Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-12 00:00:00

ing any gortionof tht speak(

is the :Concluding passage
be read with much inter(

which will, w

Alter Stella's death, and towards

Swift cut himself off f.rom, all his Corti

and shut himself 'up in proud anebit.
became an intolerable burden to him.
longed for death. ISolateifitm all human
horizon of his mind b

me overcas

with despair: o f whichithe
the thunders ever rolled. The malady
feared at last attacked him; and his r
had-to fight, the battle of life under t
of disease; Ile moved from youth t
of hypochondria,- with; the menacint,►

Swift and otht

his path. Dr. Yr)

the party, Yount,
as if rooted to the earth,
pine, the topmost branch
by lightning. Swift point(
be like that tree, I shall die at
this, he had to labour, as all such m
to solve the insoluble problems of ..e,3
the inexplicable enigmai of life. Por a mir
these. qt
mysteries by .which they

went back to hiok (o:

gazing

of which had be

aestions have a wo:

6
allu
,„atiooL,

terrible the -More' they meditate upon ti
by the comment of the, thouzlitless and

are for ever striving to eiplairi. all that Ise'
sad, and unaccountable in this tragedy of teier
woe, and blood—they arc for ever striving to Plio
darkness that rests upon the grave, and to beit.
spirits walking in glory and in light beyond
existence of moral evil, and the consequenaleo
entails, affected the mind _of:Swift, as they an.eitl
minds of Pascal and John Foster, and filled him ""4,
boding, anxiety, and gloom. In the degraded Orliie
mankid, sunk in ignorance; slavery, and vice,
occasion enough for sorrow and despair. Tiler
problems of tune; life, death, and eternity, ",ei
knocking at his heart for solution. To 3,95`,1
questions, to satisfy the doubts, that pressed

he tries ev

, and ma.

suouttng question of

Now he stan
sybil caves of destini

ao answer

of evell;

piercing emphasis, that solemn query of the
" Wherefore bast thou made all men inbain

Looking up into ,the midnight hem

rogates the stars as ,to their Meaning ? —the
dumb. From the wilderness of 8-pace which tb,edc
colonize they shine silently down, staring rigll'a
the fabled sphinx, with cairn eternal eves. Thereto
in his enquirieS, balled in his attempts to solve!,

unable to untie or cut the Gordian' knots of 1:

on every return of his birth-day
chamber, without meat or d

is bin; ;
{r rn;1~lIID~

sighs and groans of self-application, 'the thirss.
of Job, and cursing the day that be /c I
In the whole - of literary .historV.
no fact so sad
I ha,-

so mournful
often (concluded the sn(

deanery windoWs in Dublin,
,aild
lonely giant, as was his wont."
latiou through his rooms. Ile is alone with
pointed expectations, with his baffled anibi
his lost loves, and with his biiried hones ; alo

saddening memories of ti past
recollections of by
chained Prometheus upo.
ever at his quivering heart V
for consolation and hope 1
his early manhood and the vision,
" Whither," in the words of " Wordsworth
fled, the glory and the dream ?" -He can end
den of life no longer. He si o the foe.i
mighty energies at length are prostrate, the gig
lect is at length o'erthrown!land. the end is de
and madness, and death. Is there no great 11‘
learned from this man's life ? I have spokeill
night if you have not found it out already.
is, the utter inability. the liffor inonnanetene/ A

one years.
his rot

Whither

where are now the

iccumbs t

7aparsi frog;
infiled, to
gere

thin.. or everythinmt, upon this cart}
solationg of religion, pure and un _
longing desires of man's immortal soul
the first genius of his ag
and endowed w

ost superhuman powv-.(1
from a low position to one of dignity 9%
tance ; acquired . Wealth and fame, 110,. r
deliberations of cabinets and guided the
of the empire. He stamped his impress
upon the literature of his own country,
the literature of the world ; two beautiful allb,
plished women loved him, a /whole nation 91,,
homage at his feet. What lot more enviable/ it
apparently more happy than his.? And yet 11°t„.

not fame,wwealth, di pity, power, love, honl3oDe
could make him happy. Nay, • with them all, odd
most miserable man in this most miserable 00
fear that with all his genius Swift lacked 0118;01
fear he had not. that simple, child-like faith 117,' ",col
have brought balm his wearied spirit and 1161
troubled soul. With Solomon of old, he o°o
all the labour that his hands had wrought uncle'
nd, 10. ;' 11 vanity and

it was ail vexation of spo-ni
of vanities. Vanitas vanitat,#m. In the days do
prosperity, and joy,_ we sometimes cepo
solemn verdict upon life. But in the times 01 it.,
depression, and gloom we are obliged to adan'4,
When afflictions press upon us and sorrow svelf,
the soul—when the heart is wearied with tuni°,,oo
pain, sick of toil—when disease takes hold ';',/e
when death enters the family circle, and We °wilt
the vacant chair beside the domestic hearth-- We
stand by the grave of some beloved one in 10° 4,11
garnered up our hearts, and feel that we arefOice
in the chill shadows of the tomb - when the
departed child's, or sister's, or. a mother's loe,e,
re-echoing again in the caverns of inetavn ~,,,,
the forms and faces of the lost loved ones:see7l
to us in our reveries and dreams, no'"
beckon us to the skies - when the heart ,
involuntary sigh, and the unbidden tear stoPf;ted
cheek—oh, then, in spite of the sceptic, in s'olitrl4
infidel, we are compelled to 'feel that this is not
.5
the e
that here we have no abiding. city; and then it,/ t ivue
long, with David, for the wings of a dove, tlj 0
might flee away and be at rest.We have st°
Swift's tomb to-night to try and understand Woo oF.
of it ; and if we have not been able to pierce led/
news that rests upon that tomb, if we have not eb
to clear away all the mystery that hangs over 'fellY
ter and career, let us go away, not in a spirit °.,efilie
or of blame, but in one of kindness conl°oll
charity and pity. He sleeps in St. Patrick'stelti?
beside Stella----though in life they were seri fe,o,
death they are not divided. "After life's lat_Ta
sleeps well," where, in the words of his ovrn " #74
" Übi sacra indignatio ulterius eor &wear! 00 0
" Where savage indignation' can tear his hear'o.dtsr
The next lecture will be delivered this e're_tolii
subject is, " Curran, and the Wits and OP
Irish Bar."