table without saying a word, instantly left the house, and rode back to Dublin. Poor Vanessa sank under the blow, and died a few weeks later (1723). Stella died five years after this, but though Swift showed the utmost affection for her up to the close of her life, he never acknowledged the marriage: what was his reason for this strange conduct we cannot tell.

In 1720, Swift published a pamphlet, in which he recommended the Irish to use their own manufactures in preference to English goods. This innocent proposal was treated by the government as a libel, and the printer was brought to trial. The jury brought in a verdict of "Not Guilty," but Judge Whitshed refused to accept it, and he kept the jury eleven hours, and sent them back nine times until they had reversed their verdict; but the government did not think it expedient to proceed further with the prosecution. Four years later, Swift gained great popularity in Ireland by the publication of the Drapier Letters. In 1723, as there was a scarcity of copper coin in Ireland, the king granted a patent to William Wood of Wolverhampton, empowering him to coin farthings and half pence to the amount of £108,000. Swift, finding that the new coinage was debased to a very great extent, and was not worth one-third the value it represented, determined to oppose its introduction. The Irish parliament had already expressed their dislike by a remonstrance, but of this no notice was taken. A letter then appeared in print, signed "M. B., drapier (draper), Dublin," professing to come from one of the trading classes. It was followed by five or six others. All Ireland was aroused; no one would touch the coin, and the coinage had to be withdrawn. The printer was brought to trial, but the grand jury ignored the bill. A reward of £300 was offered for the discovery of the author, but without avail. It was well known, however, that the letters had been written by Swift, and he was honoured by the populace as the champion and patron of Ireland.

In 1727, Swift paid his last visit to London, and spent

his time chiefly with Pope, at Twickenham. In this year also he published, anonymously as usual, Gulliver's Travels. The interest and admiration which the book excited were intense it was read by high and low, learned and illiterate, and the price of the first edition was raised before the second could be ready. The first two voyages, however, are by far the best part of the book. Before Swift returned to Ireland, George I. had died, and he kissed the hands of the new king and queen three days after their accession. He was recalled to Ireland by the news of Stella's illness, and she died in the following January.

Swift appears to have expected some promotion through the influence of the queen, who had treated him with some distinction when she was princess; but in this he was disappointed, and he therefore set himself to work vigorously in the affairs of Ireland. In 1733, he published a satire on the Presbyterians, whom he always disliked, and in it he devoted a few lines to "the booby Bettesworth," who was a serjeant-at-law, and a member of the Irish Parliament, but who had distinguished himself by his insolence to the clergy. Bettesworth was so highly incensed on reading the poem, that he drew a knife and swore he would cut off the dean's ears. He found Swift on a visit at a friend's house, and asked if he could speak to him alone. His request being granted, he addressed Swift with great pomposity: "Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, I am Serjeant Bettesworth." "Indeed," replied Swift, "of what regiment?" Bettesworth became furious, but the servants rushed in and turned him into the street.

In 1735, he supported the clergy in their claim of the tithe of pasturage, in opposition to the Irish House of Commons, and he gave vent to his indignation against his opponents in a stinging satire, The Legion Club. The poem was scarcely finished when he was seized with a severe attack of giddiness to which he was subject, and he never afterwards deemed it proper to undertake any work that required much thought or labour. In 1736, he

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opposed another scheme for interfering with the coinage of Ireland. He spoke against the measure, wrote ballads against it, and on the day when the proclamation for carrying it into effect was read, the bells of the cathedral rang a muffled peal, and a black flag was seen to wave on the steeple.

Swift's public career may now be said to have closed. From a very early period in life he had been subject to attacks of giddiness accompanied by deafness. These attacks became more frequent and violent as he grew older, and at last ended in madness. The poet Young mentions that Swift had a presentiment of this when yet in the prime of life. The dean, he tells us, was walking with some friends in the neighbourhood of Dublin: "Perceiving he did not follow us, I went back and found him fixed as a statue, and earnestly gazing upward at a noble elm, which in its uppermost branches was much decayed. Pointing at it, he said, 'I shall be like that tree; I shall die at the top.'" For several years before his mind gave way, he was hardly ever free from suffering; and it was his custom to pray every morning that he might not live another day; and often when he parted at night with his most intimate friends, he would say with a sigh, "I hope I shall never see you again." His memory was the first faculty to fail, then his judgment became impaired, and he became subject to violent fits of passion. In 1742, after a week of great bodily suffering, he sank into a state of quiet idiocy, in which he continued until 19th Oct. 1745, when he passed away as gently as if he had only fallen asleep. He was in his seventy-eighth year.

The announcement of his death was received with profound sorrow in Dublin; a mournful crowd surrounded the house, and begged the most trifling article that had belonged to him to be treasured as a relic. He was buried, according to his own direction, in the great aisle of the cathedral. The bulk of his property, amounting to about £10,000, he left to found and endow an hospital for lunatics and idiots in Dublin.

Swift was proud and stern in character, but was capable of deep feeling and affection. He hated hypocrisy, and often pretended to be worse than he was, for fear he might be thought guilty of an assumption of virtue. He was very careful with money, but at the same time charitable. With respect to his principles, he was a Whig in politics, but a Tory in church affairs. As a writer, he is distinguished almost beyond all others by his originality. His prose is plain, simple, and clear; often heavy, but sometimes vigorous and pointed. The humour and satire of his poems have never been excelled, though he never rises into the higher regions of fancy and imagination.

ALEXANDER POPE.-1688-1744.

ALEXANDER POPE was born in London on the 21st of

May 1688. His parents were Roman Catholics, and his father is said to have been a linen draper in the Strand. Shortly after the poet's birth, however, the father retired from business and took up his residence at Binfield, in Windsor Forest. From his birth, Pope was of a tender and delicate constitution, and as a child he is said to have been remarkable for the sweetness of his disposition. His bodily weakness continued through life, and no doubt had an injurious effect upon his temper, for in his maturer years he was peevish and irritable. His voice, in childhood, was so pleasing that he was called "the little nightingale."

At eight years of age he was sent to school, but he had already been taught to read by his aunt, and he learned to write by copying printed letters out of books. He began writing verses at a very early age, and one of his juvenile productions got him into trouble: he wrote a lampoon upon his schoolmaster, for which he was very properly flogged. His indulgent parents, however, removed him from Twyford, near Winchester, where he

then was, and sent him to another school near Hyde Park corner. At twelve he finally left school, and pursued his studies at home, according to a plan drawn up by himself.

His great ambition was to be a poet, and his father encouraged his efforts by proposing subjects for composition, and obliging him to correct his verses by many revisals until they became "good rhymes." In his study of English poetry he selected Dryden as his model of versification; and he persuaded some of his friends on one occasion to take him to Will's Coffee-house that he might see the venerable poet. As Dryden died on 1st May, 1700, Pope could not at this time have completed his twelfth year: he had however already written the Ode to Solitude. At fourteen he wrote satirical verses on Elkanah Settle, Dryden's antagonist, and at sixteen he produced his Pastorals, although they were not published until five or six years later. About the same time he

wrote his imitations of Chaucer.

Before he had attained the age of sixteen, Pope was introduced to Sir William Trumball, who had been ambassador at Constantinople and now, retiring from public life, had taken up his residence near Binfield. Though there was such a disparity in age, a friendship sprang up between the young poet and the aged statesman, and they frequently visited and corresponded with each other. Sir William also introduced his young friend to some of the leading men of the day. The Pastorals, which had for some time been handed about among the poets and critics, were at length printed in 1709. Two years later appeared the Essay on Criticism, which was favourably noticed in the Spectator, and is one of the finest specimens of argumentative and reasoning poetry to be found in the language. In 1712, Pope's Messiah appeared in the Spectator, and in the following year he wrote the prologue to Addison's Cato.

About this time was written the Rape of the Lock, an exquisite example of the mock-heroic in poetry, and one of the finest poems which Pope has produced. A young