a sensible effect upon all his actions. He was sour
and severe, but not absolutely ill-natur'd. He was sociable only to
particular friends, and to them only at particular hours. He knew
politeness more than he practiced it. He was a mixture of avarice and
generosity; the former was frequently prevalent, the latter seldom
appeared unless excited by compassion. He was open to adulation, and
would not, or could not, distinguish between low flattery and just
applause. His abilities rendered him superior to envy. He was
undisguised, and perfectly sincere. I am induced to think that he
entered into orders, more from some private and fixed resolution, than
from absolute choice: Be that as it may, he performed the duties of the
church with great punctuality, and a decent degree of devotion. He read
prayers, rather in a strong nervous voice, than in a graceful manner;
and although he has been often accused of irreligion, nothing of that
kind appeared in his conversation or behaviour. His cast of mind induced
him to think and speak more of politics than religion. His perpetual
views were directed towards power; and his chief aim was to be removed
to England: But when he found himself entirely disappointed, he turned
his thoughts to opposition, and became the Patron of Ireland.'

Mrs. Pilkington has represented him as a tyrant in his family, and has
discovered in him a violent propension to be absolute in every company
where he was. This disposition, no doubt, made him more feared than
loved; but as he had the most unbounded vanity to gratify, he was
pleased with the servility and awe with which inferiors approached him.
He may be resembled to an eastern monarch, who takes delight in
surveying his slaves, trembling at his approach, and kneeling with
reverence at his feet.

Had Swift been born to regal honours, he would doubtless have bent the
necks of his people to the yoke: As a subject, he was restless and
turbulent; and though as lord Orrery says, he was above corruption, yet
that virtue was certainly founded on his pride, which disdained every
measure, and spurned every effort in which he himself was not the
principal.

He was certainly charitable, though it had an unlucky mixture of
ostentation in it. One particular act of his charity (not mentioned,
except by Mrs. Pilkington, in any account of him yet published) is well
worthy of remembrance, praise, and imitation:--He appropriated the sum
of five-hundred pounds intirely