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DEAN SWIFT

(A. D. 1667-1745.)

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SAYS Mr. Gosse, in his "History of Eighteenth Century [English] Literature: "Jonathan Swift, 'the great Irish patriot,' had nothing Irish about him except the accident of being born in Dublin. His father was a Herefordshire man, and his mother was a Leicestershire woman. The elder Jonathan Swift was made steward to the Society of the King's Inns, Dublin, in 1666, and there died about a year afterwards. Some months later his widow bore him a posthumous son, the 30th of November, 1667, and this was the famous writer.' Swift's mother was a relative of Sir William Temple, and found a patron for her son in that much esteemed gentleman. He entered the Church, but remained in Sir William's service and in his household during most of the time for ten years.

Swift's literary career may be said to have begun in 1696 or 1697, when the "Tale of a Tub," one of the most remarkable of his satires, and "The Battle of the Books," scarcely inferior to it, were written. "Gulliver's Travels, " the most famous of his works, did not appear until 1726, though he had probably been engaged upon it for some years.

The great satirist was never distinguished for good manners; yet he wrote a treatise on that subject, in which the fundamental principles of politeness are pithily set forth. Some passages from it are subjoined.

DEAN SWIFT ON GOOD MANNERS.

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse.

Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy is the best bred in the company.

As the best law is founded upon reason, so are the best manners. And as some lawyers have introduced unreasonable things into common law, so likewise many teachers have introduced absurd things into common good

manners.

Pride, ill nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill manners; without some one of these defects, no man will behave himself ill for want of experience, or of what, in the language of fools, is called knowing the world,

I defy any one to assign an incident wherein reason will not direct us what to say or do in company, if we are not misled by pride or ill nature.

Therefore I insist that good sense is the principal foundation of good manners; but because the former is a gift which very few among mankind are possessed of, therefore all the civilized nations of the world have agreed upon fixing some rules upon common behaviour, best suited to their general customs or fancies, as a kind of artificial good sense, to supply the defects of

reason.

As the common forms of good manners were intended for regulating the conduct of those who have weak understandings; so they have been corrupted by the persons for whose use they were contrived. For these people have fallen into a needless and endless way of multiplying ceremonies, which have been extremely troublesome to those who practise them, and are insupportable to everybody else: insomuch that wise men are often more uneasy at the over-civility of these refiners, than they could possibly be in the conversation of peasants or mechanics.

There is a pedantry in manners, as in all arts and sciences: and sometimes in trades. Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.

And if that kind of knowledge be a trifle in itself, the pedantry is the greater. . . .

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A necessary part of good manners, is a punctual observance of time at our own dwellings, or those of others, or at third places; whether upon matter of civility, business, or diversion. If you duly observe time for the service of another, it doubles the obligation; if upon your own account, it would be manifest folly, as well as ingratitude, to neglect it; if both are concerned, to make your equal or inferior attend an you to his own disadvantage, is pride and injustice.

Ignorance of forms cannot properly be styled ill manners; because forms are subject to frequent changes; and consequently, being not founded upon reason, are beneath a wise man's regard. Besides, they vary in every country; and after a short period of time, very frequently in the

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Among the many impertinencies that superficial young men bring with them from abroad, this bigotry of forms is one of the principal, and more predominant than the rest; who look upon them not only as if they were matters capable of admitting of choice, but even as points of importance; and are therefore zealous on all occasions to introduce and propagate the new forms and fashions they have brought back with them; so that, usually speaking, the worst bred person in company is a young traveller just returned from abroad.

ADDISON

(A. D. 1672-1719.)

JOSEPH ADDISON was born on the 1st of May, 1672. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison, at the time of his birth rector of Milston, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, and afterwards Dean of Lichfield. He was in school at Amesbury, Salisbury, Lichfield, and finally at the Charter House, from which he passed into Queen's College, Oxford. He formed, however, a more permanent connection with Magdalen College, which elected him, in 1698, to a fellowship that he retained until 1711. The influence of Lord Halifax, whose acquaintance he made at an early period, had much to do with the shaping of his life, diverting him from the Church and devoting him to literature. The same potent influence procured for him a pension of £300 a year, 1699, which placed him at his ease. He travelled on the continent for three years, from 1700 to 1703. In 1706 he entered public office, under the Whig ministry of the day, as under-secretary of state, and he continued in public employments during much of the remainder of his life, becoming secretary of state in 1717. In the previous year he had married the Countess of Warwick. He died at Holland

House in 1719, at the early age of forty-seven.

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The most important work of Addison was done in connection with "The Spectator," a daily periodical, purely literary in character, but with high moral aims, which Addison and Steele conducted jointly during most of the two years 1711 and 1712. It is with reference especially to his delightful essays in "The Spectator" that Macaulay speaks of Addison as "the great satirist who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it; who, without inflicting a wound, effected a great social reform, and who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy, and virtue by fanati

cism." "To estimate Addison at his real value," says Mr. Courthorpe, one of his latest biographers, "we must regard him as the chief architect of Public Opinion in the eighteenth century. . . . The work of Addison consisted in building up a public opinion which, in spite of its durable solidity, seems, like the great Gothic cathedrals, to absorb into itself the individuality of the architect. A vigorous effort of thought is required to perceive how strong this individuality must have been. We have to reflect on the ease with which, even in these days, when the foundations of all authority are called in question, we form judgments on questions of morals, breeding, and taste, and then to dwell in imagination on the state of conflict in all matters religious, moral, and artistic, which prevailed in the period between the Restoration and the succession of the House of Hanover. To whom do we owe the comparative harmony we enjoy? Undoubtedly to the authors of 'The Spectator,' and first among these by universal consent to Addison."

METHODS FOR FILLING UP EMPTY SPACES OF LIFE.

(From "The Spectator," Nos. 93-94, June 16, 18, 1711.)

If we divide the life of most men into twenty parts, we shall find that at least nineteen of them are mere gaps and chasms, which are neither filled with pleasure nor business. I do not however include in this calculation the life of those men who are in a perpetual hurry of affairs, but of those only who are not always engaged in scenes of action; and I hope I shall not do an unacceptable piece of service to these persons, if I point out to them certain methods for the filling up their empty spaces of life. The methods I shall propose to them are as follow.

The first is the exercise of virtue, in the most general acceptation of the word. That particular scheme which comprehends the social virtues, may give employment to the most industrious temper, and find a man in business

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