of Mrs. Howard, remembering what Mrs. Mafham had performed in former times; but his flatteries were, like thofe of other wits, unfuccefsful; the Lady either wanted power, or had no ambition of poetical immortality.

He was feized not long afterwards by a fit of giddinefs, and again heard of the fickness and danger of Mrs. Johnfon. He then left the houfe of Pope, as it feems, with very little ceremony, finding "that two fick friends cannot "live together;" and did not write to him till he found himself at Chefter.

He returned to a home of forrow: poor Stella was finking into the grave, and, after a languishing decay of about two months, died in her forty-fourth year, on January 28, 1728. How much he wished her life, his papers fhew; nor can it be doubted that he dreaded the death of her whom he loved moft, aggravated by the consciousness that himself had has

tened it.

Beauty and the power of pleafing, the greatest external advantages that woman can defire or poffefs, were fatal to the unfortunate Stella. The man whom he had the misfortune to love was, as Delany obferves, fond of fingu

larity,

larity, and defirous to make a mode of happinefs for himself, different from the general courfe of things and order of Providence. From the time of her arrival in Ireland he feems refolved to keep her in his power, and therefore hindered a match fufficiently advantageous, by accumulating unreasonable demands, and prefcribing conditions that could not be performed. While fhe was at her own difpofal he did not confider his poffeffion as fecure; refentment, ambition, or caprice, might feparate them; he was therefore refolved to make "af"furance double fure," and to appropriate her by a private marriage, to which he had annexed the expectation of all the pleasures of perfect friendship, without the uneafiness of conjugal reftraint. But with this ftate poor Stella was not fatisfied; fhe never was treated as a wife, and to the world fhe had the appearance of a miftrefs. She lived fullenly on, in hope that in time he would own and receive her; but the time did not come till the change of his manners and depravation of his mind made her tell him, when he offered to acknowledge her, that "it was too late.” She then gave up herself to forrowful refentment, and died under the tyranny

T 2

tyranny of him, by whom he was in the highest degree loved and honoured.

What were her claims to this excentric tendernefs, by which the laws of nature were violated to retain her, curiofity will enquire; but how fhall it be gratified? Swift was a lover; his teftimony may be fufpected. Delany and the Irish faw with Swift's eyes, and therefore add little confirmation. That he was virtuous, beautiful, and elegant, in a very high degree, fuch admiration from fuch a lover makes it very probable; but she had not much literature, for the could not fpell her own language; and of her wit, fo loudly vaunted, the fmart fayings which Swift himself has collected afford no fplendid fpecimen.

The reader of Swift's "Letter to a Lady on "her marriage," may be allowed to doubt whether his opinion of female excellence ought implicitly to be admitted, for if his general thoughts on women were fuch as he exhibits, a very little fenfe in a Lady would enrapture, and a very little virtue would astonish him. Stella's fupremacy, therefore, was perhaps only local; fhe was great, because her affociates were little.

In fome Remarks lately published on the Life of Swift, his marriage is mentioned as fabulous, or doubtful; but, alas! poor Stella, as Dr. Madden told me, related her melancholy ftory to Dr. Sheridan, when he attended her as a clergyman to prepare her for death; and Delany mentions it not with doubt, but only with regret. Swift never mentioned her with out a figh.

The reft of his life was fpent in Ireland, in a country to which not even power almost defpotick, nor flattery almost idolatrous, could reconcile him. He fometimes wifhed to vifit England, but always found fome reason to delay. He tells Pope, in the decline of life, that he hopes once more to fee him; " but if not," fays he, "we must part, as all human beings "have parted."

After the death of Stella, his benevolence was contracted, and his severity exafperated; he drove his acquaintance from his table, and wondered why he was deferted. But he continued his attention to the publick, and wrote from time to time fuch directions, admonitions, or cenfures, as the exigency of affairs, in his opinion,

T 3

opinion, made proper; and nothing fell from his pen in vain.

In a fhort poem on the Presbyterians, whom he always regarded with deteftation, he beftowed one ftricture upon Bettefworth, a lawyer eminent for his infolence to the clergy, which, from very confiderable reputation, brought him into immediate and univerfal contempt. Bettelworth, enraged at his disgrace and lofs, went to Swift, and demanded whether he was the author of that poem?" Mr. Bet· "tefworth," anfwered he, "I was in my "youth acquainted with great lawyers, who, "knowing my difpofition to fatire, advised

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me, that if any scoundrel or blockhead whom "I had lampooned should ask, Are you the "author of this paper?' I fhould tell him that "I was not the author; and therefore I tell you, Mr. Bettefworth, that I am not the au"thor of these lines."

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Bettefworth was fo little fatisfied with this account, that he publickly profeffed his refolu-. tion of a violent and corporal revenge; but the Inhabitants of St. Patrick's diftrict embodied themselves in the Dean's defence. Bettesworth

declared