He not only for some time dictated the political opinions of the English nation, but was the first who taught the Irish to know their own strength and interest; in return for which they reverenced him as a guardian, and obeyed him as a dictator. His Tale of a Tub, Gulliver's Travels, and Drapier's Letters, are the most considerable of his prose works; and his Legion Club, Cadenus and Vanessa, and his Rhapsody on Poetry, are at the head of his poetical performances. "His writings, in general," says Granger, "are regarded as standing models of our language, as well as perpetual monuments of their author's fame." The chief merit of his style is its simplicity, and its accessibility to the commonest understanding: but while he thus easily conveys his meaning, he takes little hold either on the feelings or the imagination; his instruction is never assisted by persuasion. Nothing can exceed the grave yet ludicrous irony under which he veils his humour; it is, however, too often mixed with language unpardonably gross disgusting. It

has been said of him that he never borrowed a thought; but without going the length of Lady Montagu, who accused him of stealing all his humour from Cervantes and Rabelais, we do not consider it improbable that he improved on some of the ideas of the latter, whose writings he enthusiastically

adinired.

Various conjectures have been formed in order to account for his conduct to Vanessa and Stella, but the only certainty that can be come to upon the subject is, that he acted like a villain to both. Some have attempted, in assigning a physical infirmity of Swift as the cause of his infamous and mysterious behaviour, to refer the fatal consequences of the attachment of his two victims rather to their own passions than to his perfidy. However the truth of this may palliate his conduct in the case of Vanessa, it sets his character in a still more odious light with regard to Stella; as, by throwing obstacles in the way of her marriage with Dr. Tisdal, he destroyed all her hopes of happiness with another, when he was already sure that she could never find it with himself. Among other reports respecting his marriage, it is said that,

after the ceremony, his mind was in a most awful state; and that Delany was told, by Archbishop King, who shed tears as he spoke, that Swift was the most unhappy man on earth, but on the subject of his wretchedness, Delany must never ask a question. From this circumstance some have supposed, and attempted to prove, that Stella was an iliegitimate sister of the dean; but Sir Walter Scott, with more reason, attributes the state of his mind, at that period, to his recollection of Vanessa, and the fear of his union reaching her ear. His treatment of his sister has been misrepresented by most of his biographers, who assert that he left her utterly destitute, merely for marrying a tradesman; whereas it appears that her husband, Mr. Fenton, was in other respects objectionable, and that he al|lowed her a sufficiency after the ruin of Fenton.

In his character of dean, his conduct seems to have been unexceptionable; and if his own notions of religion may be inferred from the punctuality and solemnity with which he performed its rites, they must have been more deeply impressed upon his heart than has been generally supposed. He certainly, in the former part of his life, furnished grounds for suspicions of, at least, his orthodoxy, by his too great dread of hypocrisy, which made him wish to seem worse, instead of better, than he

his course, and entangled his efforts. Guiding a senate, or heading an army, he had been more than Cromwell, and Ireland not less than England. As it was, he saved her by his courage, improved her by his authority, adorned her by his talents, and exalted her by his fame."

In domestic life, Swift was austere and rigorous; and although upon the whole a just master to his servants, none of them could regard him with affection, and many must have shrunk from him with aversion. "That he was disposed to do his servants good," says Johnson, "on important occasions, is no great mitigation; benefaction can be but rare, and tyrannic peevishness is perpetual." According to the same authority, the love of a shilling was deeply fixed in his heart; in confirmation of which, he tells us that Swift, when going from Sir W. Temple's to his mother, at Leicester, travelled on foot, unless some violence of weather drove him into a wagon, and at night, would go to a penny lodging, where he purchased clean sheets for sixpence. He cannot, however, be justly called avaricious, for he freely distributed what he accumulated; and, it is probable, only saved that he might have more to give. It may here be mentioned, that he left the greater part of his fortune to a hospital for lunatics and idiots, the intention of which he had announced in the verses upon his own death. In the intercourse of familiar life, he, at last. grew haughty, petulant, and imperious; and though no flatterer himself, began to delight in the flattery, whilst he despised the advice, of his friends and acquaintances. Pope said of him that he did not hate praise when it was not extravagant or coarse; when it was so, his manner of receiving it was more coarse and extravagant still. On being told of a person who had said he loved him more dearly than all his relations and friends. he exclaimed, "The man's a fool!" and on a lady's declaration, that she preferred him to all other men, being repeated to him, he replied, "Then I heartily despise her."

Innumerable anecdotes are recorded of his humour and eccentricity, of which the following are the most popular :Calling for his boots, one morning, his

servant excused himself from cleaning them, saying, they would soon be dirty again." Very well," said the dean; "get the horses ready, and we will set out directly." The servant hesitated, and requested permission to get his breakfast first. "Oh!" said his inaster, never mind; you will soon be hungry again." As they were riding along the road, a friend of Swift observing him with a book in his hand, asked his man where they were going.

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Why," said he, "I believe we are going to heaven; for my master is praying and I am fasting."-Upon one occasion, after he had permitted his cook to set out on a journey to see her sister's wedding, he sent for her back, by express, to shut the door.-At another time, hearing one of his servants, in the act of undressing, express a luxurious wish that he could ride to bed, the dean summoned the man up stairs, commanded him to fetch a horse from the paddock, and prepare him tor a journey; and when the poor fellow reported that the horse was ready, "Mount him then, sirrah," said Swift, "and ride to bed."-One evening, Gay and Pope went to see him. On their going in, " Heyday, gentlemen!" said the doctor, "what's the meaning of this visit? How came you to leave all the great lords, that you are so fond of, to come hither to see a poor dean?" "Because we would rather see you than any of them." "Ay, any one, that did not know you so well as I do, might believe you: but, since you are come, I must get some supper for you, I suppose?" No, doctor, we have supped already." Supped already! that's impossible: why, tis not eight o'clock yet." "Indeed, we have." "That's very strange: but, if you had not supped, I must have got something for you. Let me see, what should I have had? A couple of lobsters? ay, that would have done very well,-two shillings: tarts, one shilling. But you will drink a glass of wine with me, though you supped so much before your usual time, only to spare my pocket?" "No, we had rather talk with you than drink with you." "But. if you had supped with me, (as in all reason you ought to have done,) you must have drank with me. A bottle of wine, two shillings. Two and two are

appears to have been born in wedlock; and had not been long at school before he entertained some doubts of the religion of his ancestors; and, at sixteen, became a zealous opposer of popery. In consequence of this change in his sentiments, he resolved to complete his education in Scotland; and he accordingly entered, successively, the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where he graduated M. A. in 1690. He then went to England, where he passed two years among the first families of the dissenters, who, it is said, conceiving great hopes from his uncommon parts,' furnished him with the means of pursuing his studies at Leyden. On his return from abroad, he obtained letters of recommendation to Dr. Mill, and others, at Oxford; upon whose introduction, he was admitted to the use of the Bodleian library, where he collected materials for several literary designs, and composed, besides other treatises, A Dissertation, to prove the Common Narrative of the Death of Regulus a Fable. He had not been long at the university before he received

an

anonymous letter, commencing, "Mr. Toland, the character you bear in Oxford, is this,-that you are a man of fine parts, great learning, and little religion." This hint induced him, shortly afterwards, to draw up a formal confession of his faith, which appeared in May, 1694.

In 1696, he raised a clamour unparalleled in the annals of controversial warfare, by the publication of his Christianity not Mysterious, or a Treatise shewing there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to Reason or above it, and that no Christian Doctrine can properly be called a Mystery. As the work was looked upon in the light of one having a tendency, if not a design, to overthrow revealed religion, it raised up enemies to the author in Christians of all denominations, and his book was even presented by the grand jury of Middlesex. Not only was it also animadverted upon by Stillingfleet, and other eminent writers of this country, but the celebrated Leibnitz published some short remarks upon it in Latin. To escape, in some measure, the outcry against him, our author withdrew to Ireland; but the obnoxious fame of his book having preceded him thither,

he found himself already made the subject of attack in the pulpits of Dublin. Here it seems that he took measures calculated rather to increase than allay the storm against him, by discussing the mysteries of Christianity in coffee-houses, and other public places, with an air of vanity and arrogance which disgusted many that would otherwise have listened to him with the respect due to his learning. A reply was made to his book, by Mr. Peter Brown, in a pamphlet calling upon the civil magistrate to interfere; in consequence of which, his book was presented by the grand jury of Dublin, and afterwards burnt by the common hangman, according to a decree of the parliament, which also ordered, that the author should be taken into custody and prosecuted.

In consequence of these proceedings, Toland thought it prudent to quit Ireland, where, according to Mr. Molyneux, in his correspondence with the celebrated Locke, he had become so odious that it was dangerous for a man to have been known once to conver-e with him. The same authority relates that, as no one would see him, or admit him to their table, he, at last, wanted a meal's meat; and was reduced to such pecuniary extremities, that he fell to borrowing half-a-crown from any one that would lend him. On his arrival in London, he published an apologetical account of the treatment he had met with in Ireland; in which he declared himself a latitudinarian, and renounced all communion with the dissenters, who had, it seems, been the chief promoters of his late persecution.

In 1698, he published a pamphlet, entitled, Militia Reformed; in which he proposed to substitute that species of armament for a standing army; and, in the same year, appeared his Life of Milton. In this work he attempted to disprove the Icon Basilike to have been written by King Charles the First; and from this imposture, as he calls it, he digressed to the spurious books which had been ascribed to Christ and his apostles. Against the political and religious adversaries which these parts of the work incited, he defended himself in a treatise, entitled, Amyntor; in which he gave a catalogue of such primitive books as he considered to

be spurious; and also a complete history of the publication of the Icon Basilike. In 1699, after his return from a trip to Holland, he was employed, by the Duke of Newcastle, to publish Memoirs of Denzil, Lord Hours; and, in the following year, upon the encouragement of Mr. Robert Harley, he reprinted Harrington's Oceana. His next most important publication was Anglia Libera, in explanation and eulogy of the act of succession, occasioned by the death of the Duke of Gloucester, in 1701; and when the Earl of Macclesfield carried the act to Hanover, Toland accompanied him, and presented his book to the Princess Sophia. From Hanover he proceeded to Berlin, where he held a dispute, before the Queen of Prussia, with the learned Beausobre, respecting the authority of the books of the New Testament; of which the latter sent an account to the Bibliothèque Germanique.

He continued to employ his pen in the civil and religious controversies of the time; and, on the accession of Queen Anne, paid a second visit to the courts of Hanover and Berlin, where he was very graciously received by the Princess Sophia and the Queen of Prussia; the latter, it is said, took a pleasure in asking him questions and hearing his singular opinions. This induced him, on his return to England, in 1704, to address to her, under the name of Serena, letters on various philosophical subjects, in which he treats of The Origin and Force of Prejudices, The History of the Soul's Immortality among the Heathens, and the Origin of Idolatry; and attempts a confutation of Spinoza's system of philosophy. In 1705, he published, at the suggestion of Mr. Harley, then secretary of state, the Memorial of the State of England, in Vindication of the Queen, the Church, and the Administration; and, in 1707, a Latin oration, urging the English to a war with France. In this, and the following year, he visited Vienna, Prague, and the Hague, where he published two Latin dissertations, in which he declares superstition to be no less destructive of government than Atheism, and prefers the account given by Strabo, of the Jewish religion and its founder, to that of the Jews themselves. In the latter end of 1710, he returned to Eng

land, where he found Mr. Harley, now Earl of Oxford and lord treasurer, stiil his friend; and it was owing to the liberality of that patron, says a writer in the Biographia Britannica, that, at this time, Toland maintained a handsome post, and took a country house at Epsom, in Surrey. However, in 1712, he lost the favour of Ox:ord, and commenced writing pamphlets against the ministry; one of which, enutied The Art of Restoring, went through ten editions in three months, and exposed him to the danger of prosecution.

On the accession of George the First, he resumed his theological pen; and, in 1718, appeared his Narazenus; or Jewish, Gentile, and Mahometan Christianity, &c. &c.; in which he stated his own conceptions of the original pian of the Christian religion: which was, "That the Jewish converts were still to observe their own law throughout all generations, which was not, however, to be observed by the converted Gentiles; but that both were to be united into one body fellowship, in that part of Christianity particularly, which, better than all the preparative purgations of the philosophers, requires the sanctification of the spirit, and the renovation of the inward man." This was followed, in 1720, by his Pantheisticon, written by way of dialogue; in the course of which he endeavours to prove that there is no God but the universe. "It is this work," says Aikin, “which has particularly subjected Toland to the charge of Atheism; a charge not unmerited by those philosophers who identify deity with the nature of things, and represent it rather as a principle than a person." In the same year, he published a work entitled, Tetradymus, in four parts; at the conclusion of which, he gives an account of his conduct and sentiments, and solemnly professes his preference of the Christian religion, pure and unmixed, to all others. Towards the close of 1721, he went to his lodgings, at Putney, in a state of ill-health and pecuniary distress, under which he was somewhat consoled by an assurance from Lord Molesworth that, as long as he lived, he should never want necessaries. Toland continued to use his pen until a short time before his death, which took place on the 11th of March, 1722. He died with great resignation,