Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/160

124 must the man have been, to have defied such a champion to so unequal a combat! I have been the longer in the detail of this transaction, because it is, perhaps, the only instance to be found of Swift's ever having broke entirely with any man with whom he had lived on terms of friendship; and to justify the extreme severity which appeared in his writings against Steele, after so great a provocation.

Having seen the care which Swift took of men of genius, so that even their opposition in party should be of no prejudice to them, we may suppose he was not less solicitous in promoting the interests of others, who were under no demerit of that sort. Accordingly we find, there were not any at that time, of the least pretensions in that way, who were not obliged to him for essential services. The famous Dr. Berkeley, afterward bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, owed his fortune wholly to him, as he placed him in the road which led to his promotion. In his Journal of April 7, 1713, he says, "I went to court to day, on purpose to present Mr. Berkeley, one of your fellows of Dublin college, to lord Berkeley of Stratton. That Mr. Berkeley is a very ingenious man, and a great philosopher; and I have mentioned him to all the ministers, and have given them some of his writings, and I will favour him as much as I can. This I think I am bound to in honour and conscience, to use all my little credit toward helping forward men of worth in the world." He afterward got him appointed chaplain to lord Peterborow's embassy, who procured for him the rich deanery of Derry. Pope, in his preface to Rh