1

panion, threw an obstacle in the way that was not to be surmounted. The gentleman had a benefice in the church of a considerable value, about a hundred miles from Dublin, which required his attendance. Dr. Swift, in order to bring matters to a final issue, made him an overture that he should settle upon his wife a hundred pounds a year for pinmoney. The lover indeed, although extremely captivated with the charms of his mistress, was by no means delighted with this proposal; he desired however that he might have a night's time to consider of it; and the next morning, contrary to expectation, he agreed to the terms. Swift, never at a loss for some uncommon flight of imagination, insisted farther that he should live in Dublin, and keep a coach for his wife. The gentleman had more honour than to promise what he could not perform; the match was accordingly broken off: in a short time after, the doctor's friend married a woman of family, and there was an end of the affair."

In what a mean selfish light does this fabricated account place Swift! how different from the genuine one delivered by himself! and that too drawn up by a kinsman, who writ professedly to vindicate his character. But the match was not broken off by any artifice of Swift's, to which he was at all times superiour. The refusal came from Mrs. Johnson herself, who, though she might at first have shown no repugnance to it, probably with a view to sound Swift's sentiments, and bring him to some explanation with regard to her; yet when it came to the point, she could not give up the hope long nourished in her bosom, of being one day united to the object of her virgin heart, and whom she considered as the first of mankind,

mankind*. From that time we do not find that she ever encouraged any other addresses, and her life seemed wholly devoted to him. She passed her days from the year 1703 to 1710, in the most perfect retirement, without any other enjoyment in life but what she found in the pleasure of his society, or in reading. Their mode of living was this: when the doctor was absent on his visits to England, she and her companion took up their residence at his parsonage house at Laracor, in the neighbourhood of Trim, a small town about 20 miles distant from Dublin. When he returned, they either retired to a lodging at Trim, or were hospitably received in the house of Dr. Raymond, vicar of that parish. Swift grew so enamoured of this course of life, that he seemed to wish for nothing more than a continuance of it. The charming society and delightful conversation of the amiable and accomplished Stella, had, by long habitude, become essential to his happiness, and made him lose all relish for every other enjoyment of life, when absent from her. All the more vigorous springs of his mind were relaxed, and lost their tone; and even the powerful passions of ambition, and desire of wealth, where wholly absorbed

Mr. Thomas Swift, the Dean's "Parson Cousin," in a letter from Puttenham, Feb. 5, 1706, asks whether Jonathan be married? or whether he has been able to resist the charms of both these gentlewomen that marched quite from Moor Park to Dublin (as they would have marched to the North or any where else) with full resolution to engage him?" D. S.

+ In 1705 she returned to England, where she spent five or six months, and then went back to Ireland, as to the place of her residence; but never crossed the channel after to the end days. D. S.

of her

in

in this truly voluptuous state, wherein was constantly mixed

"The feast of reason, and the flow of soul.”

A state of true epicurean happiness, and a source of pleasures beyond the conception of the sensualist, which, far from cloying, still increased by enjoyment, and which can only be the portion of the more exalted minds, and refined spirits of this world. It is certain that Swift's soul was so entangled by these charms, of a different kind indeed, but not less powerful than those of Circe, that it was with the utmost reluctance he disengaged himself from them, though but for a short time; nor could any thing but a sense of duty, and a desire of serving the church, make him accept of a commission for that purpose, which occasioned his journey to London in September, 1710. In his first letter to Mrs. Johnson, on his arrival at Chester, he says, "I am perfectly resolved to return as soon as I have done my commission, whether it succeeds or not. I never went to England with so little desire in my life." In the January following he says, “Farewell, dearest beloved MD, and love poor poor Presto* who has not had one happy day since he left you, as hope saved. It is the last sally I shall ever make, but I hope it will turn to some account. I would make MD and me easy, and I never desired more." And in some months after, he expresses his impatience of this long absence in the strongest terms; where addressing himself to Stella, he says-" You say you are not splenetick; but if you be, faith you will break I wont say the rest; but I vow to God, if I could decently come over now, I would,

poor Presto's

* MD stands for Stella, and Presto for Swift. S.

,

and

and leave all schemes of politicks and ambition for ever."

In the whole course of his letters it appears that not all the homage paid him by the great, the society of the choicest spirits of the age, and the friendship of some of the worthiest characters of both sexes; not the daily increase and spreading of his fame, and the most flattering prospects before him of fortune and preferment, could compensate for the want of that companion, who was the supreme delight of his heart. In the midst of all these he tells her, that his best days here are trash to those which he passed with her. In order to soften in some measure the rigour of absence, he had settled a plan at parting, that they should keep a regular journal, in which they should set down the transactions of the day, and once a fortnight transmit it to each other. The writing and receiving of these constituted the chief pleasure of his life during his residence in England. It was his first employment, when he awoke in the morning; the last, before he closed his eyes at night. He makes frequent mention of the great satisfaction he finds in this kind of intercourse. In his Journal, Jan. 16, 1711, he says, "Presto's at home, God help him, every night from six till bedtime, and has as little enjoyment or pleasure in life at present, as any body in the world, although in full favour with all the ministry. As hope saved, nothing gives Presto any sort of dream of happiness, but a letter now and then from his own dearest MD. I love the expectation of it, and when it does not come, I comfort myself that I have it yet to be happy with. Yes faith, and when I write to MD, I am happy too: it is just, methinks, as if you were here, and I prating to you,

and

and telling you where I have been," &c. And in another place, "When I find you are happy or merry there, it makes me so here, and I can hardly imagine you absent when I am reading your letter, or writing to you. No, faith, you are just here upon this little paper, and therefore I see and talk with you every evening constantly, and sometimes in the morning," &c.

This mode of intercourse, during their separation, was adopted by him upon the same cautious principle, by which he regulated his conduct toward her, when he lived in the same place with her. As he had never trusted himself alone with her then, but always conversed with her, as was before observed, in the presence of some third person, so his Journals were constantly addressed to both ladies, and were answered by both in the same letter. Had he entered into a separate correspondence with Mrs. Johnson, it would be hardly possible to avoid coming to some explanation, that must either have ended in an absolute engagement, or put a period to all expectation of that sort: both which, from some maxims laid down by him, it was his business to avoid. In this way of writing too, he might give a loose to all expressions of endearment and tenderness, with which his heart overflowed for one of the objects, without at the same time giving her a right to apply them solely to herself, as they were addressed to both. Accordingly we find, interspersed through the Journal, several passages containing the warmest effusions of affectation, which the utmost sensibility of heart could pour forth.

Among many others, I shall quote a few of these, as they occur in the early part of his Journal. "And