Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/549

Rh I shall oppose the testimony of two men, who were of his intimate acquaintance for more than twenty years, Dr. Delany, and Dr. Stopford. The first concludes his answer to lord Orrery in the following manner.

"My lord, when you consider Swift's singular, peculiar, and most variegated vein of wit, always intended rightly, although not always rightly directed; delightful in many instances, and salutary even where it is most offensive; when you consider his strict truth, his fortitude in resisting oppression and arbitrary power; his fidelity in friendship; his sincere love and zeal for religion; his uprightness in making right resolutions, and his steady adherence to them: his care of his church, its choir, its economy, and its income: his attention to all those that preached in his cathedral in order to their amendment in pronunciation and style; as also his remarkable attention to the interest of his successors, preferably to his own present emoluments; his invincible patriotism, even to a country which he did not love; his very various, welldevised, welljudged, and extensive charities, throughout his life; and his whole fortune conveyed to the same Christian purposes at his death: charities, from which he could enjoy no honour, advantage, or satisfaction of any kind, in this world.

"When you consider his ironical and humorous, as well as his serious schemes for the promotion of true religion and virtue; his success in soliciting for the first fruits and twentieths, to the unspeakable benefit of the established church of Ireland; and his felicity (to rate it no higher) in giving Rh