ressed, the unhappy. To the best of his means and ability he comments
on all the ordinary actions and passions of life almost. He takes upon
himself to be the week-day preacher, so to speak. Accordingly, as he
finds, and speaks, and feels the truth best we regard him, esteem
him--sometimes love him. And, as his business is to mark other people's
lives and peculiarities, we moralize upon his life when he is gone--and
yesterday's preacher becomes the text for to-day's sermon.

Of English parents, and of a good English family of clergymen, Swift was
born in Dublin in 1667, seven months after the death of his father, who
had come to practise there as a lawyer. The boy went to school at
Kilkenny, and afterwards to Trinity College, Dublin, where he got a
degree with difficulty, and was wild, and witty, and poor. In 1688, by
the recommendation of his mother, Swift was received into the family of
Sir William Temple, who had known Mrs. Swift in Ireland. He left his
patron in 1694, and the next year took orders in Dublin. But he threw up
the small Irish preferment which he got and returned to Temple, in whose
family he remained until Sir William's death in 1699. His hopes of
advancement in England failing, Swift returned to Ireland, and took the
living of Laracor. Hither he invited Hester Johnson, Temple's natural
daughter, with whom he had contracted a tender friendship, while they
were both dependants of Temple's. And with an occasional visit to
England, Swift now passed nine years at home.

In 1709 he came to England, and, with a brief visit to Ireland, during
which he took possession of his deanery of St. Patrick, he now passed
five years in England, taking the most distinguished part in the
political transactions which terminated with the death of Queen Anne.
After her death, his party disgraced, and his hopes of ambition over,
Swift returned to Dublin, where he remained twelve years. In this time
he wrote the famous "Drapier's Letters" and "Gulliver's Travels." He
married Hester Johnson, Stella, and buried Esther Vanhomrigh, Vanessa,
who had followed him to Ireland from London, where she had contracted a
violent passion for him. In 1726 and 1727 Swift was in England, which he
quitted for the last time on hearing of his wife's illness. Stella died
in January, 1728, and Swift not until 1745, having passed the last five
of the seventy-eight years of his life with an impaired intellect and
keepers to watch him.