The child was bright and attractive and Swift superintended her education. He Latinized her name into "Stella," and quite naturally they became great friends. After a year or so Swift left Temple's to take charge of his first parish in Ireland, where he remained several years. He then resigned his charge and returned to Moor Park, Sir William Temple's residence, and resumed his position as secretary. He found Esther grown into young womanhood and of rare beauty, and they became the warmest of friends. She loved him, but never did he express anything but friendship for her.

When he went to London and became known and powerful he kept a diary, now known as the "Journal to Stella," in which he recorded all the incidents of his daily life and what was going on in the great world, and this he sent to Stella every day. It is full of the "little language," or baby talk, that they used to indulge in at Moor Park, but never once does he speak of love or marriage.

When he went to Ireland Stella and her companion, Mrs. Dingley, also went there and resided near him, and on his visits to London they would occupy his residence. On his return they would resume their own quarters. Never in all their

lives were Swift and Stella alone together in any room or place.

When Swift was in London at the height of his power he became acquainted with Hester Vanhomrigh. Her mother was a lady of wealth, and Swift was a regular visitor at her home. Hester was twenty, fond of books and reading, and Swift became her instructor and friend. She naturally fell in love with her fascinating teacher and declared her passion. He replied with raillery and banter, but did not cease visiting her. When he fell from power and went to Dublin to live she followed him. He wrote many letters to her and much poetry, and Latinized her name into Vanessa.

All this while too he was corresponding with Stella, but to neither did he ever speak or write of love.

It is said by some of the biographers that in 1715, after his retirement to Dublin permanently, Swift and Stella were secretly married, but she was wife only in name. Other biographers deny this, and as a matter of fact there is no evidence on the point. Up to the time of her death Stella was known as a spinster and so describes herself in her will. When Vanessa discovered the friendship of Stella and Swift, she either wrote or called

to see Stella and inquired as to their relationship. She was told they were married. Whether true or false, it broke her heart and she died a few weeks afterward.

A few years later Stella also died and Swift was bereft of the love which for thirty years had been lavished upon him.

He became the unhappiest of men and life was torture to him. Dr. Delaney, his biographer, relates that he once found Swift in conversation with Archbishop King, and saw the archbishop in tears, while Swift rushed away with a countenance full of grief. "Sir," said the prelate, you have just met the most unhappy man upon earth; but on the subject of his wretchedness you must never ask a question."

Swift survived Stella seventeen years and died a madman.

Among his treasured effects was a lock of Stella's hair inclosed in a paper on which was written "Only a woman's hair!"

JOSEPH ADDISON.

(1672-1719.)

It was Joseph Addison's good fortune to have been born thirty-seven years earlier than Johnson and in the age of the English Mæcenases. He was a product of the sunny days brought into fashion by the liberal patronage of the magnificent Dorset, and continued by Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, and, considering that he was dependent solely upon his own abilities and was without family influence and fortune, we can recall no one in the history of English letters who achieved so great a success. He was by no means born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but there always seemed to be some one standing by who had the silver spoon ready to give him.

The son of a prosperous clergyman in the Anglican Church, he was destined for the same profession and was educated at Oxford. His classical acquirements attracted notice; he took pupils and soon acquired a reputation for elegant

scholarship which extended to the literary circles of London. He became known to Dryden through an essay written by him upon the translation of the Georgics of Virgil, and Dryden replied by a high compliment to the "ingenious Mr. Addison of Oxford." He next made the acquaintance of Montague, already a rising politician, and the latter procured for him a pension of three hundred pounds to enable him "to travel abroad and qualify himself for the diplomatic service." this on the strength of a poem to King William and a Latin poem on the peace of Ryswick, which was dedicated to Montague.

All

Addison traveled in France and Italy for several years, though after a year his pension seems to have stopped, owing to the fall from power of his political friends. He returned to London, and for a time occupied an obscure lodging place. Then occurred the battle of Blenheim, and the chief minister, Godolphin, was in sad straits for a poet to celebrate the event. As Macaulay says, "He was well versed in the history of running horses and fighting cocks, but his acquaintance among the poets was very small." He knew enough, however, to be disgusted with the poems that had already been written concerning Blenheim, and he applied to Montague, now the Earl of Halifax,