ces on the throne, so far as it was only a revolution of state:*

* The following severe lines on Dr Sherlock's original refusal to take the oaths, and subsequent compliance with the revolution government, have much of Swift's spirit, and occur in the collection from which so many of his unpublished poems have been retrieved:

From the Lanesborough Manuscript, Trinity College, Dublin, "Whimsical Medley," Vol. I. Appendix, pages 52, 238.

TO DR SHERLOCK, ON HIS NOT TAKING THE OATHS.

Since at the tavern I can't meet you,

With paper embassy I greet you,

T' advise you not yourself t' expose
By a refusal of the oaths;

In spite of fellowship and pupils,

To weigh your conscience out in scruples.

If, as you Queen's-men must believe,

Two nays make one affirmative;

Why, in the name of the predicaments,

And all your analytic sense,

Will you deny poor affirmations

In their turns, too, to make negations?

This postulatum any pate

Will grant, that's not prejudicate.

Nay, th' argument, I can assure you,
Appears to some a fortiori,

Hoc dato et concesso, thus I

In Baralipton blunderbuss ye.

He who to two things takes an oath,

Is by the last absolved from both;

For each oath being an affirmation,

Both, as 'twas own'd, make a negation.

Thus scientifically you see

The more you're bound, the more you're free.
As jugglers when they knit one more

Undo the knot they tied before.

Necessity, thou tyrant conscience of the great,

Say, why the church is still led blindfold by the state;
Why should the first be ruin'd and laid waste

To mend dilapidations in the last?

And yet the world, whose eyes are on our mighty prince,
Thinks Heaven has cancelled all our sins,

And that his subjects share his happy influence;
Follow the model close, for so I'm sure they should,
But wicked kings draw more examples than the good."

I admire that your Smiglesian under-
Standing, should make so great a blunder,
As roundly to aver subjectio

Wern't cousin-german to protectio :
Nay more, they're relatives, unless I
Mistake Tom Hobs's secundum esse.
I've hopes that you have slyly taken
The oaths elsewhere, to save your bacon.
So spark, by country clap half undone,

Takes coach and steals a cure at London.

In the "Anthologia Hibernica," for December 1794, Vol. IV. Mercier, Dublin, page 457, there occurs the following

EPIGRAM ON DR SHERLOCK.

"Regibus obsequium dum binis obligat unum,

Jurat utroque unam, prodit utroque fidem.
Quid mirum? Si sit semper jurare paratus ;
Cum per quos jurat tres habet ille Deos."

Translated.

"The same allegiance to two kings he pays,
Swears the same faith to both, and both betrays.
No wonder, if to swear he's always free,

That has two Gods to swear by more than we."

With sentiments thus differing from the Whigs in church affairs, and in temporal matters from the Tories, Swift was now about to assume the character of a political author. The period was the year 1701, when Lords Somers, Oxford, Halifax, and Portland, were impeached by the House of Commons, on account of their share in the partition-treaty. Swift, who beheld the violence of these proceedings with real apprehension, founded his remonstrance to the public upon the experience to be derived from the history of the civil discords in Athens and Rome, where the noblest citizens, and those who had best deser

ved of the republic, fell successive victims to popular odium, until liberty itself, after degenerating into licence, was extinguished by tyranny. This discourse on the contests and dissensions between the nobles and commons in Athens and Rome,* excited much attention. It was ascribed for some time to Lord Somers, and afterwards to Bishop Burnet, who was compelled to disown it publicly, in order to avoid the resentment of the House of Commons. Swift, who was probably in London at the time of publication, had again returned to Ireland, and, in a dispute with the Bishop of Kilmore, who twice told him he was a young man, when he pretended to deny that Burnet

*Volume III. p. 201.

had written the pamphlet, he was induced to mortify his antagonist by owning the publication. Upon his return to England, in 1702, there no longer remained the same prudential reasons for secrecy; and Swift, without hesitation, avowed himself the author of this popular tract, and became at once intimate with Somers and Halifax, and with the Earl of Sunderland, to whom he had been formerly known.

If we can trust Swift's own averment, he made, upon this occasion, a free and candid avowal of his principles, both in church and state, declaring himself in the former to be a high-church man, and in the latter a Whig; a declaration which both Lord Halifax and Somers called to mind years afterwards,* at the time of Lord Godolphin's removal from office.

* The passage is remarkable, and deserves to be quoted at length." It was then I began to trouble myself with the differences between the principles of Whig and Tory; having formerly employed myself in other, and I think much better speculations. I talked often upon this subject with Lord Somers; told him,— that having been long conversant with the Greek and Latin authors, and therefore a lover of liberty, I found myself much inclined to be what they call a Whig in politics; and that besides, I thought it impossible, upon any other principle, to defend or submit to the Revolution; but as to religion, I confessed myself to be a high-churchman, and that I could not conceive how any one, who wore the habit of a clergyman, could be otherwise: That I had observed very well with what insolence and haughtiness some lords of the high-church party treated not only their own chaplains, but all other clergymen whatsoever, and thought this was sufficiently

Thus wore on what may be considered as the happiest term of Swift's life, which was passed in the society of Stella, and the retreat to his willows at Laracor, varied by frequent excursions to England,* and a ready reception into the society of the great and of the learned. It was then he formed that invaluable acquaintance with Addison, which party-spirit afterwards cooled, though it could not extinguish, with Steele, with Arbuthnot, and with the other wits of the age, who used to assemble at Button's coffeehouse. Of the commencement of this intercourse, Sheridan has given a characteristic and whimsical account. It was cemented by the appearance of that

recompensed by their professions of zeal to the church: That I had likewise observed, how the Whig lords took a direct contrary measure, treated the persons of particular clergymen with particular courtesy, but shewed much contempt and ill-will for the order in general: That I knew it was necessary for their party, to make their bottom as wide as they could, by taking all denominations of Protestants to be members of their body: That I would not enter into the mutual reproaches made by the violent men on either side; but that the connivance or encouragement given by the Whigs to those writers of pamphlets who reflected upon the whole body of the clergy, without any exception, would unite the church to one man to oppose them, and that I doubted his lordship's friends did not consider the consequence of this.”—III. 187. * From Swift's Journal these visits appear to have occurred at least once yearly.

+ Though the greatness of Swift's talents was known to many in private life, and his company and conversation much sought after and admired, yet was his name hitherto little known in the re