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the chief gentry." Swift's masterpiece, Oulliver's Travels, one of the most popular works in the English language, was pub- lished in two octavo volumes, with plates, in London, in 1726-7. Its full title was as follows : Travels into Several He- mote Nations of the World, in four parts, hy Lemuel GulUoer, first a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. The first edition contains some anecdotes omitted in subsequent issues. Swift had had the work on hands for some time. It is likely that the immense popularity it almost immediately attained was a great surprise to him. Eacy and brilliant as it reads in the present day, it must have appeared infinitely more so at the date of its first publication, when every allusion to the politics and customs of the time was at once appreciated. Lord Jeifrey wrote of it : " The Voyages of Captain Lemuel Gulliver is undoubtedly his greatest work. The idea of making fictitious travel the vehicle of satire as well as of amusement is at least as old as Lucian, but has never been carried into execution with such suc- cess, spirit, and originality as in this cele- brated performance." Sir Walter Scott says : " Perhaps no work ever exhibited such general attractions to all classes. It oflfered personal and political satire to the readers in high life, low and coarse incident to the vulgar, marvels to the romantic, wit to the young and lively, lessons of morality and policy to the grave, and maxims of deep and bitter misanthropy to neglected age and disappointed ambition." In the same year that Gulliver was published, Swift paid a visit to London, to enjoy the society of such of his old friends as sur- vived, and the credit arising from the book ; but he was suddenly called home by the illness of Esther Johnson. She lingered for nearly a year. Her death, on 28th January 17 27-' 8, was the greatest afiiiction of his life. Few nobler tributes have ever been paid to the memory of a deceased friend than that penned by him at the time : " The truest, most virtuous, and valuable friend that I, or perhaps any other person, was ever blessed with. I knew her from six years old, and had some share in her educa- tion, by directing what books she shoiUd read, and perpetually instructing her in the principles of honour and virtue, from which she never swerved in any one action or moment of her life. . . Never was any of her sex born with better gifts of the mind, or who more improved them by reading and conversations. . . Her ad- vice was always the best, and with the greatest freedom, mixed with the greatest
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decency. She had a gracefulness some- what more than human, in every motion, word, and action. Never was so happy a conjunction of civility, freedom, easiness, and sincerity. . . With all the softness of temper that became a lady, she had the personal courage of a hero." By her own desire she was buried in the aisle of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Most of her property was left in trust for the benefit of her mother and sister, and after their death for the payment of the salary of a chaplain for Steevens' Hospital, unless, " which God forbid, at any time hereafter the present Established Episcopal Church of this kingdom should come to be abolished and be no longer the national established Church of this said kingdom." (Swift, who probably drew up her will, subsequently left lands for the benefit of Laracor upon similar conditions.) She also left legacies to her servants, and money to apprentice a little boy, Brian McLoghlin, whom she was charitably bringing up. Swift increased his reputation by literary and patriotic labours after Esther Johnson's death ; but his spirits never recovered the shock. A sad list of " men famous for their learning, wit, or great employments or quality, of my acquaintance, who are dead," bears date February 1 728-'9. A growing misunderstanding with the Court party in England ended in a complete rupture in 1 73 1, owing to some unfortunate interfer- ence of Mrs. Barber. In 1 736 the attacks of giddiness to which he had been subject through life, culminated in confirmed ill- healtli ; already he had penned his cha- racteristic " Lines on the Death of Dr. Swift." The first collected edition of his works was published by George Faulkner about this time. In 1740 Swift settled down into a condition of hopeless imbe- cility. According to Sir William Wilde, this was due, not to insanity or idiotcy, but to eflFusion on the brain, in addition to chronic meningitis and cerebritis. Some of his last lucid thoughts were given to arrangements for the Hospital for the Insane, for which he bad been saving during the latter part of his life. The last words he ever penned were in a note to his cousin, Mrs. Whiteway : " If I do not blunder, it is Saturday, July 26th 1740." His estate was put under the management of trustees, and his person was carefully tended by Mrs. Whiteway for the sad three remaining years of his life, in the course of which he was known to speak only once or twice. On 19th Oc- tober 1745, in the 78th year of his age, he was released from his sufferings. " It was then," says Scott, " that the gratitude of
