quoted in this connexion, Webster's beautiful lines 66 Condemn you him for that the maid did love him? There is no doubt about the "distracted woman,' but we are not so sure about the crystal river," which seems turbid after a spate. In our mind this was Swift's first and last genuine passion, and it is not to his credit. One stain, however, may at least be taken off his memory in regard to Vanessa. Scott's tragic story of the letter she wrote to Stella, which Stella gave to Swift; his vengeful ride to Marlay Abbey, and the "awful look" from which Vanessa died, is merely another of Orrery's splendid fictions. There is not a particle of evidence for the libel. All phases of Swift's friendships will be found to be illustrated in the varied selection of letters comprised in this volume. Apart from the light they throw on the writer's character, they are delightful examples of their kind. "They possess the greatest charm letters can have, perfect sincerity and frankness: Swift writes as though he were talking face to face with his friends. But they have also the vigour, the terse directness, the finish of thought and expression, which were integral parts of Swift's composition, whether it were mere correspondence, or a classic like · Gulliver." 1 There is no one style in them; they vary with the mood of the writer and the character of the correspondent. Writing to Bolingbroke he uses a dignified, almost formal language, polished to a brilliance which recalls the political essay. The 1 S. LANE-POOLE: Swift's Letters and Journals, p. v (1885). letters to his old chief, Harley, are the embodiment of affectionate regard, deferential without a trace of servility. To Pope he opens his mind freely, as equal to equal, with perfect unaffected frankness. With Gay he is less open, and a trifle patronizing, but full of a genial humour. Fun gets the upper hand when he writes to his Irish crony, unlucky Tom Sheridan, and pours out nonsense verses, or -ling rhymes (see p. 94), or banters him on the shortcomings of his topsy-turvy household at Quilca, or on the peculiarities of Madam Sheridan, who certainly had no cause to love her husband's critical friend. To Pope's Patty Blount he adopts a tone half quizzical, half tender, which exactly fits the occasion. One feels in each case that he is writing just as he would have spoken, and his manner changes precisely as his conversation adapted itself to his hearer. The most striking and persistent characteristic of the letters written to Swift by his friends is their universal tone of respectful admiration. Obviously they all regarded him as their intellectual chief, and felt honoured by any mark of his regard. Among all his contemporaries not one would have ventured publicly to claim an equality with him, and it is very remarkable that this position of unrivalled supremacy never aroused, so far as can be traced, any feeling of envy or jealousy, from which, as a rule even friendship is not exempt. Swift seems to have exacted homage like a king, and no one ever thought of rebelling-except Steele, and Steele paid heavily for his temerity. "No one," says the latest biographer of Swift, "no one who is acquainted with the character of Swift, with his character as it appears in his own writings, as it has been illustrated in innumerable anecdotes, and as it has been delineated by those who were familiar with him, can fail to see that he belonged to the kings of human-kind. Like Innocent III, and like Chatham, he was one of those men to whom the world pays instinctive homage. Everything about him indicated superiority. His will was a will of adamant; his intellect was an intellect the power and keenness of which impressed or awed every one who approached him. And to that will and to that intellect was joined a temper singularly stern, dauntless, and haughty."1 The stern and imperious will is always what first appeals to one who studies Swift's commanding character. It is only after closer scrutiny that the more humane and generous qualities of the man reveal themselves. As I wrote twelve years ago and I have found no cause for modification-" I am confident that no one can read these letters without materially changing, if he ever held it, the traditional view of Swift as the morose cynic. There is nothing in all literature more tender than the Journal to Stella: the man who could write that, could fool so gaily with Sheridan, pour out his own sorrows, and his anxious care for his friends with such touching solicitude to Pope and Arbuthnot, who could keep his heart kindly and green for his friends in his old age, after years of trial and disappointment, was not the callous misanthrope he has been represented. The study of the private life and correspondence of Swift is a valuable corrective to the impressions derived from his literary works. One realizes that the man had a warmer heart than the author would have us believe." 1 J. CHURTON COLLINS: Jonathan Swift, pp. 70-71 (1893). The letters contained in the last sixty pages of this volume have nothing to say to Swift, and call for little comment. Addison appears to the best advantage in his charming letter to Congreve, written from Blois, and in his sympathetic encouragement of the young Earl of Warwick's taste for bird's-nesting. As a rule his epistolary style has the defect of his essays: it is too finished, formal, and self-conscious. He is so desperately afraid of betraying the least emotion, that he appears more frigid than he really was. Suaviter subridens, he dares not break into a hearty laugh. "Elegant" to the point of exasperation, he conveys an unfortunate, and indeed erroneous, impression of insincerity. In vivid contrast to his polished periods, follow the frank natural letters of his literary colleague, genial Dick Steele, to his "lovely charmer," his "dear, dear Prue." Steele's was one of those sanguine, impulsive, emotional natures which never seem to grow up: he was a thoughtless, cheerful, improvident boy to the day of his death. His letters to his wife, ill-spelt, unconsidered, without a trace of elaboration, are the most spontaneous, unfeigned loveletters in the language. Always hoping, always repenting, always backsliding, the simple fellow throws himself upon his wife's clemency with touching self-abandonment. The absolute simplicity, honest fervour, and manly chivalry of these letters constitute their peculiar charm. His was not a chivalrous age, and his loyal and unselfish devotion to "the beautiful is among his many titles to our regard. The "fond fool of a husband," writing while his ragged boy tumbles on the floor, or the "brats his girls stand on either side of the table, presents a picture which one would not exchange for all the immaculate sex primness of Joseph Addison. The letters to "Prue should be read side by side with the Journal to Stella. Both have the supreme merit of perfect sincerity, simplicity, and devotion. The difference between them is the difference between the strongly contrasted natures of the two writers. No one can doubt which was the more lovable, any more than which was the greater, man. Athenæum Club, September 1897. STANLEY LANE-POOLE. |