Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/864

SWIFT. 75.4 SWIFT. Cclbritlge, in the near neighborhood. It is pos- sible that in 17 IG Swift may liavc married Stella. He undoubtedly loved her and shows a tenderness for her such as he never displays in any other case. From 1717 to 1720 he and Vanessa re- mained apart, but in the latter year he began to pay her regular visits. In 1723 Vanessa took the desperate step of writing to Stella. Swift rode down to !Marlcy Abbey, where she was stay- ing, with a terrible countenance, petrified her with a frown, and departed, flinging on the table a packet containing her letter to Stella. Van- essa died within a few weeks, leaving behind her the poem he had written for her, Cadenus and Vanessa, and their correspondence. Five years afterwards Stella followed Vanessa, and the wretched lover sat down the same night to record her virtues in language of unsurpassed simplicity. A lock of her hair is preserved with the inscription in Swift's handwriting, most af- fecting in its apparent cynicism,"Only a woman's hair." Between the death of Vanessa and that of Stella, as though withheld by an evil fate un- til he could no longer enjoy it, came the greatest political and literary triumph of Swift's life. He had fled to Dublin a broken man, politically extinct; a few years raised him to the summit of popularity, though power was denied him. In 1724 he took Ireland by storm with the Drapier Letters, a series of wonderfully effective pamphlets, directed against the patent granted to one Wood, a hanger-on of the Court, for coining copper halfpence in Ireland. Tlie noise of this success had hardly died away when Swift acquired more lasting glory by the publication of (JuJliver's Travels. Few books have added so much to the innocent mirth of mankind as the first two parts of Gulliver. With the omission of certain passages, it is one of the most delightful children's books ever written. Yet it has been equallj' valued, as Swift meant it to be, for an unrivaled satire on mankind. He seems to have solaced himself with its composition in the early years of what he called his exile; and if the later books show his most savage temper, it is well to remember that they were written during the years when he was attacking political corruption and when his pri- vate happiness was being destroyed. In 1726 he brought the completed manuscript to England with him and it was published anonymously in the winter of that year, meeting with instanta- neous success. His last years, however, were clouded by constantly increasing torture from disease. He governed his cathedral with great strictness and conscientiousness, and for years after Stella's death held a sort of miniature court at the deanery. But death was becoming more and more real and welcome to him. His regular fare- well to a friend in these latter years was, "Good night — I hope I shall never see you again." A period of absolute mental decay closed with his death on October 19. 174.5. He was buried in his cathedral in the same cofhn with Stella, with the epitaph written by himself. "Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift. D.D.. dean of this cathedral, where burning indignation can no longer tear at his heart. Go, traveler, and imitate if you can a man who was an undaimted champion of liberty." Swift's character, as a whole, forms a fascinat- ing psychological study. From some passages of his life he would appear a lieartless egotist; and yet he was capable of the siucercst friend- ship, and could never di.spense with human sympathy. Thus an object of pity, as well as awe, he is the most tragic ligure in the literature of the eighteenth centurj- — the only man of his age who could be conceived as atl'ording a ground- work for the creations of Shakespeare. "To think of him," says Thackei'ay, "is like thinking of the ruins of a great empire." Nothing finer or truer could be said. Consult his Works, edited by Sir Walter Scott (19 vols., Edinburgh, 1S14 and 1824); Prose Works (the best edition) edited by T. Scott, with introduction by W. E. H. Lecky (Bohn's Library, 8 vols., London, 1897-99) : various selections, by S. Lane-Poole (ib., 1884-85), by W. Lew- in (Camelot Series, ib., 1886), by H. Morley {Carisbrooke Librarv. ib., 1889), and by H. Craijc (Oxford, 1892-93): Unpiihlished Let- ters (edited by G. B. Hill, London, 1899). The best recent lives of Swift are by H. Craik (London, 1882), Leslie Stephen (ib., 'l882), and Churton Collins (ib., 1893). Consult also Forster's incomplete Life (1875); Wilde, Closing Tears of >^irift's Life (Dublin, 1849); Lane- Poole's Notes for a Bibliorjraph;/ of Sicift, reprinted from The Bihlioiirapher (London, 1884). SWIFT, Joseph Gaedxeb (1783-1865). An American soldier, born at Xantucket. Mass. He graduated at the United States ililitaiy Acad- emy in 1802, being the first graduate of that institution: became .a captain in 1806 and a major in 1808, and in July, 1812, was promoted to be colonel and chief engineer of the United States Army. In the War of 1812 he served as chief engineer of the army under General ^'ilkin- son, in the Saint Lawrence campaign of 1813; later had charge of the construction of the forti- fications of Xew York harboi*; was brevetted a brigadier-general in February, 1814; and was superintendent of the United States ililitary Academy by virtue of his office as chief of en- gineers from 1812 to 1817. He resigned from the army in November. 1818: superintended the construction of the New Orleans and Lake Pont- chartrain Railroad in 1830-31 : was for many years in charge of harbor improvements on the Great Lakes ; and w-as engaged in numerous other engineering enterprises. SWIFT, Lewis (1820—). An American astronomer, born at Clarkson, N. Y. He was educated at Clarkson Academy and about 1854 took up the study of astronomy. He was noted for his numerous discoveries of comets and nebuhe previously uncatalogued. He became di- rector of the Warner Observatory, Rochester, N. Y.. 1882. His 10-inch telescope at that in- stitution was presented to him as a gift by the citizens of Rochester and was subsequently re- moved by him to his present observatory on Echo Moimtain, Pasadena, California. SWIFT, Lindsay (1856—). An American librarian, bibliographer, and literary historian, born in Boston. A graduate of Hai-vard (1877), he became associated in various bibliographical capacities with the Boston Pulilic Library, and made valuable contributions, editorial and origi- nal, to the study of early American literature and history. The most noteworthy of his books is Brook Farm (1900), an essay' on New Eng-