s: And squeeze my hand, and beg me come to-morrow.


s: Twice told the period spent on stubborn Troy,


s: If this song lives, Posterity shall know


s: One, though in Britain born, with courtiers bred,


s: Who thought, even gold might come a day too late;


s: Nor on his subtle deathbed planned his scheme


s: For future vacancies in Church or State."


s: Deduct from the writer's age "twice told the period spent on


s: after all, he had perhaps no right to suppress.  They all, I


s: believe, speak, not a little to the credit of his gratitude, of


s: favours received; and I know not whether the author, who has once


s: Of the "Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclerk," dated 1740, all I know


s: seemed to have taken in the "Night Thoughts" of everything which


s: Kingdom, addressed to the Duke of Newcastle;" indignant, as it


s: "---a pope-bred Princeling crawl ashore,


s: And whistle cut-throats, with those swords that scraped


s: Their barren rocks for wretched sustenance,


s: To cut his passage to the British throne."


s: This political poem might be called a "Night Thought;" indeed, it


s: In 1753, when The Brothers had lain by him above thirty years, it


s: The next performance which he printed was a prose publication,


s: entitled "The Centaur Not Fabulous, in Six Letters to a Friend on


s: noble, ingenious, accomplished, and most wretched Altamont."  His


s: extravagance has beggared my boy, my unkindness has murdered my


s: wife!"  Either Altamont and Lorenzo were the twin production of


s: Report has been accustomed to call Altamont Lord Euston.


s: "The Old Man's Relapse," occasioned by an Epistle to Walpole, if


s: written by Young, which I much doubt, must have been written very


s: dedicator, and publishing a sermon addressed to the king.


s: Pulverulenta vocant, septem sine flumine valles."


s: Such leaden labours are like Lycurgus's iron money, which was so


s: affords us a miraculous delight.  He asks why it should seem


s: altogether impossible that Heaven's latest editions of the human


s: The few lines which stand in the last edition, as "sent by Lord


s: Melcombe to Dr. Young not long before his lordship's death," were


s: "DEAR SIR,--You seemed to like the ode I sent you for your


s: In 1762, a short time before his death, Young published


s: "Resignation."  Notwithstanding the manner in which it was really


s: Will bring to life those healing thoughts


s: By the same lady I was enabled to say, in her own words, that


s: Young's unbounded genius appeared to greater advantage in the


s: "--letting down the golden chain from high,


s: He drew his audience upward to the sky."


s: Notwithstanding Young had said, in his "Conjectures on Original


s: To "Resignation" was prefixed an apology for its appearance, to


s: sounding names and titles, to be informed that the author of the


s: "Night Thoughts" did not blush to leave a legacy to his "friend


s: upon James Baker, dated 1749; which I am glad to find in the late


s: Much is told in the "Biographia," which I know not to have been


s: praise he bestows upon Socrates, in the Preface to "Night Seven,"


s: "When, after battle, I the field have SEEN


s: Spread o'er with ghastly shapes which once were men."


s: probably had an eye when he determined on the Church.  To satisfy


s: above the need of advancement; and your sentiments, above that


s: gained some friends, he made many enemies.  Again:  Young was a


s: coxcomb treats his mistress; to be threatened with desertion, in


s: Young seems to have been taken at his word.  Notwithstanding his


s: enamoured.  Alexander assigned no palace for the residence of


s: Thoughts," I hoped to have given you an account from the best


s: authority; but who shall dare to say, To-morrow I will be wise or


s: In a letter from Tscharner, a noble foreigner, to Count Haller,


s: swelled beyond their real bulk, that they will hardly shut.


s: "What though we wade in wealth, or soar in fame!


s: Earth's highest station ends in HERE HE LIES!


s: And DUST TO DUST concludes her noblest song!"


s: The author of these lines is not without his 'Hic jacet.'  By the


s: marble can make the bad or the foolish merit; which, without the


s: Hujus Ecclesiae rect. et Elizabethae faem. praenob


s: Pio et gratissimo animo hoc marmor posuit


s: Is it not strange that the author of the "Night Thoughts" has


s: Such, my good friend, is the account which I have been able to


s: collect of the great Young.  That it may be long before anything


s: like what I have just transcribed be necessary for you, is the


s: experience improves, and who, observing their own faults, become


s: gradually correct.  His poem on the "Last Day," his first great


s: performance, has an equability and propriety, which he afterwards


s: disappointed is that the thought of the LAST DAY makes every man


s: elegance enough, but Jane is too heroic to be pitied.


s: author intended; his endeavour was at the production of striking


s: choosing those parts which most easily admit the ornaments of


s: English poetry.  He had least success in his lyric attempts, in


s: which he seems to have been under some malignant influence; he is


s: In his "Night Thoughts" he has exhibited a very wide display of


s: original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and striking


s: regarded; the power is in the whole, and in the whole there is a


s: magnificence like that ascribed to Chinese plantation, the


s: magnificence of vast extent and endless diversity.


s: His last poem was the "Resignation," in which he made, as he was


s: accustomed, an experiment of a new mode of writing, and succeeded


s: every stanza, such as he often was in the highest vigour.  His


s: seemed to have one favourite catastrophe, as his three plays all


s: concluded with lavish suicide, a method by which, as Dryden


s: imagination, but the pride of Busiris is such as no other man can


s: reflections, the incidents, and the diction, are original.  The


s: "Her merchants princes, and each DECK A THRONE."


s: He has the trick of joining the turgid and familiar:  to buy the


s: alliance of Britain, "Climes were paid down."  Antithesis is his


s: writers; he picks up no hemistichs, he copies no favourite


s: expressions; he seems to have laid up no stores of thought or


s: Of David Mallet, having no written memorial, I am able to give no


s: years ago, under the conduct of Robin Roy, so formidable and so


s: David Malloch was, by the penury of his parents, compelled to be


s: disadvantages of his birth and fortune; for, when the Duke of


s: reputation; and plagiarism has been boldly charged, but never


s: devoid of poetical spirit.  Many of his images are striking, and


s: misrepresented; and is little more than an improvement, or rather


s: versification is tolerable, nor can criticism allow it a higher


s: His first tragedy was Eurydice, acted at Drury Lane in 1731; of


s: which I know not the reception nor the merit, but have heard it


s: much commended.  Having cleared his tongue from his native


s: pronunciation so as to be no longer distinguished as a Scot, he


s: seems inclined to disencumber himself from all adherences of his


s: A new edition of the works of Bacon being prepared (1740) for the


s: undertook the "Life of Marlborough," Warburton remarked that he


s: might perhaps forget that Marlborough was a general, as he had


s: When the Prince of Wales was driven from the palace, and, setting


s: endeavoured to increase his popularity by the patronage of


s: literature, and made Mallet his under-secretary, with a salary of


s: posthumous renown.  When he died, it was soon determined that his


s: Steele, who, in some of his exigencies, put them in pawn.  They


s: Thomson.  For some time afterwards he lay at rest.  After a long


s: interval his next work was "Amyntor and Theodora" (1747), a long


s: story in blank verse; in which it cannot be denied that there is


s: copiousness and elegance of language, vigour of sentiment, and


s: imagery well adapted to take possession of the fancy.  But it is


s: blank verse.  This he sold to Vaillant for one hundred and twenty


s: Mallet, by address or accident, perhaps by his dependence on the


s: Prince, found his way to Bolingbroke, a man whose pride and


s: petulance made his kindness difficult to gain or keep, and whom


s: unauthorised pamphlet called the "Patriot King," Bolingbroke in a


s: beginning of the last war, when the nation was exasperated by ill


s: children.  One daughter, who married an Italian of rank named


s: Cilesia, wrote a tragedy called Almida, which was acted at Drury


s: composition in which he was eminent.  His dramas had their day, a


s: emerging occasionally from time to time into notice, might keep


s: alive by his personal influence; but which, conveying little


s: information, and giving no great pleasure, must soon give way, as


s: resolved not to be a dissenting minister, he ceased to be a


s: dissenter, I know not.  He certainly retained an unnecessary and


s: which it possesses, an envious desire of plundering wealth or


s: degrading greatness; and of which the immediate tendency is


s: innovation and anarchy, an impetuous eagerness to subvert and


s: confound, with very little care what shall be established.


s: according to the custom of the Dutch Universities, published a


s: thesis or dissertation.  The subject which he chose was "The


s: Original and Growth of the Human Foetus;" in which he is said to


s: have departed, with great judgment, from the opinion then


s: established, and to have delivered that which has been since


s: pounds a year.  Thus supported, he advanced gradually in medical


s: reputation, but never attained any great extent of practice or


s: Akenside appears not to have been wanting to his own success:  he


s: became physician to St. Thomas's Hospital; he read the Gulstonian


s: Akenside is to be considered as a didactic and lyric poet.  His


s: The exemption which blank verse affords from the necessity of


s: closing the sense with the couplet betrays luxuriant and active


s: minds into such self-indulgence that they pile image upon image,


s: ornament upon ornament, and are not easily persuaded to close the


s: found in description exuberant, in argument loquacious, and in


s: metre into harsh inversions.  The sense, however, of his words is


s: seems to have somewhat contracted his diffusion; but I know not


s: whether he has gained in closeness what he has lost in splendour.


s: vigour and poignancy his "Epistle to Curio," he transformed it


s: afterwards into an ode disgraceful only to its author.


s: further labour may be spared, for to what use can the work be


s: transition from the school to the college is, to most young


s: scholars, the time from which they date their years of manhood,


s: liberty, and happiness; but Gray seems to have been very little


s: delighted with academical gratifications; he liked at Cambridge


s: neither the mode of life nor the fashion of study, and lived


s: sullenly on to the time when his attendance on lectures was no


s: look, however, without prejudice on the world, we shall find that


s: compliances of servility are apt enough in their association with


s: punctilious jealousy, and in the fervour of independence to exact


s: poetry; for in this year were produced the "Ode to Spring," his


s: reasonable to wish that he had prosecuted his design; for though


s: there is at present some embarrassment in his phrase, and some


s: retirement he wrote (1747) an ode on the "Death of Mr. Walpole's


s: magazine, first, I believe, made him known to the public.


s: impression was soon bought.  This year he lost his mother.  Some


s: offensive and contemptuous.  This insolence, having endured it


s: regarded, removed himself to Pembroke Hall.


s: In 1759 he published "The Progress of Poetry" and "The Bard," two


s: given to Mr. Brocket, the tutor of Sir James Lowther.  His


s: curious and elegant; for, as his comprehension was ample, his


s: contracted a friendship with Dr. Beattie, whom he found a poet, a


s: offered him a degree of Doctor of Laws, which, having omitted to


s: journey necessary, and he visited (1769) Westmoreland and


s: terminated in death.  His character I am willing to adopt, as Mr.


s: "Perhaps he was the most learned man in Europe.  He was equally


s: gardening.  With such a fund of knowledge, his conversation must


s: have been equally instructing and entertaining; but he was also a


s: without some speck, some imperfection; and I think the greatest


s: inferiors in science.  He also had, in some degree, that weakness


s: "You say you cannot conceive how Lord Shaftesbury came to be a


s: philosopher in vogue; I will tell you:  first, he was a lord;


s: secondly, he was as vain as any of his readers; thirdly, men are


s: very prone to believe what they do not understand; fourthly, they


s: seems always to mean more than he said.  Would you have any more


s: Mr. Mason has added, from his own knowledge, that though Gray was


s: fantastic foppery to which my kindness for a man of learning and


s: virtue wishes him to have been superior.


s: The poem "On the Cat" was doubtless by its author considered as a


s: the first relates merely to the nymph, and the second only to the


s: common sense at first universally rejected them, many have been


s: since persuaded to think themselves delighted.  I am one of those


s: vales, roll down the steep amain," so as that "rocks and nodding


s: groves rebellow to the roar"?  If this be said of music, it is


s: spotting."  This stanza, however, has something pleasing.  Of the


s: The caverns of the North and the plains of Chili are not the


s: residences of "glory and generous shame."  But that poetry and


s: virtue go always together is an opinion so pleasing that I can


s: there is a kind of cumbrous splendour which we wish away.  His


s: "The Bard" appears, at the first view, to be, as Algarotti and


s: others have remarked, an imitation of the prophecy of Nereus.


s: Algarotti thinks it superior to its original; and, if preference


s: depends only on the imagery and animation of the two poems, his


s: "Is there ever a man in all Scotland--?"


s: commended, I think, beyond its merit.  The personification is


s: might have been concluded with an action of better example, but


s: suicide is always to be had without expense of thought.


s: These odes are marked by glittering accumulations of ungraceful


s: poetry deserve praise; the imagery is preserved, perhaps often


s: improved, but the language is unlike the language of other poets.


s: models to his schoolfellows.  From Eton he went to Christchurch,


s: flowers; and the letters have something of that indistinct and


s: The Prince of Wales, being (1737) driven from St. James's, kept a


s: died in childbed about five years afterwards, and he solaced his


s: grief by writing a long poem to her memory.  He did not, however,


s: engaged in supporting the schemes of the Ministry.


s: Politics did not, however, so much engage him as to withhold his


s: thoughts from things of more importance.  He had, in the pride of


s: chance, and applied himself seriously to the great question.  His


s: pleasure in a letter which deserves to be inserted:--


s: "I have read your religious treatise with infinite pleasure and


s: satisfaction.  The style is fine and clear, the arguments close,


s: cogent, and irresistible.  May the King of Kings, whose glorious


s: cause you have so well defended, reward your pious labours, and


s: grant that I may be found worthy, through the merits of Jesus


s: A few years afterwards (1751), by the death of his father, he


s: inherited a baronet's title, with a large estate, which, though


s: perhaps he did not augment, he was careful to adorn by a house of


s: gradually advancing his claim to profit and preferment; and


s: qualifications which he soon perceived himself to want.  The year


s: Archibald Bower, a man of whom he has conceived an opinion more


s: favourable than he seems to have deserved, and whom, having once


s: espoused his interest and fame he was never persuaded to disown.


s: Bower, whatever was his moral character, did not want abilities.


s: Attacked as he was by a universal outcry, and that outcry, as it


s: seems, the echo of truth, he kept his ground; at last, when his


s: About this time Lyttelton published his "Dialogues of the Dead,"


s: which were very eagerly read, though the production rather, as it


s: "Critical Reviewers;" and poor Lyttelton, with humble gratitude,


s: returned, in a note which I have read, acknowledgments which can


s: When, in the latter part of the last reign, the inauspicious


s: commencement of the war made the dissolution of the Ministry


s: unavoidable, Sir George Lyttelton, losing with the rest his


s: employment, was recompensed with a peerage; and rested from


s: political turbulence in the House of Lords.


s: Andrew Reid, a man not without considerable abilities and not


s: unacquainted with letters or with life, undertook to persuade


s: Lyttelton, as he had persuaded himself, that he was master of the


s: "On Sunday evening the symptoms of his lordship's disorder, which


s: death, very sufficiently.  Though his lordship wished his


s: difficulties which staggered me, but I kept my mind open to


s: conviction.  The evidences and doctrines of Christianity, studied


s: unjust designs upon any person whatsoever.'


s: "On the evening, when the symptoms of death came on, he said, 'I


s: shall die; but it will not be your fault.'  When Lord and Lady


s: Valentia came to see his lordship, he gave them his solemn


s: around him.  On Monday morning a lucid interval gave some small


s: hopes, but these vanished in the evening; and he continued dying,


s: "This unadorned stone was placed here by the particular


s: desire and express directions of the Right Honourable


s: Lord Lyttelton's Poems are the works of a man of literature and


s: judgment, devoting part of his time to versification.  They have


s: Johnson's "Lives of the Poets" were written to serve as


s: Introductions to a trade edition of the works of poets whom the


s: Johnson's account of his life had not secured for him lasting


s: written for Cave.  Soon after its publication, we are told, Mr.


s: Harte dined with Cave, and incidentally praised it.  Meeting him


s: baronetcy.  Savage had literary skill, and he could personate the


s: Countess of Macclesfield had placed a child that died, and that


s: Johnson's simple truthfulness and ready sympathy made it hard for


s: noble piece of truth, although it rests on faith put in a fraud.


s: Joseph Addison was born on the 1st of May, 1672, at Milston, of


s: which his father, Lancelot Addison, was then rector, near


s: Not to name the school or the masters of men illustrious for


s: whole process of his education.  In 1683, in the beginning of his


s: To judge better of the probability of this story, I have inquired


s: Of this memorable friendship the greater praise must be given to


s: Steele.  It is not hard to love those from whom nothing can be


s: predominating genius of Addison, whom he always mentioned with


s: reverence, and treated with obsequiousness.


s: But the sneer of jocularity was not the worst.  Steele, whose


s: imprudence of generosity, or vanity of profusion, kept him always


s: purpose of repayment; but Addison, who seems to have had other


s: In 1687 he was entered into Queen's College in Oxford, where, in


s: eminent by his Latin compositions, which are indeed entitled to


s: therefore his profession of regard was probably the effect of his


s: In his twenty-second year he first showed his power of English


s: encomium on Queen Mary, in the "Musae Anglicanae."  These verses


s: exhibit all the fondness of friendship; but, on one side or the


s: other, friendship was afterwards too weak for the malignity of


s: faction.  In this poem is a very confident and discriminate


s: learning the trade of a courtier, and subjoined Montague as a


s: Addison was caressed both by Somers and Montague.


s: At his return he published his Travels, with a dedication to Lord


s: observations are such as might be supplied by a hasty view, and


s: consist chiefly in comparisons of the present face of the country


s: The most amusing passage of his book is his account of the minute


s: censure to say that they might have been written at home.  His


s: reprinted it rose to five times its price.


s: encouragement for genius; that worthless men were unprofitably


s: person.  Godolphin sent the message by Mr. Boyle, afterwards Lord


s: language.  He therefore wrote the opera of Rosamond, which, when


s: exhibited on the stage, was either hissed or neglected; but,


s: dedication was therefore an instance of servile absurdity, to be


s: When the Marquis of Wharton was appointed Lord Lieutenant of


s: connected, and how they adjusted their other sentiments we cannot


s: Addison must, however, not be too hastily condemned.  It is not


s: necessary to refuse benefits from a bad man when the acceptance


s: implies no approbation of his crimes; nor has the subordinate


s: hundred friends; and if my fee be two guineas, I shall, by


s: imparted and the evil suffered."  He was in Ireland when Steele,


s: without any communication of his design, began the publication of


s: converses, and who are acquainted with his track of study, his


s: favourite topic, his peculiar notions, and his habitual phrases.


s: If Steele desired to write in secret, he was not lucky; a single


s: To the Tatler, in about two months, succeeded the Spectator:  a


s: series of essays of the same kind, but written with less levity,


s: materials or facility of composition, and their performance


s: labour; many pieces were offered, and many were received.


s: showed the political tenets of its authors; but a resolution was


s: soon taken of courting general approbation by general topics, and


s: which, if they produce no lasting calamities, impress hourly


s: sufficiently attested by the translations which almost all the


s: nations of Europe were in haste to obtain.


s: deserves praise for liveliness of description and justness of


s: observation.  Before the Tatler and Spectator, if the writers for


s: philosophy or politics; but an arbiter elegantiarum, (a judge of


s: propriety) was yet wanting who should survey the track of daily


s: read, not as study, but amusement.  If the subject be slight, the


s: they neglected that a complete collection is nowhere to be found.


s: controversy relating to the Church or State; of which they taught


s: It has been suggested that the Royal Society was instituted soon


s: after the Restoration to divert the attention of the people from


s: continue to be among the first books by which both sexes are


s: initiated in the elegances of knowledge.


s: Bruyere, exhibited the "Characters and Manners of the Age."  The


s: personages introduced in these papers were not merely ideal; they


s: small part of their due praise; they superadded literature and


s: happily varied with elegant fictions and refined allegories, and


s: illuminated with different changes of style and felicities of


s: It is recorded by Budgell, that of the characters feigned or


s: forbearing Sir Roger for the time to come.


s: It may be doubted whether Addison ever filled up his original


s: delineation.  He describes his knight as having his imagination


s: effects of a mind deviating from the beaten track of life, by the


s: rusticity, and that negligence which solitary grandeur naturally


s: eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit that Addison


s: seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own design.


s: opinions, it is probable more consequences were at first intended


s: Of essays thus elegant, thus instructive, and thus commodiously


s: daily number.  This sale is not great; yet this, if Swift be


s: credited, was likely to grow less; for he declares that the


s: Spectator, whom he ridicules for his endless mention of the FAIR


s: sex, had before his recess wearied his readers.


s: The next year (1713), in which Cato came upon the stage, was the


s: undertaking the supplement, brought in a few days some scenes for


s: Addison was, I believe, sufficiently disposed to bar all avenues


s: against all danger.  When Pope brought him the prologue, which is


s: public virtue.  Addison was frighted, lest he should be thought a


s: Now "heavily in clouds came on the day, the great, the important


s: day," when Addison was to stand the hazard of the theatre.  That


s: The play, supported thus by the emulation of factious praise, was


s: public had allowed to any drama before; and the author, as Mrs.


s: Porter long afterwards related, wandered through the whole


s: exhibition behind the scenes with restless and unappeasable


s: solicitude.  When it was printed, notice was given that the Queen


s: censurer of Corneille's Cid, his animadversions showed his anger


s: without effect, and Cato continued to be praised.


s: without appearing to revenge himself.  He therefore published "A


s: discovered more desire of vexing the critic than of defending the


s: Addison, who was no stranger to the world, probably saw the


s: The greatest weakness of the play is in the scenes of love, which


s: subsequent review, in compliance with the popular practice of the


s: Cato had yet other honours.  It was censured as a party-play by a


s: A tragedy was written on the same subject by Des Champs, a French


s: But the translator and the critic are now forgotten.


s: While Cato was upon the stage, another daily paper, called the


s: Guardian, was published by Steele.  To this Addison gave great


s: assistance, whether occasionally or by previous engagement is not


s: faction.  He was soon too hot for neutral topics, and quitted the


s: The papers of Addison are marked in the Spectator by one of the


s: insinuates, that he could not without discontent impart to others


s: "gentleman in the company;" and when it was received, as is


s: delineated, and the tendency such as Addison would have promoted.


s: party, since personal malice is past, and the papers which once


s: written to expose the treaty of commerce with France, lived no


s: longer than the question that produced it.


s: succession of a new family to the throne filled the nation with


s: anxiety, discord, and confusion; and either the turbulence of the


s: The Spectator, from its re-commencement, was published only three


s: little use--having recourse to sketches and hints, the product of


s: When the House of Hanover took possession of the throne, it was


s: reasonable to expect that the zeal of Addison would be suitably


s: distracted by choice of expression, that the lords, who could not


s: however, some strokes less elegant and less decent; such as the


s: "Pretender's Journal," in which one topic of ridicule is his


s: poverty.  This mode of abuse had been employed by Milton against


s: Centum exulantis viscera Marsupii regis."


s: made use of a lute, when they should have called for a trumpet.


s: passion.  He is said to have first known her by becoming tutor to


s: ceremony the tutor of her son.  Rowe's ballad of the "Despairing


s: Shepherd" is said to have been written, either before or after


s: place.  In the House of Commons he could not speak, and therefore


s: vocation, and began to plan literary occupations for his future


s: designed to have made a new poetical version of the Psalms.


s: office he intended to take orders and obtain a bishopric; "for,"


s: said he, "I always thought him a priest in his heart."


s: That Pope should have thought this conjecture of Tonson worth


s: remembrance, is a proof--but indeed, so far as I have found, the


s: only proof--that he retained some malignity from their ancient


s: rivalry.  Tonson pretended to guess it; no other mortal ever


s: It is related that he had once a design to make an English


s: dictionary, and that he considered Dr. Tillotson as the writer of


s: Steele.  It may be asked, in the language of Homer, what power or


s: their posterity.  The Bill, therefore, was eagerly opposed, and,


s: among others, by Sir Robert Walpole, whose speech was published.


s: The Lords might think their dignity diminished by improper


s: advancements, and particularly by the introduction of twelve new


s: Peers at once, to produce a majority of Tories in the last reign:


s: To prevent this subversion of the ancient establishment, Steele,


s: whose pen readily seconded his political passions, endeavoured to


s: finally part in acrimonious opposition.  Such a controversy was


s: "bellum plusquam CIVILE," as Lucan expresses it.  Why could not


s: faction find other advocates?  But among the uncertainties of the


s: Britannica."  "The Old Whig" is not inserted in Addison's works:


s: The necessity of complying with times, and of sparing persons, is


s: told; and when it might be told, it is no longer known.  The


s: delicate features of the mind, the nice discriminations of


s: character, and the minute peculiarities of conduct, are soon


s: obliterated; and it is surely better that caprice, obstinacy,


s: frolic, and folly, however they might delight in the description,


s: unseasonable detection, a pang should be given to a widow, a


s: daughter, a brother, or a friend.  As the process of these


s: narratives is now bringing me among my contemporaries, I begin to


s: extinguished," and coming to the time of which it will be proper


s: rather to say "nothing that is false, than all that is true."


s: The end of this useful life was now approaching.  Addison had for


s: aggravated by a dropsy; and, finding his danger pressing, he


s: prepared to die conformably to his own precepts and professions.


s: In Tickell's excellent Elegy on his friend are these lines:--


s: "He taught us how to live; and, oh! too high


s: The price of knowledge, taught us how to die"--


s: Having given directions to Mr. Tickell for the publication of his


s: Of his virtue it is a sufficient testimony that the resentment of


s: those who are praised only after death; for his merit was so


s: gives credit and esteem to all that are concealed."  Chesterfield


s: conversation, used to say of himself that, with respect to


s: intellectual wealth, "he could draw bills for a thousand pounds,


s: ungraceful timidity, every testimony concurs to prove; but


s: The time in which he lived had reason to lament his obstinacy of


s: silence; "for he was," says Steele, "above all men in that talent


s: acquaintance of Terence and Catullus, who had all their wit and


s: nature, heightened with humour more exquisite and delightful than


s: Pope, who can be less suspected of favouring his memory, declares


s: The last line of Cato is Pope's, having been originally written--


s: "And oh! 'twas this that ended Cato's life."


s: Pope might have made more objections to the six concluding lines.


s: servant in the Countess of Warwick's family, who, under the


s: patronage of Addison, kept a coffee-house on the south side of


s: Russell Street, about two doors from Covent Garden.  Here it was


s: that the wits of that time used to assemble.  It is said when


s: bashfulness for confidence.  It is not unlikely that Addison was


s: first seduced to excess by the manumission which he obtained from


s: Among those friends it was that Addison displayed the elegance of


s: disgusted him, and left his friend in the hands of Tickell.


s: variance, since amidst that storm of faction in which most of his


s: though he might lose the love, he retained the reverence.


s: himself, but taught it to others; and from his time it has been


s: having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from


s: indecency, and wit from licentiousness; of having taught a


s: succession of writers to bring elegance and gaiety to the aid of


s: goodness; and, if I may use expressions yet more awful, of having


s: honourably ascribed to his personal character:  he who, if he had


s: raised too high is in danger, lest the next age should, by the


s: vengeance of criticism, sink it in the same proportion.  A great


s: writer has lately styled him "an indifferent poet, and a worse


s: splendour of elegance.  He thinks justly, but he thinks faintly.


s: This is his general character; to which, doubtless, many single


s: equability, deliberate and cautious, sometimes with little that


s: "Thy verse could show even Cromwell's innocence,


s: And compliment the storms that bore him hence.


s: Oh! had thy Muse not come an age too soon,


s: But seen great Nassau on the British throne,


s: How had his triumph glittered in thy page!"


s: What is this but to say that he who could compliment Cromwell had


s: The Letter from Italy has been always praised, but has never been


s: I bridle in my struggling Muse with pain,


s: That longs to launch into a nobler strain."


s: To BRIDLE A GODDESS is no very delicate idea; but why must she be


s: hindered by a BRIDLE:  and whither will she LAUNCH? into a NOBLER


s: victory:  yet Addison's is confessedly the best performance; his


s: power of consulting his own mind in the midst of danger.  The


s: "Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright--


s: Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,


s: And those that paint them truest, praise them most."


s: "The well-sung woes shall soothe my pensive ghost;


s: He best can paint them who shall feel them most."


s: Martial exploits may be PAINTED; perhaps WOES may be PAINTED; but


s: flames in Iceland, so AEtna vomits flames in Sicily.  When Horace


s: the mind is impressed with the resemblance of things generally


s: unlike, as unlike as intellect and body.  But if Pindar had been


s: examined, when the English are represented as gaining a fortified


s: Marlborough's person, tells us that "Achilles thus was formed of


s: every grace," here is no simile, but a mere exemplification.  A


s: Marlborough "teaches the battle to rage;" the angel "directs the


s: simile, was remote from vulgar conceptions, and required great


s: labour and research, or dexterity of application.  Of this Dr.


s: Madden, a name which Ireland ought to honour, once gave me his


s: poetry, he would probably have excelled.


s: The tragedy of Cato, which, contrary to the rule observed in


s: selecting the works of other poets, has by the weight of its


s: dialogue than a drama, rather a succession of just sentiments in


s: When Cato was shown to Pope, he advised the author to print it,


s: harden Dennis in fixed dislike; but his dislike was not merely


s: "A deference is to be paid to a general applause when it appears


s: wanting in talent, and to supply by poetical craft the absence of


s: He then condemns the neglect of poetical justice, which is one of


s: "'Tis certainly the duty of every tragic poet, by the exact


s: distribution of poetical justice, to imitate the Divine


s: circumscribed by those; and therefore, during that reading or


s: this, in the fate of his principal character; but everywhere,


s: generous frankness and open-heartedness of Marcus."


s: poet is certainly at liberty to give it prosperity on the stage.


s: ought to show us sometimes what we are to expect.


s: Dennis objects to the characters that they are not natural or


s: shall be tried.  It is, however, not useless to consider what he


s: dearest to us, those who are related to us, or those who are not?


s: been said, that for a man to receive the news of his son's death


s: with dry eyes, and to weep at the same time for the calamities of


s: "'SYPH.  But is it true, Sempronius, that your senate


s: Is called together?  Gods! thou must be cautious;


s: "There is a great deal of caution shown, indeed, in meeting in a


s: governor's own hall to carry on their plot against him.  Whatever


s: "When Cato, Act II., turns the senators out of the hall upon


s: pretence of acquainting Juba with the result of their debates, he


s: "Sempronius, in the second act, comes back once more in the same


s: morning to the governor's hall to carry on the conspiracy with


s: "'SEMP.  Know, villains, when such paltry slaves presume


s: To mix in treason, if the plot succeeds,


s: They're thrown neglected by; but, if it fails,


s: They're sure to die like dogs, as you shall do.


s: Here, take these factious monsters, drag them forth


s: "'Here, take these factious monsters, drag them forth


s: palpably discovered.  How comes it to pass, then, that instead of


s: enters at the same time that the guards are carrying away the


s: leaders, big with the news of the defeat of Sempronius?--though


s: "'SYPH.  Our first design, my friend, has proved abortive;


s: Still there remains an after-game to play:


s: My troops are mounted; their Numidian steeds


s: Snuff up the winds, and long to scour the desert.


s: Let but Sempronius lead us in our flight,


s: We'll force the gate where Marcus keeps his guard,


s: And hew down all that would oppose our passage;


s: SEMP. Confusion! I have failed of half my purpose;


s: Marcia, the charming Marcia's left behind.'


s: "'Marcia, the charming Marcia's left behind'?


s: "'What hinders, then, but that you find her out,


s: Is giv'n to none but Juba and her brothers.'


s: But, raillery apart, why access to Juba?  For he was owned and


s: received as a lover neither by the father nor by the daughter.


s: Well, but let that pass.  Syphax puts Sempronius out of pain


s: "'SYPH.  Thou shalt have Juba's dress, and Juba's guards;


s: The doors will open when Numidia's prince


s: "Sempronius is, it seems, to pass for Juba in full day at Cato's


s: house, where they were both so very well known, by having Juba's


s: another opinion.  He extols to the skies the invention of old


s: "'SEMP.  Heavens! what a thought was there!'


s: "But now let us lay before the reader that part of the scenery of


s: concerning the unity of place.  'Tis true, implicitly he has said


s: without destroying the probability of the incidents, 'tis always


s: comeliness to the representation.  But since there are no express


s: "'SEMP.  The deer is lodged; I've tracked her to her covert.'


s: "'The deer is lodged; I've tracked her to her covert.'


s: this, Sempronius is entertaining himself with whimsies:--


s: "'Semp.  How will the young Numidian rave to see


s: His mistress lost!  If aught could glad my soul


s: Beyond th' enjoyment of so bright a prize,


s: 'Twould be to torture that young, gay barbarian.


s: But hark! what noise?  Death to my hopes! 'tis he,


s: 'Tis Juba's self!  There is but one way left!


s: "Pray, what are 'those guards'?  I thought at present that Juba's


s: Or act like men; or, by yon azure heav'n!'--


s: "Upon hearing the clash of swords, Lucia and Marcia come in.  The


s: "'Luc.  Sure 'twas the clash of swords! my troubled heart


s: Is so cast down, and sunk amidst its sorrows,


s: It throbs with fear, and aches at every sound!'


s: And immediately her old whimsy returns upon her:--


s: "O Marcia, should thy brothers, for my sake--


s: "'The face is muffled up within the garment.'


s: therefore was not muffled.  Upon seeing this man with his muffled


s: supposed defunct, begins to make his funeral oration.  Upon which


s: how comes Juba to listen here, who had not listened before


s: "But let us come to the scenery of the fifth act.  Cato appears


s: "In short, that Cato should sit long enough in the aforesaid


s: posture, in the midst of this large hall, to read over Plato's


s: intruding there; then that he should leave this hall upon the


s: Such is the censure of Dennis.  There is, as Dryden expresses it,


s: neglected.  Flushed with consciousness of these detections of


s: versification which he had learned from Dryden he debased rather


s: than refined.  His rhymes are often dissonant; in his Georgic he


s: admits broken lines.  He uses both triplets and Alexandrines, but


s: Addison is now to be considered as a critic:  a name which the


s: It is not uncommon for those who have grown wise by the labour of


s: Addison is now despised by some who perhaps would never have seen


s: expanded.  An emulation of intellectual elegance was excited, and


s: Dryden had, not many years before, scattered criticism over his


s: prefaces with very little parsimony; but though he sometimes


s: An instructor like Addison was now wanting, whose remarks, being


s: superficial, might be easily understood, and being just, might


s: descended now and then to lower disquisitions:  and by a serious


s: display of the beauties of "Chevy Chase" exposed himself to the


s: diminution, by obscuring its appearances, and weakening its


s: Before the profound observers of the present race repose too


s: As a describer of life and manners, he must be allowed to stand


s: wonder by the violation of truth.  His figures neither divert by


s: distortion nor amaze by aggravation.  He copies life with so much


s: As a teacher of wisdom, he may be confidently followed.  His


s: religion has nothing in it enthusiastic or superstitious:  he


s: appears neither weakly credulous nor wantonly sceptical; his


s: morality is neither dangerously lax nor impracticably rigid.  All


s: "Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet."


s: His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not


s: scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always


s: equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed


s: idiomatical it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism.


s: incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to


s: fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is misery,


s: which they cannot give, raises no astonishment:  but it seems


s: endeavour their own benefit, and that they who are most able to


s: been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and


s: relate their unhappy lives and untimely deaths.


s: compassion not always due to the unhappy, as they were often the


s: consequences of the crimes of others rather than his own.


s: confession of adultery the most obvious and expeditious method of


s: manner:  for he applied, not to the ecclesiastical courts for a


s: divorce, but to the Parliament for an Act by which his marriage


s: interest could be promoted by neglect or cruelty.  The dread of


s: shame or of poverty, by which some wretches have been incited to


s: abandon or murder their children, cannot be supposed to have


s: affected a woman who had proclaimed her crimes and solicited


s: reproach, and on whom the clemency of the Legislature had


s: supporting, assisting, and defending him, delight to see him


s: rocks.  His mother could not indeed infect others with the same


s: cruelty.  As it was impossible to avoid the inquiries which the


s: In this charitable office she was assisted by his godmother, Mrs.


s: tenderness which the barbarity of his mother made peculiarly


s: necessary; but her death, which happened in his tenth year, was


s: pounds, yet as he had none to prosecute his claim, to shelter him


s: several of the classes, with what rapidity or with what applause


s: being rewarded; and if in so low a state he obtained distinctions


s: While he was thus cultivating his genius, his father, the Earl


s: Rivers, was seized with a distemper, which in a short time put an


s: demanded a positive account of him, with an importunity not to be


s: The same cruelty which incited his mother to intercept this


s: wicked enough to concur in so cruel an action; for it may be


s: It is generally reported that this project was for some time


s: About this time his nurse, who had always treated him as her own


s: therefore went to her house, opened her boxes, and examined her


s: affluence of his mother; and therefore without scruple applied to


s: interposition of those friends which his merit or his distress


s: purpose that he frequently solicited her to admit him to see her;


s: Savage was at the same time so touched with the discovery of his


s: At this time the attention of the literary world was engrossed by


s: popular, he made choice for his first attempt, and, without any


s: success or merit of this performance I know not; it was probably


s: lost among the innumerable pamphlets to which that dispute gave


s: occasion.  Mr. Savage was himself in a little time ashamed of it,


s: therefore given by him to Mr. Bullock, who, having more interest,


s: Not discouraged, however, at his repulse, he wrote two years


s: afterwards Love in a Veil, another comedy, borrowed likewise from


s: Sir Richard Steele, having declared in his favour with all the


s: early to his house the next morning.  Mr. Savage came as he had


s: Richard dictated, and Savage wrote, till the dinner that had been


s: Mr. Savage then imagined his task over, and expected that Sir


s: Richard would call for the reckoning, and return home; but his


s: expectations deceived him, for Sir Richard told him that he was


s: difficulty he obtained.  Sir Richard then returned home, having


s: retired that day only to avoid his creditors, and composed the


s: pamphlet only to discharge his reckoning.


s: domestics could be consistent with his fortune.  Sir Richard very


s: willingly be rid.  And being then asked why he did not discharge


s: them, declared that they were bailiffs, who had introduced


s: diverted with the expedient, and by paying the debt, discharged


s: their attendance, having obliged Sir Richard to promise that they


s: though he was always lavish of future bounties, he conducted his


s: affairs in such a manner that he was very seldom able to keep his


s: It is not, indeed, unlikely that Savage might by his imprudence


s: expose himself to the malice of a talebearer; for his patron had


s: many follies, which, as his discernment easily discovered, his


s: sometimes, in the wantonness of thoughtless mirth, or the heat of


s: ingratitude.  But Sir Richard must likewise be acquitted of


s: laboured, and whose interest he has promoted?


s: contemptuous, insolent, petulant, selfish, and brutal.


s: As Mr. Wilks was one of those to whom calamity seldom complained


s: without relief, he naturally took an unfortunate wit into his


s: general madness of the South Sea traffic; and having been


s: disappointed in her expectations, refused to pay what perhaps


s: nothing but the prospect of sudden affluence prompted her to


s: Being thus obliged to depend upon the friendship of Mr. Wilks, he


s: pleased with his conversation, and touched with his misfortunes,


s: excellence which none ever denied her:  this is the only encomium


s: that without exalting her character would have depressed his own.


s: frustrate his applications, and that she never left any expedient


s: supporting life.  The same disposition she endeavoured to diffuse


s: contested; but, if they deserve death who destroy a child in its


s: birth, what pain can be severe enough for her who forbears to


s: overwhelmed with calamities; and, when his own industry, or the


s: charity of others, has enabled him to rise for a short time above


s: which he chose for the subject was that of Sir Thomas Overbury, a


s: removed from the present age to admit properly the fictions


s: most certain which approach nearer to our own time.  Out of this


s: strength of genius and evenness of mind, of a serenity not to be


s: ruffled and an imagination not to be suppressed.


s: want of genius, and must rather excite pity than provoke censure.


s: there yet remained the labour of introducing it on the stage, an


s: wrote the prologue and epilogue, in which he touches on the


s: circumstances of the author with great tenderness.


s: After all these obstructions and compliances, he was only able to


s: In the publication of his performance he was more successful, for


s: In the dedication, for which he received ten guineas, there is


s: Miscellany of Poems in a very extraordinary manner, by publishing


s: received by him from his mother, but of which he was himself the


s: author, as Mr. Savage afterwards declared.  These lines, and the


s: The subscriptions of those whom these papers should influence to


s: patronise merit in distress, without any other solicitation, were


s: from his proposal, found, to his surprise, seventy guineas, which


s: extended to all his dedications:  his compliments are constrained


s: decency of introduction.  He seems to have written his panegyrics


s: Soon afterwards the death of the king furnished a general subject


s: know not whether he gained by his performance any other advantage


s: exhausted, and which was made at once difficult by the multitudes


s: acquaintances, whose names were Merchant and Gregory, he went in


s: should offer themselves till morning.  In this walk they happened


s: difference in their depositions; one did not see Savage give the


s: Sinclair's sword at all.  This difference, however, was very far


s: therefore some deductions were to be made from the credibility of


s: Sinclair had declared several times before his death that he


s: received his wound from Savage:  nor did Savage at his trial deny


s: suddenness of the whole action, and the impossibility of any ill


s: design or premeditated malice; and partly to justify it by the


s: justice, or decline a trial, but to avoid the expenses and


s: severities of a prison; and that he intended to appear at the bar


s: This defence, which took up more than an hour, was heard by the


s: multitude that thronged the court with the most attentive and


s: woman by whom strumpets were entertained, a man by whom they were


s: severity, and when he had summed up the evidence, endeavoured to


s: exasperate the jury, as Mr. Savage used to relate it, with this


s: "Gentlemen of the jury, you are to consider that Mr. Savage is a


s: comparisons, resolutely asserted that his cause was not candidly


s: explained, and began to recapitulate what he had before said with


s: attack each other, the death of either is only manslaughter; but


s: where one is the aggressor, as in the case before them, and, in


s: Thus ended this memorable trial, which lasted eight hours.  Mr.


s: Savage and Mr. Gregory were conducted back to prison, where they


s: offences which arise out of premeditation, and a disposition


s: sudden impulse of passion.  We therefore hope you will contribute


s: calamity.  I hope this will not be construed as if we meant to


s: soften my grief than to be without any companion in so great a


s: To prejudice the queen against him, she made use of an incident


s: before he entered the chamber, alarmed the family with the most


s: Savage, who had attempted with the most submissive tenderness to


s: soften her rage, hearing her utter so detestable an accusation,


s: thought it prudent to retire, and, I believe, never attempted


s: But shocked as he was with her falsehood and her cruelty, he


s: imagined that she intended no other use of her lie than to set


s: instrument of future wickedness, or that she would endeavour for


s: this fictitious assault to deprive him of his life.  But when the


s: By whom this atrocious calumny had been transmitted to the queen,


s: audience of the queen, laid before her the whole series of his


s: mother's cruelty, exposed the improbability of an accusation by


s: which he was charged with an intent to commit a murder that could


s: It is natural to inquire upon what motives his mother could


s: persecute him in a manner so outrageous and implacable; for what


s: shortened by her maternal offices; that though she could not


s: transport her son to the plantations, bury him in the shop of a


s: necessary to aggravate the enormity of this woman's conduct by


s: placing it in opposition to that of the Countess of Hertford.  No


s: Mr. Savage, during his imprisonment, his trial, and the time in


s: which he lay under sentence of death, behaved with great firmness


s: The nature of the act for which he had been tried was in itself


s: uncommon rigour.  When all these particulars are rated together,


s: informed him that she was in distress, and, with a degree of


s: forgave an enemy; by which he at once remitted the strongest


s: continued to speak with anger of the insolence and partiality of


s: Page, and a short time before his death revenged it by a satire.


s: It is natural to inquire in what terms Mr. Savage spoke of this


s: wholly free from the guilt of blood.  How much and how long he


s: regretted it appeared in a poem which he published many years


s: from virtue," by an instance of murder committed by Savage in the


s: life between want and plenty, or, what was yet worse, between


s: abilities by treating him at taverns, and habituating him to


s: night by the anguish of cold and hunger for a week.


s: rougher methods.  He had now, as he acknowledged, lost that


s: tenderness for her which the whole series of her cruelty had not


s: This expedient proved successful.  Whether shame still survived,


s: though virtue was extinct, or whether her relations had more


s: delicacy than herself, and imagined that some of the darts which


s: satire might point at her would glance upon them, Lord Tyrconnel,


s: life; and for some time he had no reason to complain of fortune.


s: His appearance was splendid, his expenses large, and his


s: upon a refined taste.  To admire Mr. Savage was a proof of


s: which they owe to merit, and are pleased when they have an


s: This interval of prosperity furnished him with opportunities of


s: Author to be Let," where he introduces Iscariot Hackney, a


s: Iscariot Hackney might himself have produced.  He was accused


s: false satire ought to be recanted, for the sake of him whose


s: reputation may be injured, false praise ought likewise to be


s: obviated, lest the distinction between vice and virtue should be


s: lost, lest a bad man should be trusted upon the credit of his


s: into contempt, his satire loses its force, and his panegyric its


s: "Dunciad," which were addressed by Mr. Savage to the Earl of


s: Middlesex, in a dedication which he was prevailed upon to sign,


s: though he did not write it, and in which there are some positions


s: satisfaction.  The enumeration of the bad effects of the


s: uncontrolled freedom of the press, and the assertion that the


s: "liberties taken by the writers of journals with their superiors


s: were exorbitant and unjustifiable," very ill became men who have


s: themselves not always shown the exactest regard to the laws of


s: eminent for their hereditary rank, and employed in the highest


s: offices of the kingdom.  But this is only an instance of that


s: Mr. Savage was likewise very far from believing that the letters


s: attended the publication of the "Dunciad," however strange and


s: suspected of supplying with private intelligence and secret


s: incidents; so that the ignominy of an informer was added to the


s: generally with contempt, as he was one of those who were always


s: On this, and on many other occasions, he was ready to lament the


s: "I fly all public care, all venal strife,


s: To try the still, compared with active, life;


s: To prove, by these, the sons of men may owe


s: The fruits of bliss to bursting clouds of woe;


s: Inspirits and adorns the thinking mind."


s: And more distinctly in the following passage:--


s: "By woe, the soul to daring action swells;


s: By woe, in plaintless patience it excels:


s: From patience prudent, clear experience springs,


s: And traces knowledge through the course of things.


s: Thence hope is formed, thence fortitude, success,


s: This performance was always considered by himself as his


s: It has been generally objected to "The Wanderer," that the


s: together by accident, which strikes rather with the solemn


s: magnificence of a stupendous ruin than the elegant grandeur of a


s: finished pile.  This criticism is universal, and therefore it is


s: sense of the efficacy of religion.  But my province is rather to


s: intellectual features of the rebels, who suffer death in his last


s: allusion to any real persons or actions.


s: correction to a friend, who was too indolent to perform it with


s: A superstitious regard to the correction of his sheets was one of


s: learned and ingenious are often obliged to submit to very hard


s: gratification, and, being without money for the present occasion,


s: drink the most expensive wines with great profusion, and when the


s: happened, his company were willing to defray his part, the affair


s: house in which they were entertained, indulged themselves in the


s: utmost extravagance of merriment, practised the most licentious


s: frolics, and committed all the outrages of drunkenness.  Nor was


s: this the only charge which Lord Tyrconnel brought against him.


s: Having given him a collection of valuable books, stamped with his


s: exposed to sale upon the stalls, it being usual with Mr. Savage,


s: when he wanted a small sum, to take his books to the pawnbroker.


s: Whoever was acquainted with Mr. Savage easily credited both these


s: exalt him above them; and so much was he delighted with wine and


s: trust for the reckoning to the liberality of his company, and


s: frequently of company to whom he was very little known.  This


s: entertaining, and his address so pleasing, that few thought the


s: Mr. Savage, on the other hand, declared that Lord Tyrconnel


s: quarrelled with him because he would not subtract from his own


s: that subsistence which he thought not so much a favour as a debt,


s: taverns, and that he appeared desirous that he would pass those


s: resolution "to spurn that friend who should pretend to dictate to


s: future edition of his writings, and accordingly blotted it out of


s: During his continuance with the Lord Tyrconnel, he wrote "The


s: contemplated; whether the splendour with which they dazzled their


s: selected for high stations, or high stations made great men.


s: advantages more praise than he could justly claim from his real


s: considered as the advocates of the Crown, or the guardians of the


s: formidable as to be universally detested, he observed that his


s: acquisitions had been small, or that his capacity was narrow, and


s: But the opportunity of indulging his speculations on great


s: characters was now at an end.  He was banished from the table of


s: Lord Tyrconnel, and turned again adrift upon the world, without


s: preceded by coldness, peevishness, or neglect, though it was


s: undoubtedly the consequence of accumulated provocations on both


s: difficulties to which Mr. Savage was exposed by them, were soon


s: known both to his friends and enemies; nor was it long before he


s: perceived, from the behaviour of both, how much is added to the


s: endeavoured to preserve his favour by complying with his


s: inclinations, and whom he nevertheless set at defiance, and was


s: continually irritating by negligence or encroachments.


s: Examples need not be sought at any great distance to prove that


s: That Mr. Savage was too much elevated by any good fortune is


s: generally known; and some passages of his Introduction to "The


s: distress was not a proper subject for merriment or topic of


s: invective.  He was then able to discern, that if misery be the


s: however forcibly he might inculcate them.  His degradation,


s: It does not appear that after this return of his wants he found


s: they might now consign him to others.  He was now likewise


s: considered by many rather as criminal than as unhappy, for the


s: friends of Lord Tyrconnel, and of his mother, were sufficiently


s: industrious to publish his weaknesses, which were indeed very


s: numerous, and nothing was forgotten that might make him either


s: hateful or ridiculous.  It cannot but be imagined that such


s: withdraw their regard, or withhold their assistance.


s: Savage, however, was not one of those who suffered himself to be


s: advantage, that he drove him first to the practice of outrage and


s: Lord Tyrconnel was accused by Mr. Savage of some actions which


s: These mutual accusations were retorted on both sides, for many


s: length have forgot those provocations, which, however they might


s: have once inflamed him, had not in reality much hurt him.  The


s: spirit of Mr. Savage, indeed, never suffered him to solicit a


s: reconciliation; he returned reproach for reproach, and insult for


s: fortune, and enabled him to form a party, and prejudice great


s: however, he never made any mean or importunate complaints, being


s: formed rather to bear misery with fortitude than enjoy prosperity


s: notoriety of the story to which the allusions are made, procured


s: this performance a very favourable reception; great numbers were


s: immediately dispersed, and editions were multiplied with unusual


s: One circumstance attended the publication which Savage used to


s: relate with great satisfaction.  His mother, to whom the poem was


s: The pleasure which he received from this increase of his poetical


s: properly proposed to the imitation of multitudes who, for want of


s: It were doubtless to be wished that truth and reason were


s: universally prevalent; that everything were esteemed according to


s: disappointed, in their endeavours after happiness, by placing it


s: imagination with those ideal opiates, of having tried the same


s: experiment upon his conscience; and, having accustomed himself to


s: certain that he was upon every occasion too easily reconciled to


s: indeed not so much a good man as the friend of goodness.


s: This, at least, must be allowed him, that he always preserved a


s: strong sense of the dignity, the beauty, and the necessity of


s: virtue; and that he never contributed deliberately to spread


s: corruption amongst mankind.  His actions, which were generally


s: precipitate, were often blameable; but his writings, being the


s: Shielded my infant innocence with prayer;


s: No father's guardian hand my youth maintained,


s: Called forth my virtues, or from vice restrained."


s: under the same want of the necessaries of life; and he therefore


s: exerted all the interest which his wit, or his birth, or his


s: Gentleman's Magazine, whence I have copied it entire, as this was


s: "MR. URBAN,--In your Magazine for February you published the last


s: notwithstanding this act of ceremony was wanting, in a few days


s: generous.  To chain down the genius of a writer to an annual


s: panegyric showed in the queen too much desire of hearing her own


s: praises, and a greater regard to herself than to him on whom her


s: bounty was conferred.  It was a kind of avaricious generosity, by


s: Mrs. Oldfield had formerly given him the same allowance with much


s: assistance, and was contented with doing good without stipulating


s: assumed the title of "Volunteer Laureate," not without some


s: reprehensions from Cibber, who informed him that the title of


s: bestow upon himself; and added that he might with equal propriety


s: usurpation of it could be imputed to him as an instance of very


s: which they were dispersed over the kingdom.


s: confined to the same subject, he should be at some times indolent


s: patronage; and, in others, as disconsolate to find himself


s: neglected.  Her promise, like other promises made to this


s: About this time not only his hopes were in danger of being


s: frustrated, but his pension likewise of being obstructed, by an


s: transaction was mentioned, and the whole series of the rioter's


s: imputation of sedition and ingratitude.  This demand was likewise


s: interest, or any other visible design than that of drawing upon


s: conversation; and therefore Mr. Savage, in pursuance of his


s: character, endeavoured to become conspicuous among the


s: controvertists with which every coffee-house was filled on that


s: occasion.  He was an indefatigable opposer of all the claims of


s: ecclesiastical power, though he did not know on what they were


s: Rundle; for he was the friend of Mr. Foster and Mr. Thomson, who


s: inverted the accusation; and that he thought it reasonable to


s: But return of invective was not thought a sufficient punishment.


s: The Court of King's Bench was therefore moved against him; and he


s: intended to promote the practice of vice; but that Mr. Savage had


s: detestation, and of amending the age by showing the deformity of


s: such a manner as should expose them either to ridicule or


s: curiosity could make after him.  At length he appeared again,


s: confuted his own account of his conduct.


s: His politeness and his wit still raised him friends who were


s: petitioner, but of a friend to his friend."


s: Mr. Savage now concluded himself set at ease for ever, and, as he


s: To despair was not, however, the character of Savage; when one


s: patronage failed, he had recourse to another.  The Prince was now


s: equal danger of being disconcerted, he produced a poem "On Public


s: But though he may sometimes disappoint his reader by transient


s: attention, and excited the applause, of a poet.  The politician,


s: relieved; and the life which is overburthened by accidental


s: which have been generally committed by the discoverers of new


s: regions, and to expose the enormous wickedness of making war upon


s: waste.  He has asserted the natural equality of mankind, and


s: endeavoured to suppress that pride which inclines men to imagine


s: that right is the consequence of power.  His description of the


s: various miseries which force men to seek for refuge in distant


s: countries affords another instance of his proficiency in the


s: It is observable that the close of this poem discovers a change


s: which experience had made in Mr. Savage's opinions.  In a poem


s: declared that in his opinion all the virtue of mankind was


s: In describing villas and gardens he did not omit to condemn that


s: absurd custom which prevails among the English of permitting


s: "But what the flowering pride of gardens rare,


s: If gates which to excess should still give way,


s: Ope but, like Peter's paradise, for pay;


s: And each new walk must a new tax demand;


s: What foreign eye but with contempt surveys?


s: What Muse shall from oblivion snatch their praise?"


s: But before the publication of his performance he recollected that


s: publication of these lines might be officiously represented as an


s: against the censures which the unseasonableness of it might draw


s: necessary, and restored it to the proper place.  The poem was,


s: therefore received no reward from his patron, however generous on


s: sold, though the performance was much commended by some whose


s: however allowed, in justification of the public, that this


s: performance is not the most excellent of Mr. Savage's works; and


s: that, though it cannot be denied to contain many striking


s: But no sooner had he received his pension than he withdrew to his


s: former distress, and for some part of the year generally lived by


s: lodged as much by accident as he dined, and passed the night


s: meanest and most profligate of the rabble; and sometimes, when he


s: walked about the streets till he was weary, and lay down in the


s: summer upon the bulk, or in the winter, with his associate, in


s: poverty, among the ashes of a glass-house.


s: whose delicacy might have polished courts.  It cannot but be


s: imagined that such necessities might sometimes force him upon


s: "Though misery leads to happiness and truth,


s: (Oh, let none censure, if, untried by grief,


s: He stooped reluctant to low arts of shame,


s: Which then, e'en then, he scorned, and blushed to name."


s: Whoever was acquainted with him was certain to be solicited for


s: small sums, which the frequency of the request made in time


s: exigencies this comfort, that he always imagined himself sure of


s: inclination or intrude upon his gaiety.  His distresses, however


s: afflictive, never dejected him; in his lowest state he wanted not


s: submitted to be treated otherwise than as an equal.  Once when he


s: indeed not remarkable for moderation in his prosperity, left a


s: message that he desired to see him about nine in the morning.


s: determined, if he ever regained his allowance, to hold it only by


s: submission as the tyranny of affluence; and therefore Savage, by


s: writings feared him as a critic, and maligned him as a rival; and


s: Among these Mr. Miller so far indulged his resentment as to


s: introduce him in a farce, and direct him to be personated on the


s: The great hardships of poverty were to Savage not the want of


s: lodging or food, but the neglect and contempt which it drew upon


s: him.  He complained that, as his affairs grew desperate, he found


s: nothing above his reach which he should at any time earnestly


s: quality which could never be communicated to his money.


s: former play, but made a total alteration of the plan, added new


s: incidents, and introduced new characters; so that it was a new


s: Many of his friends blamed him for not making choice of another


s: omitting to write on her death; but on her birthday next year he


s: gave a proof of the solidity of his judgment and the power of his


s: that it was impossible to travel in it without treading in the


s: footsteps of those who had gone before him; and that therefore it


s: would have thought it very difficult to connect in one view, but


s: The beauty of this peculiar combination of images is so masterly


s: king, in the most delicate and artful manner, of continuing his


s: With regard to the success of his address he was for some time in


s: determined in his affair, having reason to suspect that no great


s: It is said that he did not take those methods of retrieving his


s: interest which were most likely to succeed; and some of those who


s: violence in his proceedings; but Mr. Savage, who seldom regulated


s: distinction that was made between him and the other pensioners of


s: Whatever was the crime of which he was accused or suspected, and


s: generosity on every other occasion was eminent, procured him no


s: reward; Sir Robert Walpole, who valued himself upon keeping his


s: clothes that had been designed for him were taken away.


s: His distress was now publicly known, and his friends therefore


s: concern "for the miserable withdrawing of this pension;" and gave


s: which we are pleased to call the Great."  The scheme proposed for


s: improvements, which would have required much time or great


s: application; and, when he had finished them, he designed to do


s: justice to his subscribers by publishing them according to his


s: proposals.  As he was ready to entertain himself with future


s: interruption from pride, or ignorance, or brutality.  With these


s: expectations he was so enchanted that when he was once gently


s: support himself, he could not bear to debar himself from the


s: happiness which was to be found in the calm of a cottage, or lose


s: bramble, and which he did not fail to mention as a very important


s: He now began very sensibly to feel the miseries of dependence.


s: consult how they should equip him.  This treatment was not very


s: peculiarity of his character.  Upon hearing the design that was


s: formed, he came to the lodging of a friend with the most violent


s: agonies of rage; and, being asked what it could be that gave him


s: such disturbance, he replied with the utmost vehemence of


s: indignation, "That they had sent for a tailor to measure him."


s: How the affair ended was never inquired, for fear of renewing his


s: retiring "for ever to a place where he should no more trouble his


s: this request, and that "so small a relation would not harden his


s: expostulations.  He very justly observed, that the style was too


s: hypocritically, ask it."  He remarked that his friend made a very


s: After many alterations and delays, a subscription was at length


s: however, was satisfied, and willing to retire, and was convinced


s: Full of these salutary resolutions, he left London in July, 1739,


s: sufficient, not only for the expense of his journey, but for his


s: therefore could not proceed without a remittance.  They then sent


s: At Bristol he found an embargo laid upon the shipping, so that he


s: After some stay at Bristol he retired to Swansea, the place


s: contracted, as in other places, acquaintance with those who were


s: This proposal he rejected with the utmost contempt.  He was by no


s: distresses, will find it no easy task to vindicate their conduct.


s: least the resentment it might provoke ought to have been generous


s: abandoned.  He might justly represent, that he ought to have been


s: release himself, and, with an intent to return to London, went to


s: kindness were not often to be expected, and that this ardour of


s: Another part of his misconduct was the practice of prolonging his


s: into which he was admitted.  This was an error in a place of


s: commerce which all the charms of his conversation could not


s: But he did not spend all the time of his residence at Bristol in


s: returning to London, to bring his tragedy upon the stage; but,


s: conduct had already wearied some of those who were at first


s: enamoured of his conversation; but he might, perhaps, still have


s: devolved to others, whom he might have entertained with equal


s: success, had not the decay of his clothes made it no longer


s: consistent with their vanity to admit him to their tables, or to


s: slighted and neglected, in quest of a dinner, which he did not


s: To complete his misery, he was pursued by the officers for small


s: lodging, which was in the garret of an obscure inn.  Being thus


s: excluded on one hand, and confined on the other, he suffered the


s: neither be persuaded to go to bed in the night nor to rise in the


s: It is observable, that in these various scenes of misery he was


s: always disengaged and cheerful:  he at some times pursued his


s: studies, and at others continued or enlarged his epistolary


s: He had now no longer any hopes of assistance from his friends at


s: benevolence by observation of the use which was made of their


s: favours, and conviction that relief would be only momentary, and


s: that the same necessity would quickly return.


s: At last he quitted the house of his friend, and returned to his


s: lodgings at the inn, still intending to set out in a few days for


s: arrested for a debt of about eight pounds, which he owed at a


s: coffee-house, and conducted to the house of a sheriff's officer.


s: "It was not a little unfortunate for me, that I spent yesterday's


s: "I was arrested at the suit of Mrs. Read, just as I was going


s: "In the first place, I must insist that you will industriously


s: conceal this from Mrs. S---s, because I would not have her good


s: nature suffer that pain which I know she would be apt to feel on


s: (God be praised!) I have in this, and have had in a much severer


s: resentment against Mrs. Read.  I believe she has ruined me, but I


s: attend me for this day, not only for the sake of saving me the


s: philosophy, refined and exalted by those of Christianity."


s: When his friends, who had hitherto caressed and applauded, found


s: therefore, after having been for some time at the officer's house


s: By his removal to Newgate he obtained at least a freedom from


s: suspense, and rest from the disturbing vicissitudes of hope and


s: burthensome to him.  He was offered by some of his friends that a


s: determined only to write to some ministers of state, to try to


s: He continued to complain of those that had sent him into the


s: This pamphlet was never written; for he in a very short time


s: "I now write to you from my confinement in Newgate, where I have


s: In another letter he observes, that he ranges from one subject to


s: virtue of suffering well cannot be denied him.  The two powers


s: which, in the opinion of Epictetus, constituted a wise man, are


s: supported by him at his own table, without any certainty of a


s: recompense; had a room to himself, to which he could at any time


s: Virtue is undoubtedly most laudable in that state which makes it


s: most difficult; and therefore the humanity of a gaoler certainly


s: deserves this public attestation; and the man whose heart has not


s: print it with his name; but enjoined him not to communicate his


s: agreeable to his character, in the following terms:--


s: suppose that it was his will and pleasure to add it in his case:


s: would imagine.  You go on in saying, Suppose I should not put my


s: provoke those whom he could neither resist nor escape.


s: This resolution, from the execution of which it is probable that


s: only his death could have hindered him, is sufficient to show how


s: interruption succeeding another, hindered him from supplying the


s: chasm, and perhaps from retouching the other parts, which he can


s: hardly be imagined to have finished in his own opinion; for it is


s: criminals; for it was not pleasing to him to be much without


s: company; and though he was very capable of a judicious choice, he


s: He had now ceased from corresponding with any of his subscribers


s: show how much he was superior to their insults, had not all his


s: charge of very atrocious ingratitude, drawn up in such terms as


s: Such were the life and death of Richard Savage, a man equally


s: impressed upon him.  He had the art of escaping from his own


s: reflections, and accommodating himself to every new scene.


s: To this quality is to be imputed the extent of his knowledge,


s: entertain such odious ideas as some who perhaps had neither his


s: judgment nor experience, have published, either in ostentation of


s: It cannot be said that he made use of his abilities for the


s: excited by the presence of its object, and that slavery to his


s: easily disgusted; but he is accused of retaining his hatred more


s: tenaciously than his benevolence.  He was compassionate both by


s: nature and principle, and always ready to perform offices of


s: humanity; but when he was provoked (and very small offences were


s: His friendship was therefore of little value; for though he was


s: gratitude; and would betray those secrets which in the warmth of


s: appearing in the form of insolence at one time, and of vanity at


s: another.  Vanity, the most innocent species of pride, was most


s: every other man's, and to reject that praise to which he had no


s: virtues; but his characters were generally true, so far as he


s: against the objections of the critic, it must however be


s: acknowledged that his works are the productions of a genius truly


s: sentiments have a cast peculiar to themselves, which no man can


s: imitate with success, because what was nature in Savage would in


s: though sometimes forced, and his numbers sonorous and majestic,


s: For his life, or for his writings, none who candidly consider his


s: prosperity; and vanity surely may be readily pardoned in him, to


s: whom life afforded no other comforts than barren praises, and the


s: Those are no proper judges of his conduct who have slumbered away


s: presume to say, "Had I been in Savage's condition, I should have


s: This relation will not be wholly without its use, if those who


s: languish under any part of his sufferings shall be enabled to


s: fortify their patience by reflecting that they feel only these


s: irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit


s: An account of Dr. Swift has been already collected, with great


s: Jonathan Swift was, according to an account said to be written by


s: himself an Englishman.  The question may, without much regret, be


s: (1682) was admitted into the University of Dublin.  In his


s: resolved from that time to study eight hours a day, and continued


s: pleasures, and who having lost one part of life in idleness, are


s: When he was about one-and-twenty (1688), being by the death of


s: Godwin Swift, his uncle, who had supported him, left without


s: subsistence, he went to consult his mother, who then lived at


s: Temple, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, had lived in great


s: familiarity of friendship with Godwin Swift, by whom Jonathan had


s: pleased, that he detained him two years in his house.  Here he


s: garden, showed him how to cut asparagus in the Dutch way.  King


s: complying with a bill then depending for making parliaments


s: predetermination of the king; and used to mention this


s: everybody eats as much fruit as he can get, without any great


s: inconvenience.  The disease of Swift was giddiness with deafness,


s: It is easy to imagine that the mode in which his first degree was


s: omitted; and he took his Master's degree (July 5, 1692) with such


s: lodging, where he purchased clean sheets for sixpence.  This


s: practice Lord Orrery imputes to his innate love of grossness and


s: vulgarity:  some may ascribe it to his desire of surveying human


s: life through all its varieties:  and others, perhaps with equal


s: conversation; and grew so impatient, that (1694) he went away in


s: which, according to his kinsman's account, was an office which he


s: prebend, which he desired him to resign.  With this request Swift


s: Swift began early to think, or to hope, that he was a poet, and


s: wrote Pindaric Odes to Temple, to the king, and to the Athenian


s: prebend that should be vacant at Westminster or Canterbury.  That


s: deanery.  At Laracor he increased the parochial duty by reading


s: Soon after his settlement at Laracor, he invited to Ireland the


s: unfortunate Stella, a young woman whose name was Johnson, the


s: Swift was not one of those minds which amaze the world with early


s: have, should hire me to write the 'Tale of a Tub.'"


s: understand the two controversies, or he willingly misrepresented


s: them.  But Wit can stand its ground against Truth only a little


s: anonymous protestation prefixed, in which all knowledge of the


s: Astrology under the name of "Bickerstaff;" the "Argument against


s: "The Sentiments of a Church of England Man" is written with great


s: materials?  What other subject, through all art or nature, could


s: have produced Tindal for a profound author, or furnished him with


s: "Bickerstaff," induced Steele, when he projected the Tatler, to


s: assume an appellation which had already gained possession of the


s: In the year following he wrote a "Project for the Advancement of


s: Soon after began the busy and important part of Swift's life.  He


s: Harley's designs and situation were such as made him glad of an


s: auxiliary so well qualified for his service:  he therefore soon


s: admitted him to familiarity, whether ever to confidence some have


s: conversation, and mentions something contributed by him to his


s: thought, with great reason, that the Ministers were losing


s: succession undetermined.  Not knowing what to do, he did nothing;


s: Swift seems to have concurred in opinion with the "October Club;"


s: Early in the next year he published a "Proposal for Correcting,


s: instituting an academy; the decrees of which every man would have


s: Swift now attained the zenith of his political importance:  he


s: published (1712) the "Conduct of the Allies," ten days before the


s: have been continued without end, if he could have continued his


s: wonder-working pamphlet with cool perusal, will confess that its


s: efficacy was supplied by the passions of its readers; that it


s: operates by the mere weight of facts, with very little assistance


s: This year (1712) he published his "Reflections on the Barrier


s: treats him like one whom he is glad of an opportunity to insult.


s: Swift, being now the declared favourite and supposed confidant of


s: interposition many Whigs of merit, and among them Addison and


s: Congreve, were continued in their places.  But every man of known


s: Much has been said of the equality and independence which he


s: accounts of this kind a few single incidents are set against the


s: general tenour of behaviour.  No man, however, can pay a more


s: magnanimity; nor have often any nobler cause than the pride of


s: importance, and the malice of inferiority.  He who knows himself


s: necessary may set, while that necessity lasts, a high value upon


s: qualities.  His disinterestedness has likewise been mentioned; a


s: strain of heroism which would have been in his condition romantic


s: friends could venture to give him.  That Ministry was in a great


s: Swift contrived an interview, from which they both departed


s: discontented; he procured a second, which only convinced him that


s: sometimes with contempt, and sometimes with abhorrence.  In this


s: pamphlet the Scotch were mentioned in terms so provoking to that


s: Parliament, particularly by two men, afterwards of great note,


s: Aislabie and Walpole.  But, by the disunion of his great friends,


s: services at last useless, he retired about June (1714) into


s: politics; and nothing remained but to withdraw from the


s: implacability of triumphant Whiggism, and shelter himself in


s: think is true, that they speak of different times.  When Delany


s: says, that he was received with respect, he means for the first


s: fortnight, when he came to take legal possession; and when Lord


s: Orrery tells that he was pelted by the populace, he is to be


s: understood of the time when, after the Queen's death, he became a


s: between prudence and integrity, he was seldom in the wrong; and


s: that, when he was right, his spirit did not easily yield to


s: possession of his mind, when he first waked, for many years


s: together.  He opened his house by a public table two days a week,


s: contracted, and he continued it for the pleasure of accumulating


s: money.  His avarice, however, was not suffered to obstruct the


s: life; they lived in different houses, as before; nor did she ever


s: giddiness.  "It would be difficult," says Lord Orrery, "to prove


s: that they were ever afterwards together without a third person."


s: The Dean of St. Patrick's lived in a private manner, known and


s: regarded only by his friends; till, about the year 1720, he, by a


s: improvement, of their manufactures.  For a man to use the


s: imprisoned; and, as Hawkesworth justly observes, the attention of


s: proposal, the author was by consequence made popular.


s: In 1723 died Mrs. Van Homrigh, a woman made unhappy by her


s: admiration of wit, and ignominiously distinguished by the name of


s: fond of his person.  Swift was then about forty-seven, at an age


s: indulgence of her hopes after his marriage to Stella, no other


s: honest plea can be found than that he delayed a disagreeable


s: discovery from time to time, dreading the immediate bursts of


s: excellence and confessed his love.  The effect of the publication


s: house of a cheerful, generous, good-natured friend of the Dean's,


s: beloved and largely acquainted, it happened one day that some


s: gentlemen dropped in to dinner, who were strangers to Stella's


s: situation; and as the poem of 'Cadenus and Vanessa' was then the


s: general topic of conversation, one of them said, 'Surely that


s: known that the Dean could write finely upon a broomstick.'"


s: The great acquisition of esteem and influence was made by the


s: "Drapier's Letters," in 1724.  One Wood, of Wolverhampton, in


s: inconvenient and embarrassing scarcity of copper coin, so that it


s: frightened into a special verdict, now presented the Drapier, but


s: Lord Carteret and the Privy Council published a proclamation,


s: offering three hundred pounds for discovering the author of the


s: Fourth Letter.  Swift had concealed himself from his printers and


s: wealth or higher station.  He was from this important year the


s: oracle of the traders, and the idol of the rabble, and by


s: consequence was feared and courted by all to whom the kindness of


s: The benefit was indeed great; he had rescued Ireland from a very


s: exculpated himself by saying, "If I had lifted up my finger, they


s: conversation was to him the great softener of the ills of life,


s: considered as hopeless.  Swift was then in England, and had been


s: health.  He was now so much at ease, that (1727) he returned to


s: England, where he collected three volumes of Miscellanies in


s: conjunction with Pope, who prefixed a querulous and apologetical


s: This important year sent likewise into the world "Gulliver's


s: which she never meant to raise, the event was that he always


s: enough of recommencing courtier, and endeavoured to gain the


s: Johnson.  He then left the house of Pope, as it seems, with very


s: little ceremony, finding "that two sick friends cannot live


s: together;" and did not write to him till he found himself at


s: Chester.  He turned to a home of sorrow:  poor Stella was sinking


s: wished her life his papers show; nor can it be doubted that he


s: dreaded the death of her whom he loved most, aggravated by the


s: consciousness that himself had hastened it.


s: demands, and prescribing conditions that could not be performed.


s: literature, for she could not spell her own language; and of her


s: wit, so loudly vaunted, the smart sayings which Swift himself has


s: The reader of Swift's "Letter to a Lady on her Marriage," may be


s: allowed to doubt whether his opinion of female excellence ought


s: implicitly to be admitted; for, if his general thoughts on women


s: were such as he exhibits, a very little sense in a lady would


s: enrapture, and a very little virtue would astonish him.  Stella's


s: Bettesworth was so little satisfied with this account, that he


s: Swift was popular awhile by another mode of beneficence.  He set


s: forced to drop his scheme, and own the folly of expecting


s: years increased, his fits of giddiness and deafness grew more


s: frequent, and his deafness made conversation difficult; they grew


s: expectation of a dinner, his custom was to give every one a


s: shilling, that they might please themselves with their provision.


s: refuse a bottle of wine, and in Ireland no man visits where he


s: spectacles, he could make like little use of books in his latter


s: vacant to the vexations of the hour, till at last his anger was


s: heightened into madness.  He, however, permitted one book to be


s: published, which had been the production of former years--"Polite


s: upon great things, busy with minute occurrences.  It is apparent


s: mouthfuls:  but he would never touch it while the servant stayed,


s: walking; for he continued his old habit, and was on his feet ten


s: hours a day.  Next year (1742) he had an inflammation in his left


s: parts; he was kept long waking with the pain, and was not easily


s: restrained by five attendants from tearing out his eye.


s: recovery; but in a few days he sank into a lethargic stupidity,


s: November, told him that the usual bonfires and illuminations were


s: When Swift is considered as an author, it is just to estimate his


s: have dictated for a time the political opinions of the English


s: riches and prosperity.  He taught them first to know their own


s: In his works he has given very different specimens both of


s: sentiments and expression.  His "Tale of a Tub" has little


s: resemblance to his other pieces.  It exhibits a vehemence and


s: written.  In his other works is found an equable tenour of easy


s: language, which rather trickles than flows.  His delight was in


s: necessity than choice.  He studied purity; and though perhaps all


s: passions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration:  he always


s: understands himself, and his readers always understand him:  the


s: peruser of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be


s: sufficient that he is acquainted with common words and common


s: conveyance of meaning it was Swift's desire to attain, and for


s: attentive.  He managed the revenues of his church with exact


s: economy; and it is said by Delany, that more money was, under his


s: In his church he restored the practice of weekly communion, and


s: careful to hide the good which he did, but willingly incurred the


s: formerly asserted, that hypocrisy is less mischievous than open


s: scrupulosity, did not look clear.  He had a countenance sour and


s: severe, which he seldom softened by any appearance of gaiety.  He


s: vigilance of minute attention which his works discover, must have


s: In his economy he practised a peculiar and offensive parsimony,


s: without disguise or apology.  The practice of saving being once


s: general practice, is a kind of defiance which justly provokes the


s: Of his humour, a story told by Pope may afford a specimen.


s: facts.  I'll tell you one that first comes into my head.  One


s: Of Swift's general habits of thinking, if his Letters can be


s: Pope it might be inferred that they, with Arbuthnot and Gay, had


s: engrossed all the understanding and virtue of mankind; that their


s: employment, and splendid friendships; but when time had enabled


s: querulousness was now grown habitual, and he cried out when he


s: probably had ceased to feel.  His reiterated wailings persuaded


s: Bolingbroke that he was really willing to quit his deanery for an


s: rejected; and Swift still retained the pleasure of complaining.


s: revolving ideas, from which almost every other mind shrinks with


s: "My Lord, when you consider Swift's singular, peculiar, and most


s: uprightness in making right resolutions, and his steadiness in


s: adhering to them; his care of his church, its choir, its economy,


s: "All this considered, the character of his life will appear like


s: that of his writings; they will both bear to be reconsidered, and


s: beauties and excellences upon every examination.


s: malignity, or envy interposes to cloud or sully his fame, I take


s: upon me to pronounce, that the eclipse will not last long.


s: watchful, and a faithful counsellor, under many severe trials and


s: always light, and have the qualities which recommend such


s: compositions, easiness and gaiety.  They are, for the most part,


s: ancient or modern.  This is not literally true; but perhaps no


s: How, my dear Mary,--are you critic-bitten


s: (For vipers kill, though dead) by some review,


s: That you condemn these verses I have written,


s: Because they tell no story, false or true?


s: Till its claws come? Prithee, for this one time,


s: What hand would crush the silken-winged fly,


s: Where the swan sings, amid the sun's dominions?


s: Not thine. Thou knowest 'tis its doom to die,


s: When Day shall hide within her twilight pinions


s: Whose date should have been longer than a day,


s: And o'er thy head did beat its wings for fame,


s: But the shower fell, the swift Sun went his way--


s: And that is dead.--O, let me not believe


s: Watering his laurels with the killing tears


s: Of slow, dull care, so that their roots to Hell


s: Might pierce, and their wide branches blot the spheres


s: The over-busy gardener's blundering toil.


s: My Witch indeed is not so sweet a creature


s: As Ruth or Lucy, whom his graceful praise


s: In dressing. Light the vest of flowing metre


s: She wears; he, proud as dandy with his stays,


s: If you strip Peter, you will see a fellow


s: Scorched by Hell's hyperequatorial climate


s: A lean mark, hardly fit to fling a rhyme at;


s: Can shrive you of that sin,--if sin there be


s: Before those cruel Twins, whom at one birth


s: All those bright natures which adorned its prime,


s: And left us nothing to believe in, worth


s: The pains of putting into learned rhyme,


s: The all-beholding Sun had ne'er beholden


s: In his wide voyage o'er continents and seas


s: He kissed her with his beams, and made all golden


s: The chamber of gray rock in which she lay--


s: She, in that dream of joy, dissolved away.


s: Like splendour-winged moths about a taper,


s: Round the red west when the sun dies in it:


s: Which hide themselves between the Earth and Mars.


s: Ten times the Mother of the Months had bent


s: Her bow beside the folding-star, and bidden


s: At her command they ever came and went--


s: Since in that cave a dewy splendour hidden


s: Took shape and motion: with the living form


s: From her own beauty--deep her eyes, as are


s: Seen through a Temple's cloven roof--her hair


s: And her low voice was heard like love, and drew


s: All living things towards this wonder new.


s: Of his own volumes intervolved;--all gaunt


s: And sanguine beasts her gentle looks made tame.


s: They drank before her at her sacred fount;


s: The brinded lioness led forth her young,


s: That she might teach them how they should forego


s: Their inborn thirst of death; the pard unstrung


s: Came, blithe, as in the olive copses thick


s: Cicadae are, drunk with the noonday dew:


s: And universal Pan, 'tis said, was there,


s: And though none saw him,--through the adamant


s: Where the quick heart of the great world doth pant,


s: And felt that wondrous lady all alone,--


s: And every nymph of stream and spreading tree,


s: And every shepherdess of Ocean's flocks,


s: Who drives her white waves over the green sea,


s: And Ocean with the brine on his gray locks,


s: Could have brought forth so beautiful a birth;--


s: Her love subdued their wonder and their mirth.


s: The herdsmen and the mountain maidens came,


s: Stirred by the air under a cavern gaunt:


s: Pigmies, and Polyphemes, by many a name,


s: Centaurs, and Satyrs, and such shapes as haunt


s: The bright world dim, and everything beside


s: Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade:


s: But on her form, and in her inmost eyes.


s: Long lines of light, such as the dawn may kindle


s: The clouds and waves and mountains with; and she


s: As many star-beams, ere their lamps could dwindle


s: The deep recesses of her odorous dwelling


s: Were stored with magic treasures--sounds of air,


s: Such as we hear in youth, and think the feeling


s: The feeling and the sound are fled and gone,


s: And there lay Visions swift, and sweet, and quaint,


s: Each in its thin sheath, like a chrysalis,


s: Some eager to burst forth, some weak and faint


s: With the soft burthen of intensest bliss.


s: Even Love's:--and others white, green, gray, and black,


s: And of all shapes--and each was at her beck.


s: Had woven from dew-beams while the moon yet slept;