The reputation which accrued to Swift in con-sequence of this singular production being generally attributed to his pen, speedily introduced him to an intimacy with the first literary characters in the kingdom; and among these with none was he more familiar than with Addison, who, the year succeeding the publication of the Tale of a Tub, sent him a copy of his travels, in a blank leaf of which he had written the following lines:

TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT,
The most agreeable companion,
The truest friend,

And the greatest genius of his age,
This Book is presented by his
Most humble Servant,

THE AUTHOR.

Though bashful, and more than ordinarily timid in mixed society, Addison was, as we have recorded in his life, extremely pleasant and companionable with a few intimate friends; and Swift used to say of him, " that his conversation in a tête-à-tête was the most agreeable he had ever known in any one; and that, in the many hours which he passed with him in that way, neither of them ever wished for the coming in of a third person."

"

* Sheridan's Life of Swift, Nichols's edition, voi. i, p. 49.

Four years elapsed ere Swift again ventured before the bar of the public; and of the pieces which he then published, and which belong to our present department (the literary class,) may be mentioned his ridicule of Partridge the almanack-maker, published under the signature of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. an effusion of pleasantry that obtained so much popularity as to induce Steele (as we have already related in his life) to adopt that name for the leading character of his Tatler.

With this amiable periodical writer, Swift was, at this period, on the most friendly terms, and during the following year contributed several letters and papers to his Tatler. Politics, however, soon drove them apart, and, as is but too often the case, converted their former regard into a state of the bitterest animosity.

In the year 1712 our author published, in a letter to the Earl of Oxford, a " Proposal for correcting, improving, and ascertaining the English Tongue." The mode by which he meant to effect his purpose was, through the institution of an academy; in the formation of which he had proceeded so far as to have named twenty persons of both parties for its members. The ministers were, however, too much involved in political warfare to have leisure for any consideration of

this kind; they praised the design, but did nothing more, and of course the project was drop ped. Swift does not appear, indeed, to have been well qualified for the task that he proposed to undertake; he had little or no acquaintance with the languages on which the superstructure of the English tongue is chiefly founded; and it is singularly unfortunate, that the very pamphlet in which his scheme is proposed, is, in point of grammar and style, the most defective and erroneous of any production in his voluminous works.

As we are in this place considering the principal literary compositions of Swift, we must pass over a series of fourteen years before we reach his second capital work, his Gulliver's Travels; a book, which, in style, matter, and manner, bears little resemblance to the Tale of a Tub, but which acquired a popularity even still more extended than that humorous satire. It was also, like every other effusion of the Dean, save the letter to Lord Oxford, published anonymously, and occasioned therefore on its appearance (November, 1726,) a variety of conjecture as to the author of such an original and eccentric volume. Even his most intimate friends were unacquainted with its origin; and though they might suspect him as the founder of the feast, were cautious about absolutely declaring themselves. Thus

Gay, in a letter to Swift, dated November 17, 1726, speaks with hesitation, though it is apparent, from the tenor of his epistle, that he had nearly arranged his creed upon the subject.

"About ten days ago," he writes, "a book was published here of the travels of one Gulliver, which has been the conversation of the whole town ever since; the whole impression sold in a week; and nothing is more diverting than to hear the different opinions people give of it, though all agree in liking it extremely. It is generally said that you are the author; but I am told the bookseller declares, he knows not from what hand it came. From the highest to the lowest it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery. The politicians to a man agree, that it is free from particular reflections, but that the satire on general societies of men is Not but we now and then meet with people of greater perspicuity, who are in search for particular applications in every leaf; and it is highly probable we shall have keys published to give light into Gulliver's design.---You may see by this, that you are not much injured by being supposed the author of this piece. If you are, you have disobliged us, and two or three of your best friends, in not giving us the least hint of it while you were with us.---Perhaps I may

too severe.

all this time be talking to you of a book you have never seen, and which has not yet reached Ireland; if it has not, I believe what we have said will be sufficient to recommend it to your reading, and that you will order me to send it to you. --I hope you do not write the thing that is not. We are afraid that B hath been guilty of that crime, that you (like a Houyhnhnm) have treated him as a yahoo, and discarded him your service. I fear you do not understand these modish terms which every creature now understands but yourself." *

Pope was in an equal state of doubt; and there is reason to suppose that Swift derived much entertainment from the surmises and curiosity of his friends. Arbuthnot, however, seems to have been in the secret; for, writing to Swift on November 8, 1726, he says, "I will make over all my profits to you for the property of Gulliver's Travels; which, I believe, will have as great a run as John Bunyan.” †

This singular work displays a most fertile imagination, a deep insight into the follies, vices, and

Swift's Works, vol. xii. p. 213.

+ Swift's Works, vol. xii. p. 209. Mr. George Faulkner of Dublin, says Dr. Birch, in one of his memorandum books preserved in the British Museum, told me, that Dr. Swift gave Mr. Pope the property of Gulliver; which he sold the copy of for three hundred pounds;