contributions raised by them to relieve indigent merit, which were distributed by Swift[1].
He had so far endeavoured to diffuse this spirit of benevolence among all his connexions, that lord Peterborow rallies him upon it thus in one of his letters. "You were returning me to ages past for some expressions in my letter. I find matter in yours to send you as far back as the golden age. How came you to frame a system, in the times we live in, to govern the world by love?"
He did not show at that time any of that acrimony, which he contracted afterward from disappointment, illness, and a thousand vexations multiplying on him, and increasing with his years. On the contrary, he seems by his Journal and letters to have had an uncommon flow of spirits, and a cheerfulness of temper not easily affected. Accordingly his company was eagerly sought after by all who could get access to him; and his conversation was
- ↑ Of this, among many others, take the following instances, Journal, February 12, 1712. "I dined to day with our society, the greatest dinner I have ever seen. It was at Jack Hill's, the governor of Dunkirk. I gave an account of sixty guineas I had collected, and am to give them away to two authors to morrow. And lord treasurer has promised me one hundred pounds to reward some others. 13th. I was to see a poor poet, one Mr. Diaper, in a nasty garret, very sick. I gave him twenty guineas from lord Bolingbroke, and disposed the other sixty to two other authors." In that of March 30, "I was naming some time ago, to a certain person, another certain person, that was very deserving, and poor, and sickly; and the other, that first certain person, gave me one hundred pounds to give the other. The person who is to have it, never saw the giver, nor expects one farthing, nor has the least knowledge or imagination of it; so I believe it will be a very agreeable surprise; for I think it a handsome present enough. I paid the 100l. this evening, and it was a great surprise to the receiver."
