Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/175

Rh a life, by solicitations and pursuits, as no man would endure, who had a remedy at hand. About the beginning of his ministry, I did, at the request of several considerable persons, take the liberty of representing this matter to him. His answer was short and cold; that he hoped his friends would trust him; that he heartily wished that none, but those who loved the church and queen, were employed, but that all could not be done on a sudden. I have reason to believe, that his nearest acquaintance were then wholly at a loss what to think of his conduct. He was forced to preserve the opinion of power, without which he could not act; while, in reality, he had little or none; and besides, he thought it became him to take the burden of reproach upon himself, rather than lay it upon the queen, his mistress, who was grown very positive, slow, and suspicious; and from the opinion of having been formerly too much directed, fell into the other extreme, and became difficult to be advised. So that few ministers had ever perhaps a harder game to play, between the jealousy and discontents of his friends on one side, and the management of the queen's temper on the other." In another part of the same tract, there is a passage to the same effect. "Upon Mr. Harley's recovery, which was soon followed by his promotion to an earldom, and the treasurer's staff, he was earnestly pressed to go on with the change of employments, for which his friends and the kingdom were very impatient; wherein I am confident he was not unwilling to comply, if a new incident had not put farther difficulties in his way. The queen, having thought fit to take the key from " the