Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/21

Rh of which are in the hands of a gentleman of great eminence in the law in Ireland.

"They are all written by persons eminent for their abilities, many of whom were also eminent for their rank; the greater part are the genuine effusions of the heart, in the full confidence of the most intimate friendship, without reserve, and without disguise. Such in particular are the letters between the Dean and Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. Dingley, lord Bolingbroke, and Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Gay.

"They relate many particulars, that would not otherwise have been known, relative to some of the most interesting events that have happened in this century: they abound also with strains of humour, turns of wit, and refined sentiment; they are all strongly characteristick, and enable the reader 'to catch the manners living as they rise.' Those from the Dean to Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Dingley are part of the journal mentioned in his life; and from them alone a better notion may be formed of his manner and character than from all that has been written about him.

"But this collection must not be considered as affording only entertainment to the idle, or speculative knowledge to the curious; it most forcibly impresses a sense of the vanity and brevity of life, which the moralist and the divine have always thought an important purpose, but which mere declamation can seldom attain.

"In a series of familiar letters between the same friends for thirty years, their whole life, as it were, passes in review before us; we live with them, we hear them talk, we mark the vigour of life, the dour