Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/206

170, hackneyed in the ways of men, who perhaps had never found any of these qualities, in an equal degree, in any other mortal, should take him to his bosom, and at once bestow his whole stock of friendship upon a subject so worthy of it. And indeed it does not appear, that out of his own family, there was any other person to whom he showed much attachment, or whose friendship he cultivated to any great degree. This circumstance Swift has touched upon in drawing his character, and considers it as a blameless part of it, where he says, "It may be likewise said of him, that he certainly did not value, or did not understand the art of acquiring friends; having made very few during the time of his power, and contracted a great number of enemies."

On the other hand, lord Oxford, in his private capacity, seems to have possessed a great number of qualities, which were the most likely to endear him to Swift, and secure him the first place in his friendship. By whom he is represented as a person of great virtue, abounding in good nature and good humour. As a great favourer of men of wit and learning, particularly the former, whom he caressed, without distinction of party, and could not endure to think that any of them should be his enemies. He says farther of him, "He had the greatest variety of knowledge that I have any where met; was a perfect master of the learned languages, and well skilled in divinity. He had a prodigious memory, and a most exact judgment. He was utterly a stranger to fear, and consequently had a presence of mind upon all emergencies. His liberality, and contempt of money, were such, " that