Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/247

Rh the supreme satisfaction of constantly enjoying the society of the amiable and accomplished Stella, whose and most compliance," we are to understand only such humble friends as were always at his devotion, to be let in, or sent away without ceremony, according as he was in the humour. It was probably this passage, which furnished lord Orrery with an occasion of exercising his usual disposition to depreciate the dean as much as possible, in the following paragraphs: "After the great names, which I have just now mentioned, it is matter of astonishment to find the same person, who had enjoyed the highest and the best conversation, equally delighted with the lowest and the worst; and yet it is certain, from Swift's settlement in Dublin as dean of St. Patrick's, his choice of companions in general, showed him of a very depraved taste." "From the year 1714, till he appeared in the year 1720, a champion for Ireland against Wood's halfpence, his spirit of politicks and of patriotism was kept almost closely confined within his own breast. Idleness and trifles engrossed too many of his hours: fools and sycophants too much of his conversation." His answerer, Dr. Delany, fired with indignation at this false charge, replies to him in the following manner:  "My lord, you have been so grossly abused, in the accounts which dictated those two paragraphs to you, that I am almost ashamed to set you right. "The meanest man I ever heard of his conversing with during that period, was Mr. Worrall, a clergyman, a master of arts, a reader and vicar of his cathedral, and a master of the song. He was nearly of his own standing in the college; a good walker, a man of sense, and a great deal of humour. Mr. Worrall's situation in the church, naturally engaged his attendance upon the dean, every time he went thither: and their walks naturally ended either in the dean's dining with him, or he with the dean. But as the dean was a single man, the former happened more frequently: and this intercourse at last ended in the dean's dining with him, as often as he pleased, at a certain rate, and inviting as many friends as he pleased upon the same terms." The doctor then proceeds to relate his intimacy with the Grattans, a numerous race of brothers, all in affluent or easy circumstances, a set of men as generally acquainted, and as much beloved, as any one family in the nation. After a particular description of each of these, conversation,

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