ir
William Temple--a copy of Lely's. Wrest Park is only a few miles from
Chicksands. In the first "Lady Carlisle" is Lucy Percy or Hay, a "_great
person_" in many ways--beauty, rank, wit, influence etc.--but hardly a
good one. As for "Doralise" Dorothy is quite right. She is one of the
brightest features of the huge _Grand Cyrus_. Perhaps it may be just
necessary to remind readers that "servant" constantly = "lover"; that
"side" refers to the sheet of paper she is using; and that "abuse" =
"deceive," not "misuse" or "vituperate."

JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745)

The Introduction has dealt rather more fully with Swift than
with some others: and a further reference to a dominant
influence or conflict of influences on his letters will be
found below in the head-note on Thackeray. But a little more
may be said here. It is rather unfortunate that we have not
more _early_ letters from him (we have some, if only
fragments, from Thackeray, and they are no small "light").
We should like some concerning that curious career at
Trinity College, Dublin, which was ended _speciali gratia_,
leaving the usual wranglers to their usual wrangle whether
the last word meant "grace" or "_dis_grace." Others, written
in various moods from the time when Sir William Temple
"spoiled a fine gentleman," and Esther Johnson set running a
life-long course of _un_-smooth love, would be more welcome
still. They would no doubt be stumbling-blocks to those apt
to stumble, just as the existing epistles are: but they
would be stepping-stones for the wise. As it is, we have to
do without them and perhaps, like most things that are, it
is better. For the stumblers are saved the sin of stumbling,
and the wise men the nuisance of seeing them do it, and
trying to set them right. And there might have been only
more painful revelations of the time when, to adjust the
words of the famous epitaph "fierce indignation still
_could_ lacerate the heart," that had felt so fondly and so
bitterly what it had to feel.

What follows is characteristic enough[102] and intelligible
enough to those who will give their intelligence fair play,
asking only for information of _facts_. These latter can be
supplied at no great length even to those who are
unacquainted with Swift's biography. "M. D." is the pet name
for Stel