habitual conceit and in the case of one, the fact that it is given on the authority of Arbuthnot, might suggest that it owed its first recital, it may be a mischievously-inclined recital, to Arbuthnot's friend, and Temple's former dependant, Swift. Vexed at finding each of the collections which he was showing to Temple thrown into the shade by some superior possession of his own, on whose merits Temple dwelt, Lord Brouncker, we are told, at length very gravely replied: "Sir William, say no more of the matter: you must at length yield to me, I having lately got something which it is impossible for you to obtain, for my Welsh steward has sent to me a flock of geese: and these are what you can never have, since all your geese

are swans."

Of the other inmates of the house, Lady Temple, the story of whose early days as Dorothy Osborne has in it much of romance, would naturally feel some interest in the youth, brought into her husband's employment as a poor kinsman of her own. She lived for five years more, but her place, as mistress of Moor Park, was in a great measure usurped by Lady Giffard, Temple's widowed sister, who, to a disposition as ardent as his, joined less of self-control: and, in spite of the ability that made her no contemptible defender of his fame, had faults of temper which finally caused an entire breach between her and Swift. But for us the chief interest of the circle lies elsewhere. It is in an adjunct of the household, formed of a Mrs. Johnson, widow of a confidential servant of Sir William's, and her two little daughters. The elder of these daughters was Esther Johnson, now in her eighth year, whose name was to be linked, in one of the strangest and yet tenderest episodes in the often strange and often tender annals of literary history, with that of the student outwardly so humble, but whose genius opened itself perhaps more quickly to this child than to any others of the circle amidst which he now moved. The position of the Johnson family seems to have been a doubtful

one, in the household: at times admitted by the leniency of Lady Giffard to be inmates of Moor Park, and at other times, as tradition has it, living in a little cottage on the confines of the property, which has transmitted to the modern lodge that has replaced it, the name of "Stella's Cottage." In a household so strangely formed, Swift had opportunities of observing other sides of human nature than those to be seen in the visits of king or courtier, and in the discussion of momentous movements in a nation's history. The small vanities of great men: the little local gossip: the notabilities of Farnham: the humours of the various inmates of the house -all these contributed to that which was even now his chief study, the knowledge of mankind.

This first residence began, as we have seen, towards the close of 1689. He came to it "a raw and inexperienced youth." Swift himself,* speaking from memory, and not probably desiring to dwell on details that might have been unpleasant to recall, says loosely that he stayed about two years. The residence, in reality, did not last even a year. Already his lifelong enemies, giddiness and deafness, had begun the attacks that were to continue with such persistency; and the advice of physicians gave him an excuse for returning to Ireland to recruit his health. It is clear enough, that this earlier residence, deep as was the mark it left on Swift's character, was not very pleasant on either side. Swift had as yet established little hold on Sir William's patronage, and may, from very ignorance and inexperience, or from boyish pride, have attempted to claim a position in the household which neither his master, nor others in the circle, were disposed to admit. Yet neither master nor dependant may have been willing to allow matters to go the length of an open breach, and the opportunity may readily have been seized of an excuse for the temporary return of Swift to Ireland. But the parting had no outward signs of ill-will on either side.

* Autobiographical Anecdotes.

In May, 1690, Swift went back to Ireland with a letter from Temple to his friend Sir Robert Southwell, who had gone to Ireland as Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, in which Temple recommends Swift as an amanuensis, or, if that were possible, as a fellow of Trinity College; and speaks in favourable, if not in warm, terms, of Swift's services to himself. Swift's kinsmen are named, if not with the respect that equals might claim, at least not with the contemptuous ignorance which patronage assumes. Nothing came of this recommendation, and Swift's visit to Ireland had opened to him no means of livelihood. But from a statement in one of his letters we learn that he returned to England in the autumn of 1691; that he lived for a time in the country (we may safely assume that it was again with his mother at Leicester); and that after this, he returned on a visit to his patron, and settled again in Temple's house about the close of that year. The residence would therefore appear to have been interrupted for about a year and a half; but when renewed, it was on a totally different footing. Each had repented of the breach, and had found the aid of the other more necessary than he supposed. Temple was too shrewd an observer of men, and had been trained in too astute a school, to remain quite ignorant of the powers that lay buried under the uncouth exterior of this "raw and inexperienced youth." Swift, on his side, had not relished the renewal of Irish life after the smooth and polished society of

Moor Park, and had found no easy roadway to independence in the country of his education. Hardly had the second residence begun, before he found Temple ready to assist him by giving him the means of rising a step in the academic scale. His Dublin career had been cut short before he had attained the master's degree. But now he found means, with Temple's help, of becoming a graduate of Oxford. Of his residence there, and even how long it continued, we know little; but it cannot have been long. On the 23rd of May, 1692, he obtained the necessary certificate of his bachelor's degree from Trinity College: on the 14th of June, he was admitted on the same footing at Oxford: and on the 5th of July, he became a Master of Arts.*

He was now no longer a waif and stray in the battle of life, but renewed his services to Temple with a position in the land of his choice which he prized more than any which could have been given him in the land of his birth and education. "He had been obliged," he says of his Oxford experiences, "in a few weeks to strangers more than in seven years to Dublin College." We have his own account of his new position in Sir William Temple's household in terms that are too clear to admit of dispute, or to be based on imperfect recollection: "growing into some confidence," as he distinctly tells us, "he was often trusted with affairs of great importance."

* Swift belonged to Hart Hall, which afterwards developed into Hartford, or Hertford, College. The College

was dissolved in 1805, but the name has been revived for Magdalen Hall, as now reconstituted.

CHAPTER II.

SWIFT'S FIRST YEARS OF MANHOOD, AND THEIR LESSONS.

1692-1696.

ÆTAT. 24-28.

The second residence with Temple-The influence of Oxford on Swift-His first literary efforts―The Pindarics—Ode to Archbishop Sancroft—To Sir William Temple-Swift and the Athenian Society-John Dunton-Dryden's criticism of Swift's early attempts-The Address to William III.— Swift as adviser of the king-What he learnt at Court-Swift's Ode to Congrece-On Sir W. Temple's Recovery-Desire for independence-His mental state and his experiences so far-His choice of a career-Ordination-An awkward application-Prebendary of Kilroot-The Irish Church in 1694-His life and companions at Kilroot-Varina-Growing irksomeness of his surroundings-Return to England, and what he brought with him.

WITH this second residence in Temple's house there opens for Swift a wider horizon. Step by step he is being drawn into that arena of busy life which now attracted and again repelled him, for which his impetuous spirit of command so far fitted him, at the same time that his intolerance of convention and discipline prevented his hoping for the success in it that smaller men might make sure of. Coming as it did when his mind was still unsettled, this new and larger opportunity of watching the inner movements of great affairs, fascinated Swift's imagination. At the quiet house amidst the Surrey wastes of heather he saw the coming and going of the men who were making the history of Europe, could observe their moods, and could measure their capacity. From this early glimpse he may first have acquired what he retained through life, and what so much fed his cynical humour, the sense of the marvellous contrast between the smallness of the men and