Swift, Jonathan

Jonathan (1667-1745), an English writer. He was born at Dublin. He was a rather prococious child, learning to read at a very early age. As an older boy, however, he was often considered dull, as he was a desultory student and regarded with independent scorn such of the prescribed studies as did not arouse his interest or meet with his approval. At the University of Dublin he received a degree by "special favor," a term implying a lack of proficiency. Having lost his father in early childhood, Swift's education was given him by the charity of an uncle, a fact very galling to his proud spirit.

On leaving the university Swift entered the family of Sir William Temple in the capacity of secretary, at a salary of twenty pounds a year. Later he took orders in the Irish church, and removed to a distant and secluded parish. He soon found the life unendurable and returned to his position with Sir William Temple. He now began political writing. Like De Foe, Steele, and Addison, he became a Whig pamphleteer. In 1710 he abandoned the Whigs, joined the Tories, and began writing in the interests of that party. In 1714 he was made Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, which position he held until his death. Here he did his greatest literary work.

All his writings were controversial, written to help a cause or party. In 1724 he averted a measure most disastrous to the welfare of Ireland and thereby won the love and gratitude of the people. The trouble which evidently he had long dreaded came upon him. Loss of memory was followed by insanity, and finally by idiocy. He died in 1745, leaving his fortune for the founding of an asylum for idiots and madmen.

As regards Swift's genius, his power, and originality as a writer, all are agreed. Of his character, there are various estimates. He has been regarded as utterly selfish, both in private and public life, while others believe him to have been moved by the noblest motives, but embittered by disappointments and suffering. It is beyond dispute that he strove eagerly for political preferment, that he firmly believed himself deserving of something better than he ever received, that his failures made him hard and envious. By those who knew him best, he was loved, esteemed, and pitied profoundly. His name will always stand among those of the great masters of English prose.

The Tale of a Tub, published in 1704, is apparently a simple tale of Peter, Martin, and Jack--merely a thin veiling for the churches of Rome, England, and Scotland. Martin gets the better of his duller comrades at every turn. The Battle of the Books, described as taking place in a dusty library, was a defense of Latin and Greek learning. Gulliver's Travels is the greatest and most characteristic of his works. Swift made the statement in a letter that his purpose in writing the book was "to show his hatred of that detestable animal man." The Journal to Stella consists of a series of daily letters written to a young girl whose education Swift had superintended. The journal is a most interesting description of the daily life and experiences of a man of letters. The episode of "Stella" and another of a young girl whom Swift poetically calls "Vanessa" are sad incidents of his career. Both women appear to have been of high character and were devoted to the great man. "Vanessa," at least, is believed to have died of a broken heart. It has been stated that Swift was married privately to "Stella" in 1716, but he never acknowledged her as his wife, and it is said that after the marriage he never saw her except in the presence of a third person. That there is something sad and mysterious in the man's life cannot be doubted. The simplest explanation is that he was conscious of his growing tendency to insanity, that this knowledge embittered his existence and led him into the errors for which he is so greatly blamed.

QUOTATIONS.

SAID OF SWIFT.

An immense genius, an awful downfall and ruin. So great a man he seems to me that thinking of him is like thinking of an empire falling.--Thackeray.

"Jonathan Swift, the greatest of English satirists, is the most powerful, most inscrutable, and most tragic figure in the literary history of his century.--Pancoast.

"He moves laughter but never joins in it. He appears in his works such as he appears in society. All the company are convulsed with merriment, while the Dean, the author of all the mirth, preserves an invincible gravity and even sourness of aspect, and gives utterance to the most eccentric and ludicrous fancies, with the air of a man reading the commination service."--T. B. Macaulay.

He agitated kingdoms, stirred the laughter and rage of millions, and left to posterity memorials that will perish only with the English language. . . . Perhaps his chief service to us, as his chief legacy to the race, is indirect,--the warning spectacle of his powerful and mournful genius, with its tempest of hopes and hatreds.--Welsh.

Hater of his race and lover of individuals.--Tappan.

The most agreeable companion, the truest friend, and the greatest genius of his age.--Joseph Addison.

Swift was in person tall, strong and well made, of a dark complexion, but with blue eyes, black and bushy eyebrows, nose somewhat aquiline, and features which well expressed the stern, haughty, and dauntless turn of his mind. He was never known to laugh, and his smiles are happily characterized by the well known lines of Shakespeare,--indeed, the whole description of Cassius might be applied to Swift:

Swift found neither a cause to cherish nor a doctrine to establish; he employs the whole force of an excellently armed mind and a thoroughly trained character in decrying and destroying.--Taine.

He rests where the cruel hate of envy cannot tear his heart.--Swift's Epitaph.