his residence for a time with the female who had given such a singular proof of her attachment. The nurse was so careful in teaching the child, that when he returned to Dublin he was able to spell, and when five years old he could read any chapter of the Bible.

SWIFT AT SCHOOL.

Sir Walter Scott attributes to the circumstances of the boy Swift having to share the indigence of a mother whom he tenderly loved, and to subsist upon the support afforded by his uncle Godwin-the most depressing effects. "Born

a posthumous child, and bred up as an object of charity, he early adopted the custom of observing his birthday, as a term, not of joy, but of sorrow; and of reading, when it annually recurred, the striking passage of Scripture in which Job laments and execrates the day upon which it was said in his father's house that a man child was born." Much has been said of the parsimony of his uncle Godwin Swift, but the allowance for the boy's schooling was of necessity regulated by the real state of his uncle's embarrassed circumstances. Meanwhile, his education proceeded apace. At the age of six years he was sent to the school of Kilkenny, endowed and maintained by the Ormond family: here he learned to say latino-anglicè, the words Mi dux et amasti lux, the first germ of the numerous jeux d'esprit of that nature which passed between him and Sheridan during his declining years.

When the old college of Kilkenny was about to be removed, the materials were sold by auction. A thriving shopkeeper, named Barnaby Scott, purchased the desks, seats, and boards of the schoolroom. On one of the desks was cut out the name in full-JONATHAN SWIFT-doubtless, with Swift's pocket-knife, and by Swift's own hand. Mr. Barnaby Scott, solicitor, the son of the purchaser of the old desks and boards, died in 1856; he distinctly remembered having seen the incised autograph when a boy, and added that this particular board was, with others of the purchase, used for flooring his father's shop, where it, no doubt, still occupies the place wherein it was fixed 73 years ago.

EARLY DISAPPOINTMENT.

"I remember when I was a little boy, [says Swift, in a letter to Lord Bolingbroke,] I felt a great fish at the end of my line, which I drew up almost on the ground, but it dropt in;

and, I believe, it was the type of all my future disappointments."

This little incident, perhaps, gave the first wrong bias to a mind predisposed to such impressions: and by operating with so much strength and permanency, it might possibly lay the foundation of the Dean's subsequent peevishness, passion, and misanthropy.

SWIFT AT COLLEGE.

From Kilkenny, Jonathan was removed, at the age of 14, and admitted into Trinity College, Dublin, where, as appears from the book of the senior lecturers, he was received as a pensioner under the tuition of St. George Ashe, on the 24th April, 1682. His cousin, Thomas Swift, was admitted at the same time; he afterwards became Rector of Puttenham, in Surrey, and affected to have a share in the original concoction of the Tale of a Tub. Swift used to call him, contemptuously, his "parson cousin." The University studies of the period were mostly ill-suited to Jonathan's genius. Logic, then deemed a principal object of learning, was in vain presented to his notice; for his disposition altogether rejected the learned sophistry of Smiglecius, Keckermannus, Burgersdicius, and other ponderous worthies now hardly known by name; nor could his tutor ever persuade him to read three pages in one of them, though some acquaintance with the commentators of Aristotle was absolutely necessary at passing examination for his degrees. Neither did he pay regular attention to other studies. He read and studied rather for amusement, and to divert melancholy reflections, than with the zeal of acquiring knowledge. But his reading, however desultory, must have been varied and extensive, since he is said to have already drawn a rough sketch of the Tale of a Tub, which he communicated to his friend Mr. Waryng. We must conclude then, that a mere idler of the seventeenth century might acquire in his hours of careless and irregular reading, a degree of knowledge which would startle a severe student of the present age.

Swift's uncle Godwin now died; but he found another patron in his uncle Dryden William Swift, who gave the necessary support for his orphan nephew with more grace and apparent kindness, though he could not afford to increase the amount; yet Swift always recorded him as the "best of his relations." He had a son Willoughby at sea, who sent home

by a sailor as a present to his cousin Jonathan at College a large leathern purse of silver coin, which reached him as he was sitting one day in his room absolutely penniless: he then resolved so to manage his scanty income as never again to be reduced to extremity; and from his journals still existing, it is clear that he could have accounted for every penny of his expenditure, during any year of his life, from the time of his being at college, until the total decline of his faculties.

Nevertheless, pleasure, as well as necessity, interfered with Swift's studies. He neglected and affected to contemn the discipline of the college, and frequented taverns and coffeehouses. He wantonly assailed the fellows of the University with satirical effusions. Still, no record of penal infliction occurs, until a special grace for the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred on him February 13, 1685-6: this was, in Trinity College, a discreditable intimation of scholastic insufficiency. This probably added to Swift's negligence. Between the periods of 14th November, 1685, and 8th October, 1687, he incurred no less than seventy penalties for nonattendance at chapel; for neglecting lectures; for being absent from the evening roll-call; and for town-haunting, or absence from college without licence. At length these irregularities called forth a more solemn censure, for, on 18th March, 1686-7, with his cousin Thomas Swift, his chum, Mr. Waryng, and four others, he incurred the disgrace of a public admonition for notorious neglect of duties. His second public punishment was of a nature yet more degrading. On 20th November, 1688, Swift was, by a sentence of the Vice-Provost and senior fellows of the University, suspended from his academical degree, for exciting disturbances within the college, and insulting the junior dean. He and another were sentenced by the Board to ask pardon publicly of the junior dean, on their knees, as having offended more atrociously than the rest. These facts are supposed to afford the true solution of Swift's animosity towards the University of Dublin, and account for his determination to take the degree of M.A. at Oxford; while the solution receives confirmation from this, that the junior dean, for insulting whom he was punished, was the same Mr. Owen Lloyd, (afterwards Professor of Divinity and Dean of Down,) whom Swift has treated with so much severity in his account of Lord Wharton.

This account of the matter was inferred by the late Dr. Barrett from the college records; and his opinion is con

firmed by that of Mr. Theophilus Swift, who expresses his conviction, that, in consequence of his share in the academical satires upon the Fellows of Trinity College, Swift was in danger of losing the testimonium of his degree, without which he could not have been admitted ad eundum at Oxford.

Nevertheless, a Correspondent of Sir Walter Scott alleges reasons, to prove that speciali gratiâ must mean that Swift got his degree by interest or merit; and that there is nothing to warrant the assertion that he begged pardon on his knees; while "that Swift had a scholarship appears from his remaining in Commons, and being, according to Dr. Barrett, suspended from Commons, by way of punishment, after graduating, which could be no punishment at all to him if his Commons were not at the charge of the University."

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Swift held his uncle Godwin's remembrance neither in love nor veneration. His grandson, Theophilus Swift, relates that at a visitation dinner, at college, Archdeacon Whittingham being placed nearly opposite Swift at table, suddenly asked, Pray, Mr. Dean, was it not your uncle Godwin who educated you ?"-Swift affected not to hear this offensive question. At length it was twice repeated, with a loud and bitter accent, when the Dean answered abruptly, "Yes! He gave me the education of a dog."-"Then," answered Whittingham, grinning, and clenching his hand, "you have not the gratitude of a dog." The instant interposition of the Bishop prevented the personal violence which was likely to follow on this colloquy. Notwithstanding the violence of the altercation, the Dean and Archdeacon Whittingham were reconciled by the interference of the Bishop, and became afterwards close friends.

SWIFT IS INTRODUCED TO SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.

Swift remained at college till 1688, when on the breaking out of the war in Ireland, he bent his course to England, and travelled on foot to Leicester, where his mother had been residing for some time in a state of precarious dependence on her relations, one of whom was the wife of Sir William Temple, whose seat was at Moor Park, near Farnham, in Surrey.

Young Swift now solicited the patronage of Sir William Temple, who hired Jonathan to read to him, and sometimes to be his amanuensis, at the rate of 20l. a year and his board. At first, he was neither treated with confidence nor affection;

neither did Sir William favour him with his conversation, nor allow him to sit at table with him. Temple, an accomplished statesman and polite scholar, could scarcely tolerate the irritable habits and imperfect learning of the new inmate; but Sir William's prejudices became gradually weaker as Swift's careless and idle habits were abandoned; he studied eight hours a day, and became useful to his patron as his private secretary. A surfeit of stone-fruit,* to which Swift always ascribed the giddiness with which he was afterwards so severely afflicted, brought on an ill state of health, for the removal of which, after he had been about two years with Sir William, he went to Ireland, but soon returned. He was now treated with greater kindness than before: Temple permitted him to be present at his confidential interviews with King William, who was a frequent guest at Moor Park; and when Temple was laid up with the gout, the duty of attending the King devolved upon Swift, who won so much in his majesty's favour, that he not only taught him how to eat asparagus in the Dutch manner, but offered to make him captain of a troop of horse, which however Swift declined. Sir William employed him to endeavour to persuade the king to consent to the bill for triennial parliaments, and Swift's vanity was much hurt when he found that his reasoning was not sufficiently strong to overcome the king's obstinacy.

ECONOMY IN ASPARAGUS.

A characteristic anecdote is related of Swift's lesson in

economy which he learned from royalty. Alderman Faulkner, the Dean's printer and publisher, one day being detained late at the Deanery, in correcting some proof-sheets, Swift made the Alderman stay to dinner. Amongst other vegetables, asparagus formed one of the dishes. The Dean helped his guest, who shortly again called upon his host to be helped a second time; when Swift, pointing to the Alderman's plate, said, "Sir, first finish what you have upon your plate."

"What, sir, eat my stalks ?"-" Aye, sir! King William always eats the stalks!" This story was told by Faulkner to Dr. Leland, who asked, "And George, what, were you blockhead enough to obey ?"-"Yes, doctor, and if you had dined with Dean Swift tête-à-tête, faith, you would have been obliged to eat your stalks !"

* Also, stated to have been twelve "Shene pippins."