Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/532

496 man in very little estimation, and that he was not qualified to give any account of him with the least degree of accuracy. He begins his relation thus: "Jonathan Swift was, according to an account said to be written by himself, the son of Jonathan Swift, an attorney, and was born at Dublin on St. Andrew's day, 1667: according to his own report, as delivered by Pope to Spence, he was born at Leicester, the son of a clergyman, who was minister of a parish in Herefordshire. During his life, the place of his birth was undetermined. He was contented to be called an Irishman by the Irish, but would occasionally call himself an Englishman. The question may, without much regret, be left in the obscurity in which he delighted to involve it." Here we see how utterly careless he was about a fact of the greatest notoriety, and established by the most authentick proofs. "According to an account said to be written by himself," &c. Pray mark that expression. Had he taken the trouble to inform himself, he would have found that this account said to be written, is really in the dean's own handwriting, and lodged by his relation Deane Swift in the library of Dublin college, an account of which he has published in his Essay on the Life of Swift. In the 21st Section of these Memoirs, the dean says, speaking of himself, "He was born in Dublin, on St. Andrew's day." In opposition to this account given by himself, Dr. Johnson quotes a report from a second hand, communicated to him from Pope through Spence. "During his life, the place of his birth was undetermined." On the contrary, I say that the place of his birth never admitted of any doubt, by those who were desirous of information on that head; Rh