ut by the
secretary's influence, supposed to have been secured by a bribe, it was
bestowed on somebody else; and Swift was dismissed with the livings of
Laracor and Rathbeggin, in the diocese of Meath, which together did not
equal half the value of the deanery.

At Laracor he increased the parochial duty by reading prayers on
Wednesdays and Fridays, and performed all the offices of his profession
with great decency and exactness.

Soon after his settlement at Laracor, he invited to Ireland the
unfortunate Stella; a young woman, whose name was Johnson, the daughter
of the steward of sir William Temple, who, in consideration of her
father's virtues, left her a thousand pounds[97]. With her came Mrs.
Dingley, whose whole fortune was twenty-seven pounds a year for her
life. With these ladies he passed his hours of relaxation, and to them
he opened his bosom; but they never resided in the same house, nor did
he see either without a witness. They lived at the parsonage when Swift
was away; and, when he returned, removed to a lodging, or to the house
of a neighbouring clergyman.

Swift was not one of those minds which amaze the world with early
pregnancy: his first work, except his few poetical essays, was the
Dissensions in Athens and Rome, published, 1701, in his thirty-fourth
year. After its appearance, paying a visit to some bishop, he heard
mention made of the new pamphlet that Burnet had written, replete with
political knowledge. When he seemed to doubt Burnet's right to the work,
he was told, by the bishop, that he was "a young man;" and, still
persisting to doubt, that he was "a very positive young man."

Three years afterwards, 1704, was published the Tale of a Tub: of this
book charity may be persuaded to think, that it might be written by a
man of a peculiar character, without ill intention; but it is certainly
of dangerous example. That Swift was its author, though it be
universally believed, was never owned by himself, nor very well proved
by any evidence; but no other claimant can be produced, and he did not
deny it when archbishop Sharpe and the dutchess of Somerset, by showing
it to the queen, debarred him from a bishoprick.

When this wild work first raised the attention of the publick,
Sacheverell, meeting Smalridge, tried to flatter him, by seeming to
think him the author; but Smalridge answered, with indignation: "Not
all that you and I have in the world, nor all that ever we shall have,
should hire m