for
him; but Queen Anne absolutely refused to confer such a dignity upon the
author of "Gulliver's Travels"--that profound satire upon society and
religion; and this occurring at a time when his energetic services
were so much needed in defence of the government he so assisted by
pamphleteering, satire, and wholesale lampoons. Mr. Cooke says, "The
Earl of Nottingham, in the debate upon the Dissenters' Bill, chiefly
founded his objection to the provision that the Bishops should have the
only power of licensing tutors, upon the likelihood there was that a
man who was in a fair way for becoming a Bishop, was hardly suspected
of being a Christian." This pointed allusion to Swift passed without
comment or reply in a public assembly, composed in a great measure of
his private friends and associates. This seems to intimate that the
opinion of his contemporaries was not very strong in favor of Swift's
religious principles. This may suffice to prove the unanimity of
sentiment existing among this brilliant coterie--one a political
Churchman--another the greatest poet of his age--the third, the most
accomplished statesman of his country. Although they were united in
religious conviction, it would have been certain ruin to any of the
confederates if the extent of their thoughts had reached the public ear.
The Dean wrote for the present--the poet for his age--and the peer for
the immediate benefit of his friends and a record for the future. But
they were all agreed that some code of ethics should be promulgated,
which should embody the positive speculations of Bolingbroke, with the
easy grace of Pope--the elaborate research of the philosopher with
the rhetoric of the poet. Swift coalesced in this idea, but was, to a
certain extent, ignorant of its subsequent history. It was not thought
prudent to trust Mallet and others with the secret. For this purpose the
"Essay of Man" was designed on the principles elaborated by Bolingbroke
in his private letters to Pope. It was Bolingbroke who drew up the
scheme, mapped out the arguments, and sketched the similes--it was Pope
who embellished its beauties, and turned it into rhyme. Doctor Warton,
the editor of Pope, also proves this:--"Lord Bathurst told the Doctor
that he had read the whole of the 'Essay on Man' in _the handwriting of
Bolingbroke_, and drawn up in a series of propositions which Pope was
to amplify, versify, and to illustrate." If further proofs are required,
that Bolingbroke wa