I have long wished for leisure to set about this task, which a life spent in a variety of laborious occupations has hitherto prevented. And even now I am obliged to suspend pursuits of a more advantageous kind with regard to myself in order to accomplish it.* But, reflecting, at this advanced period of life, on the near approaches of old age, which might soon disqualify me from carrying my design into execution, I determined to postpone all other considerations that might stand in the way of an object I have had so much at heart. The love I had to his person, and the reverence in which I was taught, from my earliest days, to hold his character, and with which I had an opportunity of being well acquainted, on account of the long intimacy subsisting between him and my father; and, above all, the means I have in my power of rescuing his good name from the aspersions thrown on it by foul-mouthed calumny, have made me think it an indispensable duty, no longer to delay doing justice to his memory.

From the above acknowledgment of my early prepossessions in his favour, it may be thought that I shall prove not an uprejudiced historian: but, though I am conscious to myself that I shall never be guilty of any wilful misrepresentations, I know too well how little weight all professions of impartiality carry with them on such occasions to trouble the reader with any. I desire no credit to be given to assertions or opinions not supported by the most convincing proofs: which, therefore, in all disputable points, I hope I shall be indulged in producing at full length. And I doubt not but that the display of Swift's true character and conduct in life, though to the

* Mr. Sheridan was paid more by the booksellers for this single life, than Dr. Johnson received for the whole of his Biography of the English Poets. N.

confusion of his maligners, and disappointment of the envious and malevolent, will give great satisfaction to all good minds; as it is of moment to the general cause of religion and morality to make it appear that the greatest genius of the age was, at the same time, a man of the truest piety, and most exalted virtue. y but boos

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SWIFT was descended from an ancient family in Yorkshire, of no small note, and considerable property. He was of the younger branch.* His grandfather, the reverend Thomas Swift, was possessed of a good estate, and was distinguished above any man of his station in life, for his attachment to Charles I. and the sufferings he underwent in support of the royal cause, by which his fortune was entirely ruined. He had ten sons, and three daughters. Five of his sons went to seek their fortune, in Ireland; the fourth of whom, Jonathan, was father to the famous doctor Swift. He had married Mrs. Abigail Erick, descended from an ancient family of that name in Leicestershire, but with little or no fortune. He died young, in about two years after his marriage, seven months before the birth of his only son; and as he was but just beginning the world, left his widow in very distressed circumstances.

For farther particulars of Swift's family, see his own account. in the Appendix. S.

JONATHAN SWIFT, afterward the celebrated dean of St. Patrick's, was born on the 30th of November, 1667, in Hoey's court, Dublin. When he was but a year old, he was, without the knowledge of his mother or relations, stolen away by his nurse, and carried to Whitehaven,* which place she was under a necessity of visiting, on account of the illness of a relation, from m whom she expected a legacy; and, as is usual among Irish nurses, she bore such an affection to the child, that she could not think of going without him. There he continued for almost three years; and she took such care of him, that he had learned to spell, and could read any chapter in the Bible before he was five years old.amous

At the age of six he was sent to the school of Kilken nyt and at fourteen admitted into the university of Dublin; the expense of his education being defrayed by his uncle Godwin Swift, the eldest of the brothers who had settled in Ireland. He was a lawyer of great eminence, and had made considerable sums of 1 money, which were for the most part squandered away in idle projects. By means of which, soon after his nephew had entered the college, he found himself involved in

He retained his affection for Whitehaven to the last, as if it were his native place; and when one of his friends, who had spent a little time there in 1739, told him in the Spring following, that a merchant from thence, with his son and daughter, were were then in D Dublin, he invited them to dinner, and showed them many civilities whilst they stayed in that city. N.

This school, or college as it is called, of Kilkenny, is a large building erected for that purpose, founded and endowed by be the Ormand family. In the school-room Swift's name still remains, as he cut it on the side-board of the seat of his class with his knife, after the custom of boys. And here he said he first learned, soon after he entered the school, these words, which he termed Latino-Anglicè, “Mi dux, et amasti lux." This species of writing became afterwards one of those whimsical amusements with which he entertained himself as he sunk in years. N.