SWIFT, JONATHAN (1667-1745). The great est of English satirists, born in Dublin, Novem ber 30. 1607. He was of Yorkshire origin. His father had been attracted to Ireland by the prospect of political preferment, but died before Jonathan's birth. When he was six years old, his uncle Godwin sent him to Kilkenny School, the Eton of Ireland. where Congreve and Berke ley were his contemporaries. At fifteen he was sent to Trinity College, Dublin. At Trinity the lad read much history and poetry, but was so dis dainful of the ordinary curriculum and of college regulations that his degree was only granted to him by a special grace. The disturbances of the Revolution of 1688 drove him to England, and in the following year he obtained employment as secretary to Sir William Temple (q.v.) at Moor Park. in Surrey. Swift found the position trying, though he calls Temple "a man of sense and virtue." In 1694 he quarreled with his employer and returned to Ireland to seek ordination, ob taining the small living of Kilroot, near Belfast. But he soon wearied of rural isolation and in 1696 he went back to Moor Park. Perhaps the impell ing motive was the presence there of Esther John son. subsequently immortalized as 'Stella." a poor relation of Temple's. Swift had a hand in her education: she was now, at fifteen, growing into a beautiful woman, with "hair blacker than the raven and every feature of her face in per fection." Swift remained at Moor Park until Temple's death in 1699. His sojourn there, how ever galling some incidents of it may have been to his pride, was of inestimable value to him. Besides the daily association with a states man and a man of culture, he had time for an enormous amount of reading and for practice in writing. His only relies, however. of this period are some Pindaric odes, a species of composition for which he was little qualified and wide)) Dry den characterized frankly with the judgment, "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet." His first prose composition betrayed his resent ment. This was The Battle of the Books, a bur lesque of the controversy then raging over the relative merits of the ancients and the moderns, in which for the first and last time his satire re coiled on himself. He returned once more to Ire land, as secretary and chaplain to Lord Berkeley, hut lost the secretaryship and did not get the deanery of Derry, which he had expected. Ile
was, however, appointed to the rectory of Agher, with the vivarages of !Amcor and Rathbeggan. For the first time his own master, Swift showed that stern regard for duty which characterized him, and gained the respect, if lie failed to in fluence the convictions, of his Cathode neigh bors. lie realized himself that he was a poor preacher, calling his sermons 'pamphlets.' lie soon began his career as a political pa mphleteer. which was to be so epoeh-making, with A Di:wow-no on the Dissensions in Athens and Rome (1700), really a defense of Somers and the other Whig lords threatened with impeachment. In 1704 he published the Talc of a Tub, the most a nms ing of his satirical works, the most strikingly original, and the one in which the full eompass of his powers was most perfectly displayed. With matchless irony he ridiculed many forms of pretentious pedantry, /middy in literature and religion. The book led to many doubts of his orthodoxy and injured his chances of ec clesiastical preferment.
Though nominally a Whig, Swift differed from his party on important questions. He hated its war poliey and its alliance with dissent. These differences, along with the failure to gain any thing from the connection, made it easy for him to break from his former allies. In 1710 the Tories came into power with Harley and St. John at their head and Swift was easily won over to their side. He turned upon the Whigs with a series of brilliant squibs, assumed the editorship of the Examiner, the Tory organ, November 2, 1710-June 14, 1711, and produced several in dependent pamphlets, in all of which he ably de fended the policy of the Tories. Of these par ticular papers the most powerful was the con duct of the Allies (November. 1711), in which the position was maintained that the Whigs had prolonged the Continental War out of self-inter est. Swift certainly led the way to the (lb: missal of Marlborough and the Peace of Utrecht (1713). For three years Swift was among the most conspicuous men in -polities and society. His advent marks a new era in English politics. with the accession of public opinion, fostered by him more than by any other man, to supreme power.