'Tale of a Tub.' His first work was the 'Tale of a Tub,' a very ludicrous story of three brothers, Peter, Jack, and Martin, who represent respectively the Roman Catholic, the Calvinist, and the Lutheran religion. The story is told of their attempts to carry out their father's wishes in agreement, and of their quarrel at the Reformation. The whole tendency of the book was to cast ridicule upon religion. Failing in his efforts for promotion, Swift changed his party, and went over to the Tories, who received him with open arms; but the queen would not consent to the wish of her ministers to make him a bishop. Ultimately he was appointed Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. He was naturally of a sour temper, and the continued disappointments of his life made him very bitter. He is a furious assailant, sparing no insult to gain his point. He seems to have had little heart. His humour is wonderful, such that no English writer has ever equalled it. Ireland alone could have produced it. One could desire no addition to it but a little kindliness. His pamphlets are indispensable to the historian of the reign of Queen Anne. Their name is Legion. One Conduct of of them probably had greater influence than the Allies.' any other pamphlet ever had. When the Whigs were turned out of office, the public opinion in England, especially in the City, was still strongly in favour of the prosecution of the war. The effect of the 'Conduct of the Allies,' showing that the English people were paying the allies that they might be allowed to fight their battles for them, was magical in turning the tide of opinion. Stocks fell when the Whigs were turned out; stocks were unaffected by the cessation of arms which showed that negotiations were genuine. In King George's reign Swift wrote 'Drapier's Letters,' against a new Government Coinage, and the result was that the coinage was withdrawn, whilst Swift 'Drapier's became the darling of the Irish people. Letters.' Travels.' But of course Swift's really greatest work is 'Gulliver's Travels,' which may be described as a satire upon humanity, with contemporary allusions. In 'Gulliver's the voyage to Lilliput is represented the littleness of mankind, as seen by beings of a larger growth. In Brobdingnag the absurdities of men are shown, seen, as it were, through a magnifying glass. Then Gulliver travels to other lands, wherein learning and science are satirised, and at length Swift bursts forth into terrible descriptions of the Yahoos, which read like a savage attack on mankind. Swift's death. Swift outlived his genius, and before his death sank into absolute idiocy. The story is told how towards the end of his life he took up one of his own books and said, 'Good God, what a genius I had when I wrote that book!' So Swift expired, a driveller and a show. The following epitaph in St. Patrick's Cathedral he composed for himself :— Hic jacet Jonathan Swift, S.T.P. ubi sæva indignatio cor ulterius lacerare nequit. Abi, viator, imitare, si poteris. Swift was the great Tory pamphleteer, famous as the author of 'Gulliver.' A writer on the Whig side was none other than the author of 'Robinson Crusoe.' Defoe. Daniel De Foe was born in 1661, the year after the Restoration. His real name was Foe, for though he had this strange fancy for prefixing de to his name, he was a true-born Englishman. His father was a London butcher, a Whig and a Dissenter, and he was himself engaged in business as a hosier; but his strong sympathy with that extreme section of the Whig party which the Dissenters formed soon drew him from commerce, in which he was unsuccessful, to literature. He had a very facile pen, and it often got him into trouble; but neither pillory nor imprisonment could restrain him from writing again. As a faithful and extreme Whig he had joined Monmouth, and taken refuge abroad after the defeat of Sedgemoor. He was a great friend of the Glorious Revolution, and during the reign of William was always ready to defend the king and his cause, even with respect to acts which were unpopular. His career as a pamphleteer may be said to have begun one year before the Revolution, and to have ended about a year after the end of Queen Anne's reign. The two most famous of his pamphlets are 'The True-born Englishman,' which appeared in the former, and 'The Shortest Way with Dissenters,' in the latter. 'The True-born Englishman' is a poem in which De Foe defends King William. The verse is not melodious, and may be said in parts to descend to doggerel; but its sterling sense caused a very large sale. Considering the services that William and his Dutch soldiers had conferred upon England, •True-born English man.' even a true-born Englishman can forgive him for liking his old friends better than his new subjects. The former at any rate had been true to him. The foreigners have faithfully obeyed him, And none but Englishmen have e'er betrayed him. The writer vigorously maintains the principles of the Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things, The 'Shortest Dissenters.' 'The Shortest Way with Dissenters' was a pamphlet called forth by the Occasional Conformity Bill. Church party, knowing that the queen was on their side, were anxious to persecute the Way with Dissenters, until they were entirely rid of them. They wished legislation to run in the groove of Charles II.'s reign, not in that of William's. De Foe wrote under the disguise of a Churchman, and his shortest way was this: 'If one severe law were made and punctually executed, that whoever was found at a conventicle should be banished the nation, and the preacher be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale.' The Churchmen were delighted, and De Foe had to publish an explanation of his sarcasm, at which they were proportionately enraged. The result was the pillory and imprisonment. The pamphlet is really an argument in favour of complete toleration, for he also attacks his own friends the Dissenters, because when they had the power they did not respect their opponents. Now, like the cock in the stable, they are quite willing to propose to the horses, 'let us all keep our legs quiet.' 'Robinson De Foe's greatest work is, of course, 'Robinson Crusoe.' He was nearly sixty when he wrote it. It is founded upon the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a seaman who had been marooned Crusoe.' upon the island of Juan Fernandez, that is to say, put on shore by his captain and left there on pretence that he had committed some great crime. The adventures of Robinson Crusoe, his shipwreck, his life upon the island, his attempts to provide himself with the common necessaries of life, his meeting with Friday, the boat too big to launch, and ultimately the escape, have delighted many generations of readers, young as well as old. Written in an exceedingly simple style, it has all the air of a real narrative. But the most famous Whig writer of the time, and one whose life is closely mixed up with its history, is Joseph Addison. He was educated at the Charter Addison. house, which was then, and indeed until late years, a London school, but has now been moved into the country. A modern novelist, himself educated at the same school, writes with great pride of Addison, as the head boy at the Charter-house. Addison distinguished himself at school, and went thence to Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship at Magdalen College. He had a great reputation for Latin scholarship and especially for Latin verses. He also tried English verses, and some of them arresting the attention of Lord Somers, that enlightened nobleman procured Addison a pension, wherewith he travelled over France and Italy. He stayed a long time in France, and the influence of a close acquaintance with French literature can be plainly traced in Addison's style. On King William's death the pension ceased, and he returned to England. He published an account of his travels, which was not successful, and for some years Addison lived in poor, but dignified and contented retirement in lodgings in the Haymarket, up two pairs of stairs. When the battle of Blenheim was fought, its glory was sung by many poetasters in miserable verses, which seemed to the ministers to mar it. Godolphin, the PrimeMinister, did not know to whom to turn. A Whig nobleman suggested an application to Addison, on condition that all due respect be shown in making it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was sent as a deputation to Addison, who consented to write, and when the Chancellor came again the poem was completed as far as the following passage:— But O my Muse! what numbers wilt thou find |