Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/28

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xxii

GENERAL PREFACE.

of an able ministry involved in perpetual disputes^[1], in vain do we look among his works for the writings which exalted him to such consequence. The Examiners excepted, they are thinly scattered through the collection, and far inferiour in num-

↑ "My letters will at least be a good history, to show you the steps of this change," says Dr. Swift to Stella, on an interesting event, Dec. 9, 1711. — And again, "My letters would be good memoirs, if I durst venture to say a thousand things that pass." March 14, 1712-13.
Mrs. Pilkington tells us, Swift cut out the leaves from a very fine book, containing a translation of Horace's Epistles; and gave her two drawers full of letters to paste into the covers, with liberty to read as she went on. The first which came to hand, she says, "was a letter from lord Bolingbroke, dated six clock in the morning. It begins with a remark, how differently that hour appeared to him now rising cool, serene, and temperate, to contemplate the beauties of nature, to what it had done in some former parts of his life, when he was either in the midst of excesses, or returning home sated with them. He proceeded to describe the numberless advantages with which temperance and virtue bless their votaries, and the miseries which attend a contrary cause. The epistle was pretty long, and the most refined piece of moral philosophy I ever met with, as indeed every one of his were; and I had the unspeakable delight of reading several of them. Nor can I be at all surprised that Mr. Pope should so often celebrate a genius, who for sublimity of thought, and elegance of style, had few equals. The rest of the Dean's correspondents were, the lady Masham, the earl of Oxford, bishop Atterbury, bishop Burnet, lord Bathurst, Mr. Addison, archdeacon Parnell, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Pulteney, Mr. Pope, and doctor Arbuthnot." — Mrs. Pilkington's story, however, in this case, appears very questionable. The note in vol. I, p. 456, shows her capable of forging any untruths; and this circumstance of the letters is connected with that falsehood there charged on her. Besides, how came so much of Swift's correspondence to be found not in this book? and of the same period too? And how many letters could she have read through and pasted into a book, before dinner, talking to the Dean about them at the time, and called off to take a walk with him in Naboth's Vineyard before she had time even to get her paste ready?

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[1] "My letters will at least be a good history, to show you the steps of this change," says Dr. Swift to Stella, on an interesting event, Dec. 9, 1711. — And again, "My letters would be good memoirs, if I durst venture to say a thousand things that pass." March 14, 1712-13.
Mrs. Pilkington tells us, Swift cut out the leaves from a very fine book, containing a translation of Horace's Epistles; and gave her two drawers full of letters to paste into the covers, with liberty to read as she went on. The first which came to hand, she says, "was a letter from lord Bolingbroke, dated six clock in the morning. It begins with a remark, how differently that hour appeared to him now rising cool, serene, and temperate, to contemplate the beauties of nature, to what it had done in some former parts of his life, when he was either in the midst of excesses, or returning home sated with them. He proceeded to describe the numberless advantages with which temperance and virtue bless their votaries, and the miseries which attend a contrary cause. The epistle was pretty long, and the most refined piece of moral philosophy I ever met with, as indeed every one of his were; and I had the unspeakable delight of reading several of them. Nor can I be at all surprised that Mr. Pope should so often celebrate a genius, who for sublimity of thought, and elegance of style, had few equals. The rest of the Dean's correspondents were, the lady Masham, the earl of Oxford, bishop Atterbury, bishop Burnet, lord Bathurst, Mr. Addison, archdeacon Parnell, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Pulteney, Mr. Pope, and doctor Arbuthnot." — Mrs. Pilkington's story, however, in this case, appears very questionable. The note in vol. I, p. 456, shows her capable of forging any untruths; and this circumstance of the letters is connected with that falsehood there charged on her. Besides, how came so much of Swift's correspondence to be found not in this book? and of the same period too? And how many letters could she have read through and pasted into a book, before dinner, talking to the Dean about them at the time, and called off to take a walk with him in Naboth's Vineyard before she had time even to get her paste ready?

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