ART. VI. Obfervations upon Lord Orrery's remarks on the life and writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift, containing feveral fingular anecdotes relating to the character and conduct of that great genius, and the most defervedly celebrated Stella. In a feries of letters to his lordship. To which are added, two original pieces of the fame author (excellent in their kind) never before published. 8vo. 4s. Reeve, TH HE defign of this ingenious performance, which we have read with particular pleasure, is to vindicate, as far as it would bear it, the character of Dr. Swift, from the charges brought against it; particularly thofe that have lately come from a noble pen. To defend the reputation of the dead, is a generous tafk; fuch as would befpeak the favour of a benevolent reader, were the performance of lefs worth than that before us. The author is equally pleafing and inftructive, His fentiments, reflections, and ftyle, are each of them masterly. He difputes with good manners, opposes with politeness, and defends with moderation: ready to give up the real foibles of his friend, as he is warm to defend him from fuch as are pretended. The anecdotes of which this piece is full, are curious and entertaining; but their value rises to the public, as they give us a nearer infight to the true character of the dean, than any thing yet published upon that head. But we will not detain our reader from the entertainment this performance will enable us to give him. The author begins his address to my lord in the following polite terms: My lord, I fit down, at the earnest request of some perfons of confequence, to whom I can refuse nothing, not to cenfure, or in any degree to difparage, your judicious, and (in many refpects) mafterly remarks upon the life and writings of 7. S. but to vindicate him from fome mifreprefentations which, I am fatisfied, have been made to you, and to the world of him. My lord, if I am rightly informed, (and I should be glad to believe I am not) you had your information (in the main) from fome perfons who called themselves his friends: and fhould indeed have been truly fo, from the impulse of the loweft degree of gratitude.-I have been told, that the purpofe of these people was, by all the evil arts of infinuation and untruth, to banish the dean's best friends from about him, and make a monopoly of him to themselves. You You, my lord, who were his real friend, and always honoured him in fo diftinguished a manner, will, I am fure, rejoice to have his character cleared up, where it can, from every mifreprefentation that clouds it, Protected by this modeft and polite apology, our author proceeds upon his lordship's obfervation, that Swift was a mixture of avarice aud generofity; the former was frequently prevalent, the latter feldom appeared, unless excited by compaffion. Our author grants, that avarice was as great a fingularity as ever diftinguished Swift from other men;' but obferves, that he was in the decline of life when his lordship knew him; a period, in which avarice is found, by long obfervation and experience, to prevail more or lefs in the minds of ⚫ the best men. His true character, prior to this period, was a mixture of a regular, exact, and well-judged œconomy and frugality, with a very diftinguished generofity. And 'you well know, my lord, that the true character of men and things is to be judged of by their state of perfection, not their decays. • I have heard that he himself was early fenfible of this encroachment of avarice upon him, and used to give this inftance of it: he had refolved, he faid, that as foon as he had raised the deanery 30. a year, he would then allow himself an helper in the ftable, and a wax-light to read by. He then added, It is now fome years fince I raised it to that value, but no helper or wax-light have I to this day.’-- As to Swift's generofity feldom appearing unless excited by compaffion, our author allows, that if by compaffion is meant, that fenfibility of nature, which makes us feel for others, and urges us, by relieving their diftreffes, to relieve our own; Swift had as little of this fort of compaffion as any man living but obferves, that he has been frequently known to give five or ten pounds to charity, with more ease than many richer men, under equal engagement with him, could be prevailed on to give as many fhillings.'---That he laid himfelf out to do more charities, in a greater variety of ways, and with a better judging difcernment, than perhaps any other man of his fortune in the world.' Of this we have the following inftances. 'I never faw poor fo carefully and confcientiously attended to in my life, as those of his cathedral: they were badged, and never begged out of their diftrict; and they always ap'peared with a very diftinguished decency and cleanliness: and after fome time, partly by collecting charities, but more by contributing, he got a little alms-houfe built and furnish ⚫ed, ed, for a few of the most antient and orderly widows, in C one of the closes of his cathedral; where they lived with a decency and cleanliness equal to that of the best English poor, < which he took care to keep up, by frequent vifits to them • in person. But this fpirit of charity stopped not here: it is well ⚫ known, that he was the author of a scheme for the badging the poor of the whole city of Dublin (and the kingdom in confequence); the wifeft, the beft judged, the most practicable, and the most Christan scheme, for relieving all those "who were proper objects of charity. And at the same time banishing vagrant beggary from the earth, with all its attendant abominations.' Our readers of rank and authority, (if any such condescend to give our papers a perufal) will excufe our interrupting the course of this interefting narrative. Can fuch a scheme be practicable in England? Our vagrant poor are, under the prefent happy fyftem of government, one of the greateft grievances we have to complain of. Will it be a breach of English liberty, to have authority give the fanction of a badge to thofe, who would recommend themselves to our belief of their diftrefs by the moft folemn invocations upon God, Chrift, and our humanity? Might we prefume to offer our opinion, we should be induced to fay, that fome improvements upon the dean's fcheme, adapted to the laws now in being, which are in themfelves excellent, but in execution defective, would add to the national honour and intereft, an advantage not easily to be afcertained. But, to follow our author. There was no fuch thing as a vagrant, or unbadged beg < gar seen about his cathedral. Not only the fervants of his church, but his own poor alfo, were obliged to drive them away at their peril: they knew they could not fuffer any fuch to appear, but at the hazard of their employments and badges. This he took to be the most effectual method of banishing vagrant beggary, and at the fame time relieving real diftrefs. And I am fatisfied that he had this also in view, in walking the streets fo conftantly as he did; this gave him an opportunity of examining into the condition of every poor perfon he met. Which he did, with fo well-practised a fagacity, as could feldom be impofed upon. If he walked an hour or two upon any occafion, instead of taking a coach or a chair, he then cried out, that he had earned a fhilling or eighteen-pence, &c. and had a right to do what he pleased with it. And that conftantly went to the account of charity.---And to enable him to gratify this dif pofition, pofition, as occafions offered, he never went abroad with out a pocket full of all forts of coins, from a three-penny ⚫ piece to a crown, which he collected with so much care, that ⚫ he never was without a confiderable fund of all the known • kinds of current coins.' Thus, with proper compliments to my lord, ends letter the firft. I beg leave to inform you and the public, once for all, that my purpose is, to convey these epiftolary observations, without any preluding or concluding apologies. And there⚫fore I proceed to confider your next remark on Swift, which ftands thus, &c.' We take the fanction of our author to inform our readers, that we fhall confider the work before us no longer as an epiftolary performance, but give our extracts as concisely as we poffibly can. It was objected to Swift's character, that he was open to adulation, and could not, or would not, distinguish between low flattery and just applaufe. Our author replies, that Swift's character was here abfolutely miftook. He hated flattery, but was not infenfible to delicate praife: obferving, that a man, • who himself had so much delicacy in praising, must be fhock⚫ed at any attempts of that kind, which degenerated into grofs flattery. To fupport the latter part of this observation, several paffages are produced from the Dean's own writings, and from thofe of others to him. To juftify his delicacy in complimenting others, the following anecdote takes place. • When Lord Carteret was lord lieutenant of Ireland, Swift happened to have a little dispute with him about the griev⚫ances that kingdom fuffered from England, and the folly and < nonsense of their government in that refpect (for he spared no hard words upon that occafion): the lord lieutenant replied with a maftery and ftrength of reafon for which he is fo diftinguished; and which Swift not well liking at that time, cried out in a violent paffion, "What the vengeance "brought you among us; get you gone, get you gone; pray God almighty fend us our boobies back again.' Swift's fuperiority to envy is the first remark in letter III. That this did not arife from the Dean's priding himself in fuperior talents, our author gives the following inftances. That he owned Pope much his fuperior in epic-poetry; Lord Oxford fuch in politics; (a fcience however on which he valued himself not a little') and Gay in paftoral poetry. We are told told too, that Swift loved merit wherever he found it, and never seemed more delighted, than when he could draw it out of obfcurity into an advantageous light, and exalt it there. He made,' fays our author, lord Oxford, in the heighth of his glory, walk with his treafurer's staff from · room to room through his own levy, enquiring which was Dr. Parnelle; in order to introduce himself to him, and beg the honour of his acquaintance: which he did in the moft courteous and obliging manner.' It seems, my Lord Oxford had defired Swift to introduce Dr. Parnelle to him, which he refused upon this principle; that a man of genius was a character fuperior to that of a lord in high ftation: and therefore obliged my lord to introduce himself.' Somewhat further in this letter we are informed, that Swift, fo far from envying men of genius, could live well with them, and even exert in their favour the interest he had at that time; that upon the change of the miniftry [whig-miniftry in the latter part of Queen Anne's time] a report prevailed, that Mr. Congreve would be turned out of his employment: upon which Swift immediately applied himself to my lord trea furer: told him the report, and added, that a hair of Mr. Congreve's head muft not be touched. To which my lord replied: My good doctor, could you think me capable of hurting a man of genius? No, no, Non, tam adverfus, equos Tyria jol < jungit ab urbe.' The fourth letter of this worthy author touches upon a point very material to the reputation of the deceased Dean. The Dean's levities, excufeable, poffibly, in a layman, have laid him open to the cenfures of many. The motives of a man of his caft of genius to come into the church, and his conduct after he had come into it, have been the subjects of common canvafs. My lord Orrery was induced to think that he entered into orders more from private and fixed refolution, than from abfolute choice: be that as it may, he performed the duties of the church with great punctuality, and a decent degree of devo• tion. He read prayers rather in a strong nervous voice, than in a graceful manner; and altho' he has been often accused of irreligion, nothing of that kind appeared in his converfation or • behaviour. Our author inclines to my lord's opinion as to Swift's motives to taking orders; e'pecially as his lordfhip continues to obferve, that Swift's caft of mind induced him to speak and think more of politics than religion: but throws in a doubt (which may however be cafily cleared up) whether Swift's refufal of a commiffion for captain of horse, offered to him by King |