Soon after, the company rose with a growth of his affection with a delicacy, a tremendous scraping of chairs on the un- tenderness, a glow, which lit up his plain carpeted floor, and a running fire of mur-face into absolute beauty, and brought the mured "Gesegnete Mahlzeit," and pro- tears of quick sympathy to Grace Frere's ceeded into the Garten-Saal. Lady Elton, eyes. who had been unusually silent during dinner, put her arm into Frieda's, and stepped out on the terrace walk, while Gertrud, who was benign and important, and was indeed always kind to Mab, took her away to Mamsell. Mrs. Frere settled down with her uncle in the arbor to listen to his oft-told stories with ever-satisfying interest; and the rest of the gentlemen, except the professor, went with the Verwalter to smoke in the Hof and look at the animals. Grace and Frau Alvsleben strolled to and fro for a few turns, the latter knitting and talking with equal rapidity, pouring forth complaints, and self-gratulation, and projects, till a sudden spasm of memory impelled her to exclaim, "Ach je! ich habe ganz vergessen!" and away she went, knitting unbrokenly, seeing which the professor, who had been smoking in the arbor with the count and Mrs. Frere, rose and joined Grace. After walking once round the garden, they passed through a gate at the farther end, which opened on a rough cart-track, leading to the back of the farm buildings and the path to the pine wood. At first they exchanged merely formal phrases, and spoke of Leipzig and the life there; but as they left the company behind them, they lapsed into silence, Grace waiting for her companion to speak, while he seemed in profound thought, hunting about probably for a proper beginning. At length, as they reached the first firtrees, he broke into words: "Dear and good Fräulein, I venture to trouble you with my hopes and fears, because you are the best friend of Fräulein Frieda because you are sympathetic to me because I have noticed a rare discretion in you." He paused. "I find the good, the gentle Frieda And Sturm rushed on to describe the "I am sure she ought to love you, if she does not," she said heartily, as the long confession brought them to the same mossy stones where she had sat with Frieda the previous autumn, and his name had first been mentioned between them. She sat down mechanically, and Sturm placed himself beside her, keeping silence. for a few moments as if wrapped in contemplation of the images conjured up by his own words. "I am deeply interested in all you say," resumed Grace, “but quite at a loss to know how my counsel can be of any use to you." "Thus," he replied. "I have succeeded beyond my hopes. I am already sought by pupils; in two years more my young brother will be earning his own bread: but I fear yet to speak to Frau Alvsleben-my position is scarcely secure enough. On the other hand, I long unspeakably to open my heart to the beloved of my soul, but do not like to do so unknown to her parents, her natural guardians." Again he paused. "It is in this uncertainty I wished to speak to you, to hear your opinion. How ought I to act?" "I do not know that my advice is worth much; but I think, even if my granduncle and cousin Alvsleben disapproved, it would be a comfort to you to know that Frieda quite understood you, whatever her feelings may be. If she shares yours, then I would be hopeful; for I am sure her mother likes you, and in time she would come round, and then, you know, you could be sure of each other." "Then you would have me explain myself to Frau Alvsleben at once?" "I think I would tell Frieda first, and ask consent after," said Grace, with a mischievous smile and laughing glance from her soft lustrous eyes; "she is no baby, and ought to come before every one." Though Grace thought herself very cautious in not betraying her friend, the professor caught at the hope conveyed by her words. She would never have advised him to apply to Frieda had she thought he would be rejected; and, carried quite out of himself by counsel so perfectly in accordance with his own hopes and inclinations, he knelt down then and there on the damp, mossy ground, cannot, tell. It is easy to admire Swift's intellect, and to enjoy his savage wit: but to love him as a friend is altogether a different matter. Of all men that have been loved he was surely the most unlovable. The gentle forbearance and honest trust of real friendship were seemingly wanting in his nature; he made no allowance, spared no weakness, withheld no rebuke; he held affection cheap, and gave it more suspicion than faithful trust. It is possible to understand some species of friendship between such a man and Pope; but even here.there were almost irreconcilable discords which make the long endurance of their relation almost miraculous. But how two such natures as Swift's and Sheridan's were bound together is a mystery. It would be hard to find two delightful companion, a divider of the last farthing with his friend, a man to drink with and gossip with, not to consult on the investment of money. Sheridan comes into the Swift correspondence with the freshness of the wild air of the heath. No formal periods or stilted paraphrases for him: he goes straight to the point, which is not seldom money, and revels in unrestrained laughter at everybody and everything that may come within his horizon. He has no reserve except for his wife-and no caution; his gay humor, which is vividly in contrast with the stern and deadly character of Swift's satire, frolics over the most treacherous ground and among endless ambushes of con cealed Whig informers; nothing can restrain him- and nobody will promote him. AMONG Swift's Irish friends none is so men more wholly unlike: the one cold, interesting as Thomas Sheridan not suspicious, cynical, cautious, and worldlyeven the courteous Delaney, who was cel-wise; the other an impulsive, generous, ebrated as the only man in Dublin who open-hearted, and open-handed Irishman could afford to entertain his friends once of a well-known and well-beloved type; a a week. Swift's friendships are among the many perplexities that surround him. There have been few men so well loved by men as well as women. The romantic histories of Stella and Vanessa have perhaps received exaggerated attention, for to a woman who loves nothing is impossible, and there are so many astounding phenomena in the relations of men and women in all ages of the world that Swift's chapter in the great chronicle should cause little surprise. But the famous dean had even more male admirers than devoted hand-maidens, and their warm friendship is perhaps the most striking characteristic of the large collection of correspondence which has happily descended to us from the study of St. Patrick's Deanery. The affection lavished upon him by such friends as Pope and Gay, Sheridan, Arbuthnot, and a crowd of others, is the more remarkable because so little of it was returned. Swift certainly liked a few of his friends, but he can scarcely be said to have loved them. His esteem was tempered with a very critical appreciation of their faults and foibles, and it may be doubted whether he ever honestly admired any one of his loving correspondents. There is a taint of contemptuous clemency about many of his letters which argues toleration rather than good friendship, and even in his warmest expressions there is a cold polish, which extinguishes the warmth and gives the appearance of effort to his protestations. Yet his friends were satisfied, and went on loving. What they found to love we In spite of differences so striking, Sheridan was the staunchest friend Swift ever had, and perhaps there was no one for whom the dean felt less coldly - one can hardly say more warmly-than the good-natured, affectionate schoolmaster. For twenty years we find these two in intimate relations, from the days when they and Delaney, and three or four others, scribbled verses to each other in 1718, to the letter written by Swift in May, 1737, a year and a half before the unlucky doctor's death. During these twenty years they passed through many changes in their relationship, and occasionally the quick temper of the doctor would take mortal offence at some more than commonly wanton satire of the dean's, but the breach was generally quick of healing, for | men, who are in haste to get married when There is another "character" of Sheridan written by the dean in 1729, under the title of the "History of the Second Solomon," which throws a clearer light on the estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries, though it is more spiteful than the other, and was written at a time when the satire of the dean produced an unusually long interruption in their friendship. Swift writes sourly of Swift was still almost sane in 1738 when the doctor's lampooning "a person distinhe wrote the character of his dead friend. guished for poetical and other writings, We know how ten years before he had sat and in an eminent station, who treated him down to write the character of Stella the with great kindness on all occasions," in very evening of her death. Thackeray whom it is not difficult to recognize the speaks of this as "indescribably touch-dean himself; and then adds, "The pering; " to us it is freezing. The man who son above mentioned, whom he lampooned could so dispassionately dissect the char- in three months after their acquaintance, acter of the woman who had given her procured him a good preferment from the life to him ungrudgingly to do with it as lord-lieutenant"- Swift never wearies of he willed, may doubtless be allowed the recalling this fact. Upon going down same license with the obituary of his best to take possession, Solomon preached at friend among men. The "Character of Cork a sermon on King George's birthDr. Sheridan" begins with praise of his day, on this text, Sufficient to the day is powers as a schoolmaster and scholar, the evil thereof.' Solomon having been and a good word for his English verse, famous for a Tory and suspected as a though "not sufficiently correct," and his Jacobite, it was a most difficult thing to very fruitful invention." Then his get anything for him: but that person, translations are referred to and criticised, being an old friend of Lord Carteret, and high encomiums passed on the suc-prevailed against all Solomon's enemies, cess of his tuition, and the distinctions attained by his pupils. All this is what is least interesting in Sheridan. We want to hear what he was in his friendship, at his table, over his punch, and round his garden. Of this we are told nothing, only that he was "very indiscreet, to say no worse. He acted like too many clergy and got him made likewise one of his Excellency's chaplains. But upon this ser. mon he was struck off the list and forbid the Castle, until that same person brought him again to the lieutenant and made them friends." The preferment which Swift is so proud to claim as his own doing took place in 1725, and at that time Swift himself was tion to Lord Carteret in favor of Sheristaying at Sheridan's "estate" of Quilca, dan, and forthwith he writes his friend a with Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Dingley. | letter of good advice: "Solomon," according to his biographer, was not famous for skill in choosing furthest in the kingdom from Quilca.... If You are an unlucky devil to get a living the houses, appraising land, or settling leases. you are under the Bishop of Cork, he is a He had several places scattered about capricious gentleman; but you must flatter him Ireland, most of them unhealthy, tum- monstrously upon his learning and his writings; bling to ruin, and left unoccupied; and that you have read his book against Toland a they belonged to him simply because he hundred times, and his sermons (if he has could not get rid of them without paying printed any) have been always your model, etc. tremendous sums for waste or what not. Get letters of recommendation to the bishop "His thoughts are sudden," says Swift, and principal clergy, and to your neighboring "and the most unreasonable always comes parson or parsons particularly. I often advised uppermost, and he constantly resolves and livings. You must learn the extent of your you to get some knowledge of tithes and church acts upon his first thoughts-and then parish, the general quantity of arable land and asks advice; but never once before." pasture in your parish, the common rate of Sheridan's fatality about buying houses tithes for an acre of the several sorts of corn, and land was exemplified apparently in the and of fleeces and lambs, and to see whether case of Quilca. Swift has plenty to say you have any glebe. Pray act like a man of about it: "The ladies' room smokes; the this world. Take the oaths heartily to the rain drops from the skies into the kitchen; powers that be, and remember that party was our servants eat and drink like the devil, not made for depending puppies. . . . and pray for rain, which entertains them at cards and sleep; which are much lighter than spades, sledges, and crows And his impressions about the place are not limited to prose: TO QUILCA. A Country-house of Dr. Sheridan, in no very Let me thy properties explain: Sloth, Dirt, and Theft, around her wait. Sheridan himself seems to have been much of the same opinion as his guests: I think it fit to let you know But in spite of drawbacks, Swift at least seems to have endured Quilca with admirable patience, for he was pretty constantly there in 1725. During this visit he heard of the success of his applica Not content with this excellent counsel, Swift writes again the very next day to add the advice of Stella. It is strange that I and Stella and Mrs. Mackfadin should light on the same thought to advise you to make a great appearance of temperance whilst you are abroad; and poor Sheridan is specially cautioned not to pledge a health in the company of the bishop, who had written a pamphlet against drinking to the memory of the dead. I must desire [continues the imperious men. tor] that you will not think of enlarging your expenses; no, not for some years to come, much less at present; but rather retrench them. You might have lain destitute till Antichrist came, for anything you could have got from those you used to treat; neither let me hear of one rag of better clothes for your wife or brats, but rather plainer than ever. This is positively Stella's advice as well as mine. She says now you need not be ashamed to be vout. ... thought poor. I would have you carry down three or four sermons, and preach every Sunday at your own church, and be very de.. Keep these letters where I advise you about your living till you have taken advice. Keep very regular hours for the sake of your health and credit; and whenever you lie a night within twenty miles of your living, be sure to call the family that evening to prayers. One cannot help being glad that the subject of all this sage counsel cast it to the winds, and, "the most unreasonable thought coming uppermost," immediately preached his famous sermon on "Sulfi cient to the day is the evil thereof." But it was not in human nature, certainly not You will excuse me, I suppose, in Swift's, to view with satisfaction this | his absence but he was also very com- These letters between the dean and his friend are our best informants as to all that concerns the first of the three "Sherrys." The best thing, however, that we know of him is that he forgot them and their good counsel - which was enough to turn an honester man into a rogue. But Sheridan had a noble faculty of oblivion, so notorious indeed that Swift finds the doctor's name a convenient substitute for "forget." Writing about the dismis sal from the Castle chaplaincy, he says, "When the lord-lieutenant goes for England I have a method to set you right with him, I hope, as I will tell you when I come to town, if I do not Sheridan it- I mean forget it." Next year Sheridan was made D.D., and Swift, who was then in London, writes to congratulate him, adding, "I am only concerned that although you get the grace of the house, you will never get the grace of the town, but die plain Sheridan, or Tom at most, because it is a syllable shorter than doctor." Sheridan was very useful to the dean during While you are trudging London town, It was after Stella's death, however, that the genial schoolmaster became most necessary to Swift. So long as she lived, he did not want for company whenever he chose to seek it; but when the great void in his life came, he was glad to fall back upon the old friend to whose hearty affection Swift's other friends - Pope among them warmly testified. Perhaps Swift's knowledge that Stella had "loved him well" drew Sheridan closer to him. At first there was indeed a quarrel over a poetic duel. Swift has described it in the "History of Solomon II." called "Ballyspellin," whither he had gone to Solomon had published a humorous ballad, drink the waters, with a new favorite lady. The ballad was in the manner of Mr. Gay's on Molly Mogg, pretending to contain all the rhymes of Ballyspellin. His friend, the person so often mentioned, being at a gentleman's house in the neighborhood, and merry over Solomon's ballad, they agreed to make another in dispraise of Ballyspellin Wells, which Solomon had celebrated, and with all new rhymes not made use of in Solomon's. The thing was done, and all in a mere jest and innocent merriment. Yet Solomon was prevailed upon by the lady he went with to resent this as an affront on her and himself, which he did ac |