'He

conftruct a Chriftian Hero from the materials of an inconfiftent HUMOURIST. Although SWIFT profeffed to make the Lord Keeper give livings to perfons whom he could not mention without contempt, his biographe informs us that he was more circumfpect in matters within his own gift. was extremely exact and confcientious in promoting the members of the choir according to their merit, and never advanced any person to a vicarage, who was not qualified for it in all refpects, whatever their interefts. or however recommended. He once refufed a Vicarage to a perfon for whom Lady CARTERET was very importunate, at the fame time declaring to her Ladyfhip, that if it had been in his power to have made the gentleman a Dean or a Bishop, he would have obliged her willingly, becaufe, he faid, Deaneries and Bishopricks were preferments in which merit had no concern, but the merit of a vicar would be brought to the teft every day. The inftance he brings to illuftrate this part of SWIFT's character, and to prove how exact and confcientious he was to fill his choir with fuch merit as all men were judges of, is that of a perfon promoted by him to a vicarage, because his gun had gone off accidentally and wounded him.

In his attempt to develope SwIFT's myfterious conduct' towards STELLA and VANESSA, he has certainly removed much of the mystery, but leaves SWIFT's character as liable to cenfure as he found it. When he allows that he had a love for VANESSA, and none for STELLA, and that he kept up a correfpondence with VANESSA, which it was neceffary to conceal from STELLA, he places his hero in a fituation more irreconcileable with honour and humanity than perhaps he intended; and although his account of the whole tranfaction is minute and interefting, it may be doubted whether it was ever read without feelings of a very different kind from

what he meant to excite. Dr. JOHNSON has noticed the affair with more lenity; he has faid all that can be faid in excufe.

Mr. SHERIDAN's defence of the Fourth part of GULLIVER's Travels' is ingenious; but when he cenfures the oppofition to this work as prejudice, he forgets that it is not the prejudice of the vulgar, but the opinion of every writer of piety or tafte who has confidered the fubject. With respect to his attack on Dr. JOHNSON, except where he has corrected fome mistakes in point of fact, it may fafely be left unanswered. In this he was too obvioufly imitating one of the virtues of his idol. He was taking that vengeance for which he had long prepared his mind. As a critic, Mr. SHERIDAN has not always been fuccessful. SWIFT's ftyle was, beyond all precedent, pure and precife, yet void of ornament or grace, and partook in fome inftances of the pride and dogmatifm of its author; nor does his Biographer feem to be aware, that his moft incorrect compofition is his Propofal for correcting the English tongue.'

Those who wish to appreciate SWIFT's character with juftice, muft derive their information from his voluminous writings, which undoubtedly place him among the moft illuftrious ornaments of literature, as an author of incomparable ability, of multiform talent, and inexhauftible fancy. But the most charitable conclufion that can be formed of his private life, or the general tendency of his writings, will not, I fear, differ much from the opinion of a celebrated writer, who, with the trueft relifh for wit and humour, never lofes fight of more important confiderations.

In Swift we see a turn of mind very different. from that of the amiable Thomfón, little relish for the fublime and beautiful, and a perpetual fucceffion of violent emotions. All his pictures of life

feem to show, that deformity and meannefs were the favourite objects of his attention, and that his foul was a conftant prey to indignation, difguft, and other gloomy paffions arifing from fuch a view of things. And it is the tendency of almost all his writings (though it was not always the author's defign), to communicate the fame paffions to his reader; infomuch, that, notwithstanding his erudition, and knowledge of the world, his abilities as a popular orator and man of bufinefs, the energy of his ftyle, the elegance of fome of his verfes, and his extraordinary talents in wit and humour, there is reason to doubt, whether by ftudying his works any person was ever much improved in piety or benevolence e'

The next contributor to the TATLER whom we fhall notice, is Mr. JOHN HUGHES, who is faid to have been the author of the letter figned Jofiah Couplet in No. 64; that figned Will Truly in No. 73; a letter on the tendency of the work in No. 76; and the inventory of a beau's effects in No. 113. For these affignments, we have the authority of Mr. DUNCOMBE. The Annotators on the Tatler fufpect that he wrote the short letter figned Philanthropos in No. 66, and the whole of No. 194, a tranfpofition of the tenth canto of the fourth book of Spenfer. STEELE is fuppofed to have alluded to HUGHES in the character of Aletheus in No. 56, He was,' fay the Annotators on the Tatler, the intimate friend of STEELE, and feems to have interested himself very particularly in thofe papers of this work which were written with a view to detect and expose the fharpers' of that time.' Some farther notice will be taken of Mr. HUGHES among the authors of the SPECTATOR.

Effays on Poetry and Mufic, p. 387, 4to Edit. 1776.

The Medicine, a Tale,' in No. 2, was written by Mr. WILLIAM HARRISON, a young gentleman high in efteem, and (as SWIFT characterifes him) a little pretty fellow, with a great deal of wit, good fenfe, and good nature.' For these and perHaps fuperior qualities, he has been praised, wept, and honoured,' by YOUNG in his Epiftle to Lord LANSDOWNE.

Mr. HARRISON received the early rudiments of his education at Winchester School, and was afterwards fellow of New College Oxon. His circumftances were very indifferent, as he had no other income than forty pounds a year when tutor to one of the Duke of QUEENSBERRY'S fons. In this employment he attracted the favour of SWIFT, who obtained for him the employment of Secretary to Lord RABY, afterwards Earl of STRAFFORD, and then ambassador at the Hague. A letter of his while at Utrecht, dated December 16, 1712, is printed in the Dean's works, from which it appears that his office was attended with much vexation and

little advantage. SWIFT gives a remarkable inftance of this, at the time HARRISON brought over the barrier treaty. Jan. 31, 1712-13. HARRISON was with me this morning; we talked three hours, and then I carried him to court. When we went down to the door of my lodging, I found a coach waited for him, I chid him for it: but he whispered me, it was impoffible to be otherwife; and in the coach he told me, he had not one farthing in his pocket to pay for it; and therefore took the coach for the whole day, and intended to borrow money fomewhere or other. So there was the QUEEN'S MINISTER intrufted in affairs of the greatest importance, without a fhilling in his ket to pay a coach. He died Feb. 14, 1712-13. He was profeffedly Editor of the Spurious Tatler hereafter mentioned. Dr. BIRCH, in a note on his

poc

letter to SWIFT, has confounded him with THOMAŜ HARRISON, M. A. of Queen's College f.

The very humourous genealogy of the family of Bickerstaff in No. 11, is afcribed by STEELE in his Preface to the Octavo Edition, 1710,' to 'Mr. TWISDEN, who died at the battle of Mons, and has a monument in Weftminster Abbey, fuitable to the refpect which is due to his wit and his valour." HENEAGE TWISDEN was the feventh fon of Sir WILLIAM TWISDEN, Bart. of Roydon Hall, Eaft Peckham, Kent; and a youth of great expectations.

At the time of his death (1709, aged 29,) he was a captain of foot in Sir RICHARD TEMPLE'S regi-. ment, and Aid-de-Camp to JOHN DUKE of ARGYLE, who commanded the right wing of the Confederate Army. Near his monument in the North aile of the Abbey, are two other fmall ones to the memory of his brothers JOSIAH and JOHN. JOSIAH was a captain of foot at the fiege of Agremont, near Lifle in Flanders, and was killed by a cannon-ball, in 1708, in the 23d year of his age. John was a Lieutenant in the Admiral's fhip, under Sir CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL, and perifhed with him in 1707, in the 24th year of his age.

The character of Afpafia, in No. 42, was written by CONGREVE. The perfon meant was Lady ELIZABETH HASTINGS, the daughter of Theophilus, the seventh Earl of Huntingdon, a lady celebrated as a pattern of munificence and piety. By her historical character drawn up by THOMAS BARNARD, M. A. and published in 1742, it appears that the was indeed little lower than the Angels.' It does honour to CONGREVE that he could relish the beauties of fuch a character.

NICHOLS's Select Collection of Poems, vol. iv. p. 181. In this Collection are all the poems that can be traced to Mr. HARRISON, except Woodstock Park,' which is in DODSLEY'S Collection.