for supremacy between the monarchy and the people-and the man expressed and justified the times. He towered head and shoulders above his fellows. Neither Arbuthnot, nor Prior, nor Pope, nor Steele, nor Addison, nor Gay, nor even Bolingbroke himself, had that independence of character which compelled homage and which is the mark of the born leader of men. Nor did they possess that special perfection of literary expression which could so touch human passions that its largest measure of persuasive power came from the very passions it aroused, and which is the mark of the born orator. Yet this was the man who seemed, as it were, fated to be the right man in the wrong place. Addison could be a Secretary, Prior an ambassador, Wharton a governor, Boulter a Primate, while the man who could weigh and hold them all in the palm of his hand had to beg and be denied the paltry office of a historiographer. The explanation must lie in the fact that Swift had the temper which brings fear; and his political friends dreaded him only a little less than did his political enemies. He was too mighty a force to be intrusted with high executive position, and he was grudgingly retired from the arena of active politics with the Deanery of St. Patrick's. As a political adviser Swift had that sanity which is the outcome of an impassioned insight into character reacting on an intellect that reasoned rightly by instinct. The "Memoirs relating to the change in the Queen's Ministry," the "Free Thoughts upon the Present State of Affairs," and the "Considerations upon the Consequences hoped and feared from the Death of the Queen," amply bear out this claim. They are all marked by a statesmanlike grasp of affairs, and though these found him a nearly interested party, yet the fact did not blur his vision. They show also the uncommon shrewdness which Swift possessed. With all his disdain for the men and women who made up the society of his day, his judgment of them invariably allowed for the in stinctive acts of mankind as well as for the premeditated ones. As a political friend he was staunch to the last degree. Harley and Bolingbroke he served faithfully and, we believe, disinterestedly-certainly as much for the love he bore them as for any hope of personal gain or advancement. When, finally, he left them to themselves, it was only after he was convinced that all his efforts could avail nothing. But he had given them of his best, and had done for them what it was possible for no other man of his day to do. "The Conduct of the Allies" is the most successful effort ever made on behalf of a ministry by any single writer of any age. The popularity of even a Marlborough in the midst of his victories and at the height of his career, could not stand before its trenchant criticism and persuasive argument. As a political enemy he was a man to be dreaded. On this side he stopped at nothing. His "Character of Wharton" is a sufficient example of the lengths he could go to blast an opponent, or satisfy an animosity born of a public grievance. His treatment of Steele proves how effectively he could erase the ink-stains of a meddler in state affairs. "The Importance of the Guardian Considered" may be taken as the personal side of a quarrel which obtained its impersonal view in "The Public Spirit of the Whigs a piece of argument and scornful invective which remains a masterpiece to-day, and which stood then, in the midst of a crisis that produced almost a literature in itself, the strangest and strongest expression of political attack and defence. The present volume contains sufficient material to vindicate amply, not merely the high part Swift played in the political struggles of the last four years of the reign of Anne, but the claim that can be made for him that his was one of the profoundest minds of his day. We do not mean to say that he was distinguished for pure thinking in the sense in That which that phrase is applied to Kant or Newton. was not at all Swift's genius. His depth of reflective activity lay in his knowledge of character and the application he made of that knowledge for the purpose of practical affairs. In an eminent degree he had the mind of the statesman who is compelled to deal with conditions as they are, and not as they might be; and the depth of his thinking is in proportion to the narrowness of his point of view. A Whig in early life, circumstances made him a Tory; but party never strongly held him when the Church stood in danger. In whatever party he may be classed the genius of the man was above all parties. One can but dimly appreciate his feelings on finding himself serving as a Grub Street hack; and one need not be surprised that he took occasion by the ear and stalked the antechambers of the ministers as if he were the man and not they. Indeed for that matter, he "walked the earth unguessed at." It was only in later years that the men of his time came to know him a little better. Perhaps Walpole, too, was afraid of him. Sir Walter Scott's edition of Swift's Works, issued in a revised form in 1824, contained much either that Swift did not write or with which he had but little to do. These tracts have been omitted from this collection, and it is hoped that what is here given may stand for Swift's actual work. The only tract about which a question may be raised is that entitled, "A Learned Comment on Dr. Hare's Sermon," and the reason for its inclusion has been given in the note prefixed to the text. Further points will be discussed in the bibliography to be printed in the last volume. The editor takes this opportunity to express his gratitude for able assistance to Mr. W. Spencer Jackson who has carefully collated texts, to Mr. G. Ravenscroft Dennis, and to the late Colonel F. Grant. His indebtedness must also be recorded to the 'many published works on Swift and his times. In particular, he owes much to the researches of Sir Henry Craik, Mr. J. Churton Collins, Mr. G. A. Aitken, and the writers in the "Dictionary of National Biography." Mr. Walter Sichel's careful study of Bolingbroke came a little late; but his apology for Bolingbroke on the Catalan affair has been noted, though leave is here taken to differ from the able apologist. Acknowledgment must again be made to Sir Frederick Falkiner for his help in the matter of the Swift portraits. Finally, the editor begs to thank the publishers heartily for their indulgence for the unavoidable delay in the appearance of the present volume. GLEN RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, May 16, 1901. TEMPLE SCOTT. CONTENTS 29 164 SOME REASONS TO PROVE THAT NO ONE IS OBLIGED, BY HIS PRINCIPLES AS A WHIG, to oppose tHE QUEEN. IN A LETTER FROM THE PRETENDER TO A WHIG LORD A LETTER OF THANKS FROM LORD WHARTON TO THE 391 |