Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/545

 SWIFT 521 liam Temple, whose wife was related to his mother. He employed his leisure hours in study, and acquired a remarkable familiarity with public affairs. In 1692 Swift took his master's degree at Oxford, and two years later, finding Temple unwilling to make any definite provision for him, he went to Ireland. In October, 1694, he was ordained, and soon after received the prebend of Kilroot, in the diocese of Connor; hut in a few months he returned to his secretaryship. Temple, dying in January, 1699, left him a legacy, coupled with the task of editing his posthumous works London, 1699). Swift next became chaplain to Lord Berkeley, one of the lords justices of Ireland, whom in 1699 he accompanied to Dublin, acting as his secretary during the jour- ney. He was supplanted in the secretaryship by a person who subsequently interfered so that the rich deanery of Derry, at Berkeley's disposal, and to which Swift deemed himself entitled, was given to another. Swift ex- claimed to the earl and his secretary, "Con- found you both for a couple of scoundrels!" and left the castle. But he soon came back, the new dean of Derry (Dr. Bolton) being re- quired to resign to him the vicarage of Lara- cor and several other livings, amounting alto- gether to nearly 400 a year. In 1700 Swift assumed his parochial duties at Laracor, and shortly after received the prebend of Dunlavin in St. Patrick's cathedral, Dublin, and in Feb- ruary following took his doctor's degree in Dublin university. In 1701 he made the first of a number of annual visits to England, and published anonymously in London his "Dis- course on the Contests and Dissensions be- tween the Nobles and Commons of Athens and Home," vindicating the conduct of the whig leaders, Somers, Halifax, Harley, and Portland, in respect to the partition treaty. It was gen- erally attributed to Somers himself or Burnet ; but Swift avowed the authorship in the suc- ceeding year, and was immediately admitted into the society of the statesmen he had de- fended, and into that of Addison, Steele, Ar- buthnot, and others of the leading wits of the time. Some trifles in prose and verse had shown an original vein of humor, but he had signally failed in a series of "Pindaric Odes." In 1704 appeared his "Battle of the Books," written .at Moor Park in 1697, in support of Sir William Temple's views in the controversy respecting the relative merits of ancient and modern learning. This was succeeded by the "Tale of a Tub," a satire upon the Roman Catholics and dissenters. It is one of Swift's most perfect and labored efforts, but its impu- ted irreligious tendency proved an insurmount- able obstacle to his hopes of high preferment. In 1708 he published his "Argument to prove the Inconvenience of Abolishing Christianity," a masterpiece of grave irony ; " Sentiments of a Church of England Man with respect to Religion and Government;" the humorous at- tacks on Partridge the almanac maker, enti- tled "Predictions for 1708, by Isaac Bicker- staff;" and "Letters on the Sacramental Test," in which he differed with the whigs, and this may partially explain his subsequent abandon- ment of that party. In 1709 he published the only work to vhich he ever attached his name, "A Project for the Advancement of Religion and the Reformation of Manners." Failing to receive preferment from the whigs, he went over to the tories in October, 1710 ; and for several months the " Examiner," a weekly paper established by St. John and others in the interest of the ministry, was the vehicle for bitter attacks from his pen upon promi- nent whig statesmen. About this time he formed the society of Brothers, composed of 16 influential tories, of which he was the most active member. His powerful pamphlet on the " Conduct of the Allies," published in No- vember, 1711, which had a considerable in- fluence in bringing the war to a close, raised his reputation to the highest pitch, and he found himself in a position to confer substan- tial favors. But he himself, while dictating, as Dr. Johnson has observed, the political opinions of the English nation, remained un- rewarded ; and the efforts of Harley and St. John, now become Lords Oxford and Boling- broke, aided by Mrs. Masham, were unavailing to procure him a bishopric, the queen, under the advice of Archbishop Sharp and other prelates, positively refusing him any high pre- ferment. On the failure of an application in his behalf for the vacant see of Hereford, through the opposition of the duchess of Somer- set, whom he had lampooned, Swift threatened to withdraw his support from the ministry, but was pacified by his appointment, in Feb- ruary, 1713, to the deanery of St. Patrick's cathedral, Dublin, the income of which amount- ed to 700. He had scarcely got settled in his deanery when he was summoned back to England to reconcile the difficulties between Oxford and Bolingbroke. About this time he wrote his "Public Spirit of the Whigs," which reflected so bitterly upon the Scottish nation and nobility that the latter in a body present- ed a complaint to the queen. In June, 1714, appeared his " Free Thoughts on the State of Public Affairs ;" and on the dismissal of Oxford a few weeks later he declined the flattering overtures of Bolingbroke, in order to be of service to the disgraced minister. The death of the queen immediately after this event and the overthrow of the tories sent Swift back to Ireland, where he remained during the next 12 years. Swift's history was painfully involved with that of three young ladies. One was Miss Jane Waring, sister of a college friend, of whom he became enamored in Belfast ; he called her Varina, His offer of marriage she at first de- clined on account of her own ill health and his insufficient income; and the hopelessness of settling differences on both sides led to a cessation of their intercourse. While secre- tary for Sir William Temple, Swift had con-