FORSTER’S LIFE OF SWIFT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4775, 12 July 1876, Page 3

FORSTER’S LIFE OF SWIFT.

(From tho Pall Mall Gazette.)

Mr. Forster was so long known to be engaged on a biography of Swift that high expectations were formed respecting it, and so far these have certainly not been disappointed. It is impossible to read this volume without admiring the industry with which the author has amassed materials, and his skill in giving them effective shape. Here and there, indeed, as in his previous writings, he is somewhat diffuse, as if he did not believe his points could be seen unless he made them over and over again. There is, however, this to be said, that there was a vast mass of misconception to clear away, and that Mr. Forster’s conclusions are often so now that it might seem necessary to bring out with more than usual distinctness each link in the evidence. There is, perhaps, no writer of equal mark about whom so many wrong impressions have hitherto prevailed as about Swift. These are partly due to his peculiar way of putting the least favorable construction on his own actions, but much more to the bungling of his early biographers. It was unlucky that the first attempts to interpret so original and complex a nature should have been made hy such men as Lord Orrery and Mr. Deane Swift, who were about as capable of understanding him as of discovering the law of gravitation. Johnson might have made valuable contributions to our knowledge, but he was not sufficiently attracted by the subject to take the necessary pains ; and Scott, although far nearer the truth than his predecessors, was too much occupied with other work to enter upon a series of elaborate researches. It has thus happened that the mis-statements made soon after Swift’s death have been repeated by one writer after another, until a theory of his character has been accepted curiously at variance with the facts. Mr. Forster deserves gratitude for having undertaken to deal afresh, and in earnest, with the whole problem ; and if the remaining volumes are on a level with that now published, we shall at last have a record of Swift’s career not unworthy of his fame as one of the greatest of English humorists. The first exaggeration of importance relates

to his life at the university, and for this he is himself responsible. “ By the ill-treatment of his nearest relations,” he says in his fragment of autobiography, “ he was so discouraged and sunk in his spirits that he too much neglected his academic studies, for some parts of which he had no great relish by nature, and turned himself to reading history and poetry, so that when the time came for taking his degree of bachelor of arts, although he had lived -with great regularity and due observance of the statutes, he was stopped of his degree for dullness and insufficiency ; and at last hardly admitted, in a manner little to his credit, which is called in that college specialis gratia, on tho 15th February, 1865, with four more on the same footing.” Mr. Forster has accidentally obtained possession of one _ of the rolls of Trinity College, containing the result of the quarterly examination which preceded the bachelor’s degree of February, 1685 ; and from tins it appears that Swift, if not a brilliant student, fairly diligent, and ranked among the best of his contemporaries. He neglected philosophy and theology, but in classics stood well. As for the specialis gratia, it did not necessarily imply disgrace, and could have had no such meaning in his case. Why he should have given so poor account of himself it is hard to determine. We can hardly suppose, with Mr. Forster, that he wished by such means to throw discredit on Trinity College. It is more probable that he wrote in a moment of depression, and any rate not unwilling to make the description of his youth a striking contrast to bis later eminence. Much more serious are the misrepresentations connected with his two periods of residence at Moor Park, the first of which began almost immediately after he left college. Macaulay speaks of him as “an eccentric, uncouth, disagreeable young Irishman, who had narrowly escaped plucking at Dublin, and who “attended Sir William (Temple) as an amanuensis for board and £2O a year, dined at the second table, wrote bad verse in praise of his employer, and made love to a very pretty dark-eyed young girl, who waited on Lady Giffard.” “A sharp word or a cold look of the master” is said to have made “the servant miserable during several days,” while “ the language which he was in the habit of holding to his patron, as far as we can judge from the specimens which still remain, was that of a lacquey, or rather of a beggar.” His “ tameness,” “ was merely the tameness with which a tiger, caught, caged, and starved submits to the keeper who brings him food.” Macaulay never wrote more reckless sentences, for they rest on grounds that ought not to have satisfied the most superficial investigator. It is true, as Swift reminds Stella in one of his letters, that Sir William Temple would sometimes “ look cold and out of humor for two or three days, and then Swift “used to suspect a hundred reasons.” But on the whole their relations were perfectly friendly and pleasant. Swift acted as Temple’s private secretary, and “ there was,” says Mr. Forster, “ just so much equality of intercourse as made any interruption to it sensitively watched and felt. A man such as Macaulay represents would not have been sent to the King on an important mission; he would not have said, on Temple’s death, that with .him died “ all that was good and amiable among men nor would he afterwards have declared of Moor Park that “ no time would make him forget it and love it less.” At Moor Park the “Battle of the Books” and the “Tale of a Tub” were written; and it may safely be asserted that these masterpieces could not have been produced unless under conditions favorable to the free play of thought and humor. As for “ tho language of a lacquey, or rather of a beggar,” that existed only in Macaulay’s imagination. The reference is to a letter written by Swift to Temple after his first residence at Moor Park, when he had gone to Ireland to be ordained. The Archbishop of Dublin required a certificate of behavior during his absence from Ireland; and only a testimonial from Temple was considered adequate. Unfortunately Swift had quarrelled with his kinsman, for the latter could ill spare his services, and had been unwilling to part with him. In these circumstances it was natural that a proud man should hesitate to ask a favor; but when he persuaded himself to do so, the he used were not more submissive than might be adopted with honor. A more formidable charge might be brought against him on the ground of his motives for becoming a clergyman. These were certainly not very lofty, although it is noteworthy that he did not form a final resolution until “ Sir William Temple, then being Master of the Bolls in Ireland, offered him an employ of about £l2O a year in that office.” “ Whereupon,” wo are informed in the autobiography, “Mr. Swift told him that since he had now an opportunity of living without being driven into the church for a maintenance, he was resolved to go to Ireland and take holy orders. He has often been accused of insincerity in his professed adherence to the faith of . the Church of England ; but, although he shocks the proprieties often enough in his treatment of theological subjects, his writings contain innumerable proofs that he had no sympathy with the scepticism of his day. For its more shallow and noisy forms, his “Argument to prove the Inconvenience of abolishing Christianity,’ displays the keenest contempt. The “pretty, dark-eyed young girl who waited on Lady Giffard” was of course Esther Johnson. Her mother was Lady Giffard’s companion ; but she herself waited on no one, and Macaulay ought scarcely to have heightened the effect of "his picture by this small touch. Swift’s relation to Esther—or, as she will always be better known, Stella—is one of the most perplexing problems of his life, and we are not quite sure that Mr. Forster has satisfactorily solved it. He has, however, placed it in a clearer light than any previous writer, and it is possible that when we have the whole story before us difficulties which at present suggest themselves may vanish. If Swift really “made love” to her at Moor Park, he cannot have done so during his first residence, for when he began his second she was only fifteen years old. She was a child of seven when he first knew her, and even then she had a singular fascination for him. “I had,” he says,' “some share in her education, by directing what books she should read, and perpetually instructing her in the principles of honor and virtue, from which she never swerved in any one action or moment of her life.” She evidently deserved the praises he lavished on her, for, in addition to her love and faithfulness, she was free from that dread of doing anything uncommon which exercises so powerful an influence over the lives of most women. She did' not hesitate, at Swift’s advice, to go with her friend Mrs. Dingley to Ireland, and to live in his lodgings, or vicarage, in his absence, and in rooms near him when ho was at home. People formed their own opinions on this eccentric conduct; but so long as she was conscious of no wrong, she seems to have been indifferent to the harsh judgment of her critics. That she passionately loved Swift there can, we think, be no doubt, yet Mr. Forster believes she must have been aware from the beginning that marriage was not to be thought of. This may appear incredible, hut the Tisdall correspondence certainly supports the theory. While Esther was in Ireland, Tisdall paid his addresses to her, and wrote to Swift on the subject. The latter was not favorable to the marriage, but with Esther’s knowledge ho distinctly stated that his inclination could be no bar to Tisdall’s. “ Nor shall any consideration of my own misfortune of losing so good a friend and companion as her, prevail on me against her interest and settlement in the world, since it is held so necessary and convenient a thing for ladies to marry, and that time takes off from the lustre of virgins in all other eyes but mine.” Mr. Forster represents Swift as acting tho part of a father rather than that of a lover, but few who read the “ Journal to Stella" will believe that his feeling was purely of the paternal kind. That extraordinary series of letters can now for the first time be read as Swift wrote them. Tho “little language” is given unchanged, and a key is provided for most of the curious symbols in which they abound. It must bo a very unsympathetic person indeed who can read them without being touched when he remembers that the writer has the reputation of being the most morose and sorrowful of men. In

these letters the fiercest satirist of his age not only unbends and throws aside useless forms, but expresses his playfulness and tenderness in the broken words of a child. “Do you know what,” he tells his correspondent, “ when I am writing in our language I make up my mouth just as if I were speaking it. I caught myself at it just now.” Mr. Forster is clearly right when he urges that this peculiar mode of speech was a survival from the days when Swift imitated Esther’s way of talking. Even as the “ Journal ” has hitherto been printed, it ought to have raised a suspicion that the last word was not said when the terrible Dean was described as a melancholy misanthrope ; now it should be obvious to every one that beneath the hard crust of his nature there were elements of passion deeper and more genuine than in any other prominent man ot that cold and selfish epoch. The greatest of the remaining difficulties in the period covered by this volume is connected with the transfer ot Swift's services from the Whig to the Tory party. Jeffrey called this the act of “an apostate in politics ;” and even if a less violent phrase is used, it would be idle to pretend that Swift was actuated solely by public motives. The Whigs had neglected him, and their ingratitude had unquestionably much to do with his readiness in accepting the overtures of Harley and St. John. Mr. Forster has, however, successfully shown that that he at no time considered party distinctions of much importance, and that when he joined the Tories the Toryism he expounded differed little from moderate Whiggism. Only gradually, as issues became more distinct, did he take a more decided position, and return blow for blow. AVhen the volume closes, he is still—at the age of forty-four—writing the Examiner papers with tolerable calmness, although he is already recognised as a Tory chief, and admitted, practically, as a Minister without office to the Cabinet dinner. Perhaps Mr. Forster is hardly severe enough on Sv/ift for the spirit displayed by him in his dealings with the great people with whom he was thus associated. Swift meant his brusqueness to be taken as proof that he was as good as the best ; but surely it was a symptom of uneasy selfconsciousness which is anything but a token of strength. It is not only hero that Mr. Forster’s enthusiasm fu\erferes with his impartiality. While Swift, as a young man, used to visit his mother at Leicester once a year he travelled on foot, and “ seeing written over a door ‘ lodgings for a penny,’ he would hire a bed, giving additional sixpence for clean sheets.” In explanation of this custom the following sentence is quoted from Dr. Johnson :—“This practice Lord Orrery imputes to his innate love of grossness and vulgarity ; some may ascribe it to his desire of surveying human life through all its varieties.” The impression is conveyed that Dr. Johnson thought the choice of a penny lodging indicative of fine qualities ; but the honest Doctor added a clause which Mr. Forster suppresses :—“ And others, perhaps with equal probability, to a passion which seems to have been deeply fixed in his heart—the love of a shilling.”