Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 19.djvu/234

In the first place, Swift, very early in life, conceived a violent disgust at that despicable vice hypocrisy; a vice so infamous and so degrading as is hardly to be expressed. Nor shall we wonder at his utter abhorrence of this vice, when we reflect how successfully it had been cultivated a little while before his birth by those eminently pious men, whose splendid triumph over the king and the constitution so gloriously distinguished the 17th century. To the horrour he entertained of this vice must be attributed the cautious manner in which he concealed that sense of religion, which seems to have been early impressed on his mind. For what but a sense of religion, and a most refined one too, could have withheld him from entering into orders till he had first obtained the refusal of some post, by means of which he could obtain to himself the blessings resulting from independence? To what but a sense of religion can we attribute the unequalled attention and decency with which he discharged his duty as dean of St. Patrick's? — for I believe no man is fool enough to charge Swift with being a slave to appearances. Lastly, It is a certain fact, that while the power of speech remained, the dean continued constant in the performance of his private devotions; and in proportion as his memory failed, they were gradually shortened, till at last he could only repeat the Lord's prayer. That, however, he continued to do till the power of utterance for ever ceased. This information I had from the servant who attended him. Now, an address to Heaven by one whose reason was on the wane, must have arisen from habit. Hypocrisy cannot be supposed to have

influenced