honour of the Clergy; of the Diffenters he did not wish to infringe the toleration, but he opposed their encroachments.

Of his duty as Dean he was very obfervant. He managed the revenues of his church with exact œconomy; and it is faid by Delany, that more money was, under his direction, laid out in repairs than had ever been in the fame time fince its firft erection. Of his choir he was eminently careful; and, though he neither loved nor understood mufick, took care that all the fingers were well qualified, admitting none without the teftimony of fkilful judges.

In his church he reftored the practice of weekly communion, and diftributed the facramental elements in the moft folemn and devout manner with his own hand. He came to church every morning, preached commonly in his turn, and attended the evening anthem, that it might not be pegligently performed.

He read the fervice rather with a firong pervous voice than in a graceful manner; bis Ff 3 voice

voice was fharp and high-toned, rather than harmonious.

He entered upon the clerical state with hope to excel in preaching; but complained, that, from the time of his political controverfies, be could only preach pamphlets. This cenfure of himself, if judgement be made from those fermons which have been published, was unreasonably fevere.

He

The fufpicions of his irreligion proceeded in a great measure from his dread of hypocrify; inftead of wishing to feem better, he delighted in seeming worse than he was. went in London to early prayers, left he fhould be feen at church; he read prayers to his fervants every morning with fuch dexterous fecrecy, that Dr. Delany was fix months in his house before he knew it. He was not only careful to hide the good which he did, but willingly incurred the fufpicion of evil which he did not. He forgot what himself had formerly afferted, that hypocrify is lefs mischievous than open impiety. Dr. Delany, with all his zeal for his honour, has juftly condemned this part of his character.

The

The perfon of Swift had not many recom mendations. He had a kind of muddy complexion, which, though he wafhed himself with oriental fcrupulofity, did not look clear. He had a countenance four and fevere, which he feldom foftened by any appearance of gaiety. He ftubbornly refifted any tendency to laughter,

To his domefticks he was naturally rough; and a man of a rigorous temper, with that vigilance of minute attention which his works discover, must have been a mafter that few could bear. That he was difpofed to do his fervants good, on important occafions, is no great mitigation; benefaction can be but rare, and tyrannick peevishness is perpetual. He did not fpare the fervants of others. Once, when he dined alone with the Earl of Orrery, he faid, of one that waited in the room, That man has, fince we fat to the table, committed fifteen faults. What the faults were, Lord Orrery, from whom I heard the ftory, had not been attentive enough to difCover. My number may perhaps not be exact.

In his œconomy he practised a peculiar and offenfive parcimony, without disguise or apology. The practice of saving being once neceffary, became habitual, and grew firft ridiculous, and at laft deteftable. But his avarice, though it might exclude pleasure, was never fuffered to encroach upon his virtue. He was frugal by inclination, but liberal by principle; and if the purpose to which he deftined his little accumulations be remembered, with his distribution of occafional charity, it will perhaps appear that he only liked one mode of expence better than another, and faved only that he might have something to give. He did not grow rich by injuring his fucceffors, but left both Laracor and the Deanery more valuable than he found them. -With all this talk of his covetoufness and generofity, it fhould be remembered that he was never rich. The revenue of his Deanery was not much more than feven hundred a year.

His beneficence was not graced with tendernefs or civility; he relieved without pity, and affifted without kindness, so that those who were fed by him could hardly love him.

He

He made a rule to himself to give but one piece at a time, and therefore always stored his pocket with coins of different value.

Whatever he did, he seemed willing to do in a manner peculiar to himself, without fufficiently confidering that fingularity, as it implies a contempt of the general practice, is a kind of defiance which juftly provokes the hoftility of ridicule; he therefore who indulges peculiar habits is worse than others, if he be not better,

Of his humour, a ftory told by Pope may afford a fpecimen,

* “ Dr. Swift has an odd, blunt way, that "is mistaken, by ftrangers, for ill-nature. "'Tis fo odd, that there's no defcribing it "but by facts. I'll tell you one that first "comes into my head. One evening, Gay " and I went to fee him: you know how in"timately we were all acquainted. On our "coming in, Heyday, gentlemen (fays the Doctor), what's the meaning of this vifit?

• Spence.

"How