honour, for whom Swift had very little respect. The Voyage to Laputa is a ridicule of the Royal Society; and an occasional shaft is levelled at Sir Isaac Newton: its satire of projectors is withering. The Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms is a fierce diatribe upon human nature, and the Yahoos are odious and hateful.

Scott next has judiciously observed how exact in this wonderful satire is the adaptation of the narrative to the condition of the supposed author. He says:

"The character of the imaginary traveller is exactly that of Dampier, or any other sturdy nautical wanderer of the period, endowed with courage and common sense, who sailed through distant seas, without losing a single English prejudice which he had brought from Portsmouth or Plymouth, and on his return gave a grave and simple narrative of what he had seen or heard in foreign countries. The character is perhaps strictly English, and can be hardly relished by a foreigner. The reflections and observations of Gulliver are never more refined or deeper than might be expected from a plain master of a merchantman, or surgeon in the Old Jewry; and there was such a reality given to this person, that one seaman is said to have sworn he knew Captain Gulliver very well, but he lived at Wapping, not at Rotherhithe. (Gulliver, so Swift tells us, was long an inhabitant of the place. 'It was as true as if Mr. Gulliver had spoken it,' was a sort of proverb among his neighbours at Redriff.) It is the contrast between the natural ease and simplicity of such a style, and the marvels which the volume contains, that forms one great charm of this memorable satire on the imperfections, follies, and vices of mankind."

Scott then commends the exact calculations and preservation of proportions which qualify the extravagance of the fable; adding, "in this point of view, perhaps, the highest praise that could have been bestowed on Gulliver's Travels was the censure of a learned Irish prelate, who said the book contained some things which he could not prevail upon himself to believe."

Professor de Morgan, however, shows the former portion of Scott's commendation to be unmerited. In a communication to Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, No. 137, he affirms that Swift was not much given to arithmetic, and that he was most likely assisted, in this portion of the Travels, by Arbuthnot; although he attacked the mathematicians, his own technical knowledge was of a poor kind; and Mr. de Morgan concludes by observing: "that Swift could himself extract a cube root, or use logarithms, is more than Apella would have believed, even after twenty years' service in the marines." The entire paper is very piquant and to the purpose, but too long for quotation here.

Lord Macaulay has this note upon the originality of the Travels: "Swift boasted that he was never known to steal a hint; and he certainly owed as little to his predecessors as any modern writer. Yet we cannot help suspecting that he borrowed, perhaps unconsciously, one of the happiest touches in his Voyage to Lilliput from four Latin lines written by Addison above thirty years before Gulliver's Travels appeared. The passage is: "The Emperor is taller by about the breadth of my nail than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders."

Gulliver's Travels sold with such rapidity, that the whole impression was exhausted in a week. Pope went to London on purpose to see how it would be received by statesmen and commoners; and to observe its effects was, he says, his diversion for a fortnight. He had a peculiar interest in the work.

In a letter to Pulteney, 12th May, 1735, the Dean says, "I never got a farthing for anything I writ except once about eight years ago, and that by Mr. Pope's prudent management for me." This probably alludes to Gulliver's Travels, for which Pope certainly obtained from the bookseller 3007. There may, however, be some question, whether this sum was not left at Pope's disposal as well as that which he got for the Miscellanies (1507.), and which Swift abandoned to him."-(Scott's Life of Swift.) Motte, the publisher of the Miscellanies, in a letter to Swift, says, "I am a stranger to what part of the copy-money he [Pope] received, but you, who know better, are a competent judge whether he deserved it.

The secret of the authorship of the work was kept up by Swift by alluding to a book sent to him called Gulliver's Travels. A bishop here," he adds, "said that the book was full of improbable lies, and for his part he hardly believed a word of it." Arbuthnot writes him-"Lord Scarborough, who is no inventor of stories, told us that he fell in company with a master of a ship, who told him that he was very well acquainted with Gulliver, but that the printer had mistaken; that he lived in Wapping, not in Rotherhithe. I lent the book to an old gentleman, who went immediately to his map, to search for Lilliput."* It is obvious how much all this must have amused the Dean and his friends in connexion with the unexampled sale of the volume.

* Rogers notes: "When I was at Banbury, I happened to observe in the churchyard several inscriptions to the memory of persons named Gulliver; and on my return home, looking into Gulliver's Travels, I found, to my surprise, that the said inscriptions are mentioned there as a confirmation of Mr. Gulliver's statement, that his family came from Oxfordshire.'"-Table Talk, p. 257.

BARGAINING WITH THE PUBLISHERS.

Mr. Carruthers, of Inverness, could find no authority for the statement of 3007. for the Gulliver copyright, nor does it appear that Pope was connected with the mystification that accompanied the publication. Erasmus Lewis was the negotiator, and the sum demanded for the copyright was only 2007. The manuscript was sent to Motte, Swift's publisher, with a request that he should immediately, on undertaking the publication, deliver a bank-bill of 2001. Motte demurred to the immediate payment, but offered to publish the work within a month after he received the copy; and to pay the sum demanded, if the success would allow it, in six months. His terms were apparently accepted, for Gulliver reappeared in the latter end of October or beginning of November, 1726. At the expiration of the six months, Motte seems to have applied for a longer period of credit. Swift's answer is

characteristic:

"Mr. Motte, I send this enclosed by a friend, to be sent to you, to desire that you would go to the house of Erasmus Lewis, Cork-street, behind Burlington House, and let him know that you are come from me; for to the said Mr. Lewis I have given full power to treat concerning my cousin Gulliver's book, and whatever he and you shall settle I will consent to, &c.-Richard Sympson."

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This is in Swift's handwriting, very slightly disguised. The engagement was closed in about a week afterwards, as appears from a memorandum on the same sheet: London, May 4th, 1727, I am fully satisfied,-E. Lewis." These documents with others were first published in 1840, by Dr. Cooke Taylor, in an illustrated edition of Gulliver: the originals are in the possession of the Rev. C. Bathurst Woodman, grandson of Mr. Bathurst the publisher, who began his career in partnership with Motte. Pope does not appear in the transaction.

Motte also published the Miscellanies, and by this work Swift received no pecuniary advantage. From documents in Mr. Woodman's possession it appears that the right money was divided between Pope, Arbuthnot, Gay,

copy

* Motte's imprint in vol. iii. of the Miscellanies is "at the Middle Temple Gate;" it was within the gate, or No. 6, Fleet-street, and was subsequently occupied by a tinman and brazier. We remember a bookseller's within the gate of Gray's Inn, in Gray's Inn-lane; and to this day there is a shop within the Holborn gate of Gray's Inn.

and Swift; but that Swift's portion was directed to be sent to the Mrs. Hyde, the widow of John Hyde, the bookseller, in Dame-street, Dublin, mentioned in Swift's printed correspondence. He died in Motte's debt, in 1729; and it was, no doubt, to relieve the widow that Swift thus disposed of his share of the copyright of the Miscellanies. When corresponding with Motte, in 1727, under the name of Richard Sympson, Swift was living with Pope at Twickenham, and most likely consulted on the matter Pope, who was well skilled in the art of dealing with booksellers.

"THE BEGGAR'S OPERA."

In 1727, Gay's Beggar's Opera was produced, and its success was as great as that of Gulliver. Pope (in Spence's Anecdotes) thus details the circumstances. "Dr. Swift had been observing once to Mr. Gay, what an odd pretty sort of a thing a Newgate Pastoral might make. Gay was inclined to try at such a thing for some time, but afterwards thought it would be better to write a comedy on the same plan. This is what gave rise to the Beggar's Opera. He began it, and when he first mentioned it to Swift, the Doctor did not much like the project. As he carried it on, he showed what he wrote to both of us; and we now and then gave a correction, or a word or two of advice: but it was wholly of his own writing. When it was done, neither of us thought it would succeed. We showed it to Congreve, who, after reading it over, said, 'It would either take greatly, or be damned confoundedly!' We were all at the first night of it, in great uncertainty of the event; till we were very much encouraged by overhearing the Duke of Argyle, who sat in the next box to us, say, 'It will do,-it must do !-I see it is in the eyes of them.'-This was a good while before the first act was over, and so gave us ease soon; for the Duke (besides his own good taste) has a more particular knack than any one now living, in discovering the taste of the public. He was quite right in this, as usual; the good-nature of the audience appeared stronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause."

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Swift is supposed to have supplied Gay with the two celebrated songs, ingrafted in the Beggar's Opera, and beginning, Through all the employments of life," and "Since laws were made for every degree.' Warton has assigned both to Pope, but the internal evidence is in favour of Mr. Deane

Swift and Mrs. Whiteway, who uniformly declared they were written by the Dean. Swift never saw the Beggar's Opera in a complete state until it was printed; but it does not follow that he contributed no songs.

The Beggar's Opera was then produced by Gay, under the auspices of the Duchess of Queensberry, and performed at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn-fields, under the immediate influence of her Grace; who, to induce the manager, Rich, to bring it upon his stage, agreed to indemnify him all the expenses he might incur, provided that the daring speculation should fail. The offer had been first proposed to Fleetwood and his partners, at Drury-lane Theatre; but it was at once rejected by them, as a piece that would not be tolerated by a public audience: indeed, they stoutly refused it a rehearsal. The success of the Beggar's Opera mainly depended upon two points the hatred of one party against the Italian Opera, and the hatred of another party against the Court.

THE DEAN LAST IN ENGLAND.

In April, 1727, Swift again visited England. His fame now stood higher than it had done in the previous autumn, and he was welcomed at Leicester House, and in all the circles of his friends, with increased delight and enthusiasm. He still clung to the expectation of obtaining some church preferment in England, and fresh hopes were kindled on the death of the King; when a change of ministry was expected. Walpole was, however, again in the ascendant, and Swift visited him, not disinclined, apparently, to share in ministerial favour-but his ostensible object was to represent the affairs of Ireland to the great minister in a true light. He was politely received, and the Princess Caroline saw him at Leicester House; but his schemes evaporated in mere courtly phrases. He retired more than ever disgusted with courts and ministers of state.

Swift resided, as before, with Pope, and the result appeared by their joint efforts, in time, in two volumes of the Miscel lanies; a third volume was published in March following.

SWIFT PARTS FROM POPE.

In the autumn of 1727, Swift was afflicted with a severe paroxysm of his disorder, and about the same time received news from Ireland that Stella was sinking. In agony he