power, he sent Swift for the same purpose to the king. Swift, who
probably was proud of his employment, and went with all the confidence
of a young man, found his arguments, and his art of displaying them,
made totally ineffectual by the predetermination of the king; and used
to mention this disappointment as his first antidote against vanity.
Before he left Ireland he contracted a disorder, as he thought, by
eating too much fruit. The original of diseases is commonly obscure.
Almost everybody eats as much fruit as he can get, without any great
inconvenience. The disease of Swift was giddiness with deafness, which
attacked him from time to time, began very early, pursued him through
life, and at last sent him to the grave, deprived of reason. Being much
oppressed at Moor Park by this grievous malady, he was advised to try
his native air, and went to Ireland; but finding no benefit, returned
to Sir William, at whose house he continued his studies, and is known to
have read, among other books, Cyprian and Irenaeus. He thought exercise
of great necessity, and used to run half a mile up and down a hill every
two hours.

It is easy to imagine that the mode in which his first degree was
conferred left him no great fondness for the University of Dublin,
and therefore he resolved to become a Master of Arts at Oxford. In the
testimonial which he produced the words of disgrace were omitted; and he
took his Master's degree (July 5, 1692) with such reception and regard
as fully contented him.

While he lived with Temple, he used to pay his mother at Leicester a
yearly visit. He travelled on foot, unless some violence of weather
drove him into a waggon; and at night he would go to a penny lodging,
where he purchased clean sheets for sixpence. This practice Lord Orrery
imputes to his innate love of grossness and vulgarity: some may ascribe
it to his desire of surveying human life through all its varieties: and
others, perhaps with equal probability, to a passion which seems to have
been deeply fixed in his heart, the love of a shilling. In time he began
to think that his attendance at Moor Park deserved some other recompense
than the pleasure, however mingled with improvement, of Temple's
conversation; and grew so impatient, that (1694) he went away in
discontent. Temple, conscious of having given reason for complaint,
is said to have made him deputy Master of the Rolls in Ireland; which,
according to his kinsman's account, was an o