e that of
his writings; they will both bear to be reconsidered and reexamined with
the utmost attention, and always discover new beauties and excellencies
upon every examination.

"They will bear to be considered as the sun, in which the brightness
will hide the blemishes; and whenever petulant ignorance, pride, malice,
malignity, or envy, interposes to cloud or sully his fame, I take upon
me to pronounce, that the eclipse will not last long.

"To conclude--No man ever deserved better of any country, than Swift did
of his; a steady, persevering, inflexible friend; a wise, a watchful,
and a faithful counsellor, under many severe trials and bitter
persecutions, to the manifest hazard both of his liberty and fortune.

"He lived a blessing, he died a benefactor, and his name will ever live
an honour to Ireland."

* * * * *

In the poetical works of Dr. Swift, there is not much upon which the
critick can exercise his powers. They are often humorous, almost always
light, and have the qualities which recommend such compositions,
easiness and gaiety.

They are, for the most part, what their author intended. The diction is
correct, the numbers are smooth, and the rhymes exact. There seldom
occurs a hard-laboured expression, or a redundant epithet; all his
verses exemplify his own definition of a good style, they consist of
"proper words in proper places."

To divide this collection into classes, and show how some pieces are
gross, and some are trifling, would be to tell the reader what he knows
already, and to find faults of which the author could not be ignorant,
who certainly wrote often not to his judgment, but his humour.

It was said, in a preface to one of the Irish editions, that Swift had
never been known to take a single thought from any writer, ancient or
modern. This is not literally true; but, perhaps, no writer can easily
be found that has borrowed so little, or that, in all his excellencies
and all his defects, has so well maintained his claim to be considered
as original.

-----

[Footnote 92: Mr. Sheridan, in his Life of Swift, observes, that this
account was really written by the dean, and now exists in his own
handwriting in the library of Dublin college. R.]

[Footnote 93: Spence's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 273.]

[Footnote 94: The words _speciali gratia_, or _per specialem gratium_,
were used in the record of his degree in the college of Dublin; but were
n