Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/166

130 their own honour, by promoting men of talents and worth, to a man who was daily employed in doing them the most important services, without once hinting at any return for them to himself. In this state did this extraordinary man continue for near three years, without the smallest reward, or the least addition to his fortune, which consisted only of a living of about two hundred and fifty pounds a year, and not quite five hundred pounds in cash; at the same time that he was in such a degree of power, that he was making the fortune of multitudes. Thus did he verify his early declaration to the archbishop of Dublin, before quoted. Nothing astonished the people of those times more, than that so distinguished a man, and apparently in such high favour, should have remained, for such a length of time, without any promotion: and that he should at last be rewarded only with a paltry deanery, in another kingdom, to which he went with the utmost reluctance, and which was looked upon by himself, as well as by the world, only as a species of banishment, has ever since been considered in so extraordinary a light, that various have been the conjectures of the world to account for it. Some, who knew Swift's real merits toward the ministry, have not been backward in charging them with the basest ingratitude on the occasion. Others, not so well acquainted with the history of those times, thought it was impossible Swift could have been a man of such importance as he was represented, otherwise he must certainly have made his way to the highest station in the church; and considering him only as a writer of some political Rh