cathedral, in order to their amendment in pronunciation and style; as alfo his remarkable attention to the interest of his fucceffors, preferably to his own prefent emoluments; his invincible patriotifm, even to a country which he did not love; his very various, well-devised, well judged, and extenfive charities, throughout his life; and his whole fortune conveyed to the fame Chriftian purpofes

purposes at his death: charities, from which he could enjoy no honour, advantage, or fatisfaction of any kind, in this world.

When you confider his ironical and humourous, as well as his ferious fchemes for the promotion of true religion and virtue; his fuccefs in foliciting for the first fruits and twentieths, to the unfpeakable benefit of the eftablished Church of Ireland; and his felicity (to rate it no higher) in giving occafion to the building of fifty new churches in London.

All this confidered, the character of his Life will appear like that of his Writings, they will both bear to be re-confidered, and re-examined with the utmost attention; and will always discover new beauties and excellencies, upon every examination.

They will bear to be confidered as the Sun, in which the brightness will hide the blemishes; and whenever petulant ignorance, pride, malice, malignity, or envy interposes, to cloud, or fully his fame, I will take upon me to pronounce the eclipse will not last long.

To conclude.-No man ever deserved better of any country, than Swift did of his. A fteady, perfevering, inflexible friend: a wife, a watchful, and a faithful Counsellor under many fevere trials, and bitter persecutions, to the manifest hazard both of his liberty and fortune.

He lived a bleffing, he died a benefactor, and his name will ever live an honour to Ireland."

The other was written in Latin, by Dr. Stopford, Bishop of Cloyne; a man inferior to none of his time. in learning, benevolence, and piety; adorned with all the qualities that conftitute the scholar, the gentleman, and the Chriftian. Swift, on an early acquaintance, foon distinguished fo excellent a character, took him into his confidence, became his patron, and never cea

fed

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 Bishop, 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.

Q

nere.

UEM vivum ex animo coluit, amico liceat mor tuum 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 exoptandæ; quas exercuit præcipuè in politicis & poetica.

Incorruptus inter peffimos mores; magni atque conftantis animi; libertatis femper ftudiofiffimús, atq; noftri reipublicæ ftatus, a Gothis quondam fapienter instituti, laudator perpetuus, propugnator acerrimus. Cujus 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,

Hh

1

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 fhall 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 disinterested 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 despised, satisfied 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, fuch an inexhaustible fund of wit, joined to fo clear and folid an understanding; when we behold thefe 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,