suluit, pecuniâ mutuo datâ infimis artificum, in ratâ, eâque exigua portione per septimanas rependenda, unde multi paupertati jam succumbentes, sese paulatim expedierunt.

"Idem, abstinentiæ exemplar antiquuni, parcè atque duriter rem familiarem administravit; quasque sibi inutiles spernebat opes, sedulo tamen comparatas, domui hospitali condendæ, moriens magnificè legavit: ubi idiotæ & lunatici, collati muneris ignari, piè semper tractarentur.

"Hic vir, tantus, talisque, qui vividis ingenii viribus longè genus humanum superabat, a civibus ingratis diu neglectus, magnatum invidiam sæpius, gratiam vix unquam expertus, triginta duos annos Jatuit in Hiberniâ, nullo ultra decanatum insignitus titulo; quod tamen ill pro votis accidisse inter amicos constat, quippe cui semper in ore erat; non tam referre, quo genere honorum sis ornatus, quam a quibus & inter quos.

"Tandem senio, atque intolerandis capitis doloribus confectus, mente, memoria, sensu paulatim deficientibus, jamque penitus extinctis, per quatuor postremos vitæ annos, inter mærentes amicos mortuus vixit; quem tamen omni laude dignissimum ritè consecrant divina ingenii lumina."

I shall close my account of this extraordinary man, with laying open one leading part of his character, which may serve as a clew to the whole. He was perhaps the most disinterested man that ever lived. No selfish motive ever influenced any part of his conduct. He loved virtue for its own sake, and was content it should be its own reward. The means to arrive at rank, fortune, and fame, the three great objects of pursuit in other men, though all thrown in his way, he utterly despised, satisfied with having deserved them. The same principle operated equally on the author, as on the man; as

he never put his name to his works, nor had any solicitude about them, after they had once made their appearance in the world. The last act of his life showed how far he made this a rule of conduct, in his choice of the charity to which he bequeathed his fortune; leaving it for the support of idiots and lunatics, beings that could never know their benefactor.

Upon the whole when we consider his character as a man, perfectly free from vice, with few frailties, and such exalted virtues; and as an author, possessed of such uncommon talents, such an original vein of humour, such an inexhaustible fund of wit, joined to so clear and solid an understanding; when we behold these two characters united in one and the same person; perhaps it will not be thought too bold an assertion, to say, that his parallel is not to be found either in the history of ancient or modern times.

1784.

T. S..

ANECDOTES

OF THE

FAMILY OF SWIFT.

A FRAGMENT.

WRITTEN BY DR. SWIFT.

[The original Manuscript in his own hand is lodged in the University Library of Dublin.]

THE family of the SWIFTS* was ancient in Yorkshire; from them descended a noted person, who passed under the name of Cavaliero Swift, a man of wit and humour. He was made an Irish peer by king James or king Charles the First, with the title of baron Carlingford +, but never was in that kingdom. Many traditional pleasant stories are related of him, which the family planted in Ireland has received from their parents. This lord died without issue male; and his heiress, whether of the first or second descent, was married to Robert Fielding, esquire, commonly called Handsome Fielding; she brought him a considerable estate in Yorkshire, which he squandered away, but had no children : the earl of Eglington married another coheiress of the same family, as he has often told me.

* See the annexed Pedigree. N.

+ Barnam Swift, esq. was created viscount (not baron) of Car, lingford, by king Charles I. March 20 1627, and by his death in 1642, S. P. the title became extinct. N.