on plate, and the richeft that lived without a coach,

How he spent the reft of his time, and how he employed his hours of study, has been enquired with hopeless curiofity. For who can give an account of another's ftu dies? Swift was not likely to admit any to his privacies, or to impart a minute account of his business or his leifure.

Soon after (1716), in his forty-ninth year, he was privately married to Mrs. Johnfon by Dr. Afhe, Bishop of Clogher, as Dr, Madden told me, in the garden. The marriage made no change in their mode of life; they lived in different houses, as before; nor did the ever lodge in the deanery but when Swift was seized with a fit of giddiness. "It "would be difficult," fays Lord Orrery, "to

prove that they were ever afterwards toge ❝ther without a third perfon,"

The Dean of St. Patrick's lived in a private manner, known and regarded only by his friends, till, about the year 1720, hẹ, by

a pam

a pamphlet, recommended to the Irish the use, and confequently the improvement, of their manufacture. For a man to use the productions of his own labour is furely a natural right, and to like best what he makes himself is a natural paffion. But to excite this paffion, and enforce this right, appeared so criminal to thofe who had an intereft in the English trade, that the printer was imprisoned; and, as Hawkefworth juftly observes, the attention of the publick being by this outrageous refentment turned upon the proposal, the author was by consequence made popular.

In 1723 died Mrs. Van Homrigh, a woman made unhappy by her admiration of wit, and ignominiously distinguished by the name of Vanessa, whofe conduct has been already fufficiently difcuffed, and whofe history is too well known to be minutely repeated. She was a young woman fond of literature, whom Decanus the Dean, called Cadenus by tranfpofition of the letters, took pleasure in directing and inftructing; till, from being proud of his praise, fhe grew fond of his perfon. Swift was then about forty-feven, at an age when vanity is ftrongly excited by

the amorous attention of a young woman. If it be faid that Swift should have checked a paffion which he never meant to gratify, recourse must be had to that extenuation which he so much despised, men are but men: perhaps however he did not at first know his own mind, and, as he reprefents himself, was undetermined. For his admiffion of her courtship, and his indulgence of her hopes after his marriage to Stella, no other honest plea can be found, than that he delayed a difagreeable difcovery from time to time, dreading the immediate burfts of distress, and watching for a favourable moment. thought herself neglected, and died of disappointment; having ordered by her will the poem to be published, in which Cadenus had proclaimed her excellence, and confeffed his love. The effect of the publication is thus related by Delany.

She

"I have good reafon to believe, that they "both were greatly fhocked and diftreffed (though it may be differently) upon this "occafion. The Dean made a tour to the "South of Ireland, for about two months, at this time, to diffipate his thoughts, and

"give place to obloquy. And Stella retired (upon the earnest invitation of the owner) to the house of a cheerful, generous, good"natured friend of the Dean's, whom the "alfo much loved and honoured. There my "informer often faw her; and, I have rea"fon to believe, ufed his utmost endeavours "to relieve, fupport, and amufe her, in this "fad fituation.

"One little incident he told me of, on "that occafion, I think I fhall never forget. "As her friend was an hofpitable, open"hearted man, well-beloved, and largely

acquainted, it happened one day that fome gentlemen dropt in to dinner, who were ftrangers to Stella's fituation; and as the poem of Cadenus and Vanessa was then the general topic of converfation, one of them faid, Surely that Vanessa must be an ex"traordinary woman, that could infpire the "Dean to write fo finely upon her.' Mrs.

Johnfon fmiled, and answered, "that fhe "thought that point not quite fo clear; for "it was well known the Dean could write

66

finely upon a broomflick."

The

The great acquifition of efteem and influence was made by the Drapier's Letters in 1724. One Wood of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, a man enterprifing and rapacious, had, as is faid, by a prefent to the Duchefs of Munfter, obtained a patent empowering him to coin one hundred and eighty thousand pounds of half-pence and farthings for the kingdom of Ireland, in which there was a very inconvenient and embarraffing fcarcity of copper coin; fo that it was poffible to run in debt upon the credit of a piece of money. The cook or keeper of an alehouse could not refufe to fupply a man that had filver in his hand, and the buyer would not leave his money without change.

The project was therefore plaufible. The fcarcity, which was already great, Wood took care to make greater, by agents who gathered up the old half-pence; and was about to turn his brass into gold, by pouring the treasures of his new mint upon Ireland, when Swift, finding that the metal was debased to an enormous degree, wrote Letters, under the name of M. B. Drapier, to fhew the folly of receiving, and the mifchief that muft enfue, by giving

gold