fter leaving the Queen, came through the room,
beckoning Dr. Swift to follow him,--both went off just before prayers."
There's a little malice in the Bishop's "just before prayers".

This picture of the great Dean seems a true one, and is harsh, though not
altogether unpleasant. He was doing good, and to deserving men too, in the
midst of these intrigues and triumphs. His journals and a thousand
anecdotes of him relate his kind acts and rough manners. His hand was
constantly stretched out to relieve an honest man--he was cautious about
his money, but ready.--If you were in a strait would you like such a
benefactor? I think I would rather have had a potato and a friendly word
from Goldsmith than have been beholden to the Dean for a guinea and a
dinner.(42) He insulted a man as he served him, made women cry, guests
look foolish, bullied unlucky friends, and flung his benefactions into
poor men's faces. No; the Dean was no Irishman--no Irishman ever gave but
with a kind word and a kind heart.

It is told, as if it were to Swift's credit, that the Dean of St.
Patrick's performed his family devotions every morning regularly, but with
such secrecy, that the guests in his house were never in the least aware
of the ceremony. There was no need surely why a church dignitary should
assemble his family privily in a crypt, and as if he was afraid of heathen
persecution. But I think the world was right, and the bishops who advised
Queen Anne, when they counselled her not to appoint the author of the
_Tale of a Tub_ to a bishopric, gave perfectly good advice. The man who
wrote the arguments and illustrations in that wild book, could not but be
aware what must be the sequel of the propositions which he laid down. The
boon companion of Pope and Bolingbroke, who chose these as the friends of
his life, and the recipients of his confidence and affection, must have
heard many an argument, and joined in many a conversation over Pope's
port, or St. John's burgundy, which would not bear to be repeated at other
men's boards.

I know of few things more conclusive as to the sincerity of Swift's
religion than his advice to poor John Gay to turn clergyman, and look out
for a seat on the Bench. Gay, the author of the _Beggar's Opera_--Gay, the
wildest of the wits about town--it was this man that Jonathan Swift advised
to take orders--to invest in a cassock and bands--just as he advised him to
husband his shillings and put his thousand pounds out at