CONTENTS. Dean Swift-His Early Years-Sir William Temple—“ The Battle of the Books '-Extraordinary Influence-Swift as a Politician -'Gulliver's Travels - Hester Johnson- Vanessa-The Drapier Letters-Death and Character- Joseph Addison-His Farce of 'The Campaign '--As an Essayist The Spectator-A Christian's Death — Sir Richard Steele-As a Soldier-'The Christian Hero'- His Plays-Some Letters to His Wife-Founds 'The Dr Arbuthnot-History of John Bull-Bernard de Mandeville -Fable of the Bees-Bishop Berkeley-Dr Prideaux- Alexander Pope-Character of his Poetry-His Life-Essay on Criticism-Rape of the Lock-Translation of Homer -Essay on Man-His Last Days-Matthew Prior-His Public and Private Career His Vers de Société - His 231-303 Character of English Poetry in the Reign of Anne-Its Chief Metrical Form-The Countess of Winchelsea-Thomas Tickell-Elegy on Addison-Thomas Parnell-An Un- happy Life-The Hermit-Night Piece on Death-The Dispensary and Sir Samuel Garth-Sir Richard Blackmore -His Epics-Ambrose Philips-His Pastoral Poems-- Poems on Children - John Philips - William Walsh- Friendship with Pope-Elijah Fenton-William Broome -Aaron Hill-Zara-Lawrence Eusden-Leonard Wel- sted-Thomas Cook-Charles Gildon-John Dennis-His Critical Works - His Plays - Lewis Theobald - James THE COFFEE-HOUSES AND CLUBS, ETC.- Coffee-Houses in London-Description of an Interior-Well's -Button's-Child's-Taverns-Anecdotes-The Kit Cat GOOD QUEEN ANNE; OR, Men and Manners, Life and Letters in the Augustan Age. CHAPTER I. MEN OF LETTERS. Dean Swift-His Early Years-Sir William Temple-'The Battle of the Books'-Extraordinary Influence-Swift as a Politician-'Gulliver's Travels-Hester Johnson-Vanessa-The Drapier Letters-Death and Character-Joseph Addison-His Farce of The Campaign '-As an Essayist The Spectator-A Christian's Death-Sir Richard SteeleAs a Soldier 'The Christian Hero'-His Plays-Some Letters to His Wife Founds 'The Tatler' and 'The Spectator'-Steele as a Man and a Writer-His Death. RISING head and shoulders above all his contem poraries, Dean Swift is, with the exception of Marlborough, the most conspicuous Englishman of his age; the man of the greatest intellectual power and force of character, as he was also the man with the saddest, the most melancholy story. A story which, as no one can read it without deep interest, so can no one think upon it without profound pity; for by how few and transient breaks of peace or happiness is it relieved, by how few of VOL. II. A the milder, tenderer virtues is it lighted up! It is the story of an uncontrolled ambition, which never gained its object; of a tremendous pride, which winced at every slight rebuff; of a heart which, like that of the victims in Beckford's tale of Vathek, was consumed by its internal fire; of an intellect which was stimulated to its most successful effort by the cynical scorn and fierce hatred with which it regarded humanity. It is the story of a life which had little hope and less faith; of an unending struggle which necessarily resulted in defeat, because it was directed against whatever is best and brightest in our human nature. With all the fame that settled upon it, with all the influence that crowned it, with all the forces of wit and satire which it commanded, the life of Swift was a failure, if failure is to be computed by the use to which a man puts his capabilities and opportunities. For it cannot be said of him that he consecrated those vast energies of his to the advocacy of any good or great cause. We cannot point to any one of his writings as furnishing hope, emulation, or encouragement to his fellowmen. We cannot recall him as ever teaching a solitary lesson of truth, or patience, or of that serene wisdom which enables us to endure with patience the shocks of adverse circumstance. He has savagely ridiculed human infirmities; he has never corrected them. From this point of view, if we place him by the side of Addison or Steele, how small, how mean he looks! As much as he excelled them in the wealth of his intellectual resource, so much did he fall below them in the use he made of it. We emphasise the fact that, with all his extraordinary powers, he wrote no line by which a man could be elevated or purified; contributed nothing to the world's treasures of love and hope and goodness. He was a great man, but, strange to say, a great man who did nothing great. JONATHAN SWIFT, the son of an English attorney, |
