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SWI was a native of Whitehaven in England, having been called home by the dangerous illness of a relation, carried with her by stealth her infant charge, to whom she had become strongly attached. When the cause of the child's disappearance was discovered, his mother sent orders that he should not be exposed to the hazards of a second voyage until he was better able to bear it. Swift, therefore, remained at Whitehaven with his nurse for several years. She taught him to read, and seems otherwise to have behaved towards him with exemplary fidelity. When four or five years old he was brought back to Ireland and placed at the school of Kilkenny. At the age of fourteen he entered Trinity college, Dublin. At this time he was entirely dependent on his uncle, Godwin, who was compelled by pecuniary embarrassments to rear him rather penuriously. Swift looked back to this period of his life with very embittered feelings. Nor was the treatment he met with at the university calculated to soften the natural acerbity of his disposition. He was very nearly plucked when examined for his bachelorship in arts, and obtained his degree only by special favour, a term used in that university to denote want of merit. He is said to have been idle and irregular; but it is probable that his failure was rather owing to his neglect of the prescribed routine of academical study, than to any want of diligence and ability. History and poetry had occupied his mind more than the technicalities of the scholastic logic. Be that as it may, he now made up for any time he may have lost, by reading eight hours a day for the next seven years. His uncle Godwin died in 1688.

III. By this event Swift, who was now in his twenty-first year, was thrown penniless upon the world. His mother, who was living with some friends in Leicestershire, advised him to solicit the patronage of Sir William Temple, to whom she was distantly related, and who had been intimately acquainted with some members of Swift's family. Sir William received him with much kindness, and invited him to reside in his house as secretary, with a salary of £20 a year. Swift accepted the invitation, and although it must have galled his proud and irritable spirit to occupy so subordinate a position, still the situation had many advantages; and the time which he spent in the household of this eminent statesman was probably the happiest, as well as the most profitable, portion of his existence. Temple had played a prominent part in the management of great affairs, and in his society Swift had the best opportunities of acquiring political knowledge. The conversation between the old and experienced politician and an observer of mankind so acute and original as Swift, must have been highly interesting to both parties. Temple introduced him to King William, who was very affable, showing him how to cut asparagus in the Dutch fashion, and offering to make him captain of a troop of horse. During his residence with Temple, Swift applied to the university of Oxford for the degree of master of arts. He obtained it without difficulty; for the special favour impressed on his Dublin diploma was understood at Oxford to signify that he had passed his examination with great credit. Swift must have been amused at the mistake, which was not unworthy of the discernment of his own sages of Laputa. In 1694 a short estrangement took place between him and his patron. Swift had expected that through the influence of Temple he might ere now have obtained some permanent settlement in life. Being disappointed in these hopes, and disgusted with Temple's want of zeal on his behalf, he entered the Church of England and withdrew to Ireland, where he had been appointed, on the recommendation of Lord Capel, to the prebend of Kilroot, in Connor, a small living of about £100 a year. But the company of Swift had by this time become essential to the comfort of Temple. He accordingly invited him back, with a promise to procure for him a better living in England if he would resign Kilroot. With this promise Swift was satisfied. He returned to Sir William, attracted probably as much by the presence of Stella (of whom a few words must be said hereafter), as by the persuasiveness of his patron. It is probable that he wrote the "Tale of a Tub" and the "Battle of the Books" in the four years (1695-99) which passed between his return and the death of Temple. He exercised himself likewise in poetical effusions, some of which, having been submitted to the veteran Dryden, drew from him the remark, "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet"—a very true observation, but one which the subject of it was not likely to forgive. Temple died in 1698. Besides his manuscripts, he left to Swift a small legacy, and had also obtained for him a promise from King William of the first vacant prebend in Westminster or Canterbury.

IV. Swift's disappointments now commenced in earnest. King William forgot his promise; and Swift's dedication to him of the posthumous works, with which he had been intrusted, failed to operate as a reminder. He next received an invitation to accompany the earl of Berkeley to Ireland as his private secretary, an appointment which might have led to much higher promotion; but after preparing himself for the duties of the office, he found himself supplanted by a person of the name of Bush. Through the machinations of this same hireling he was defrauded, moreover, of the deanery of Derry, a rich benefice, which he had reasonably expected to obtain. He was put off with the livings of Laracor and Ruthbeggin, in the diocese of Meath, which together were not equal to half the value of the deanery. Swift settled at Laracor in 1700. He performed all his parochial duties with great punctuality. In 1701 he published his earliest work, entitled "Dissensions in Athens and Rome," a political treatise, in which he reflected severely on the ingratitude of the house of commons for impeaching such benefactors of their country as Oxford, Somers, Halifax, and Portland. This pamphlet was generally attributed to Burnet. Swift having ventured, in the presence of some bishop, to doubt Burnet's title to the authorship, was rebuked as "a very positive young man." The "Tale of a Tub" was published in 1704, and the work placed Swift in the foremost rank of satirical humorists. Although too much interlarded with digressions, some of which have lost their point and intelligibility for modern readers, the main current of the allegory is, for the most part, admirably carried through. It represents, with grotesque felicity, the squabbles and adventures of Lord Peter (the Church of Rome) and his brothers Martin and Jack (the Church of England and the Presbyterians). The passage in which Lord Peter bullies his brothers for not entering into his views of transubstantiation is, perhaps, unequalled in its audacious drollery by any satirical outburst either of ancient or of modern times. "The Tale of a Tub" is directed against the abuses of religion, and, therefore, it would be unfair to characterize it as profane; but it certainly contains such flagrant offences against clerical propriety, that we cannot wonder, and scarcely ought to regret, that it prevented its author from being made a bishop. During Swift's incumbency at Laracor (1700-13) he paid frequent visits to London, and published many pamphlets. In the latter years of this period the "History of John Bull" and the "Journal to Stella" were written. The disappointments he had experienced at the hands of the whig party, to which he originally belonged, had so disgusted him, that for some time past he had been gradually wheeling round to the tories. He defended his tergiversation on grounds of public duty, but there is little doubt that private pique had much more to do with the change in his political sentiments. It was not, however, until 1710 that he had an opportunity of putting forth his full strength in the service of his new allies. In that year the whig government, with Marlborough and Godolphin at its head, broke down; and Harley (afterwards earl of Oxford) and St. John (afterwards Lord Bolingbroke) came into power. Their great object was to put an end to the campaigns of Marlborough, and restore peace to Europe. In the accomplishment of this design Swift lent them most effectual aid. He lived on terms of close intimacy with Harley and St. John, who treated him as an equal, and admitted him to their most private deliberations. But what mainly contributed to their success was his pamphlet (published in 1712) on "The Conduct of the Allies." There is nothing which John Bull dislikes so much as even the appearance of being overreached, or of not getting full value for his money. This feeling was the sure handle which Swift laid hold of to work out the purposes of the ministry. He told the people of England, that while our allies, the Germans and the Dutch, had monopolized all the benefits of the war with France, they (the English) had merely had the satisfaction of defraying the expenses, and of enriching Marlborough, the insatiable commander-in-chief. A more responsive chord could not have been struck. The argument went home at once to the heart and pocket of the nation. Eleven thousand copies of "The Conduct of the Allies" were sold in two months; and the people became clamorous for peace. He followed up this pamphlet with another on "The Barrier Treaty," and in 1713 the peace of Utrecht was accomplished. This was Swift's greatest political stroke. It was