The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-11-04 00:00:00

DEAN SWIFT, STELLA, AND VANESSA

" During Swift's visit to London in 1710, he had regularly
transmitted to Stella, by which name Esther Johnson is made
known to posterity, an account of his daily doings with the
new government. The journal exhibits the view of the writer
that his conduct invariably presents. It is full of tenderness
and confidence, and not without coarseness that startles and
shocks. It contains a detailed and minute account, not only
of all that passed between Swift and the government, but of his
changeful feelings as they arose from day to day, and of physi-
cal infirmities, that are commonly whispered into the ear of
the physician. If Swift loved Stella in the ordinary accepts-
lion of the term, he took small pains in his diary to elevate the
sentiments with which she regarded her hero. The journal is

not in harmony throm; it lacks the
tenderness and warmt' ...onfidential utter-
ance, that are so visible at the beginning. We are enabled to
account for the difference. Swift had enlarged thecircle of his
female acquaintance whilst fighting for his friends in London.
He had become a constant visitor, especially, at the house of a
Vanhomrigh, who had two daughters, the eldest of whom
was about twenty years of age, and had the same Christian
name as Stella. Esther Vanhomrigh had great taste for read-
ing, and Swift, who seems to have delighted in such occupation,
condescended, for the second time in his life, to become a
young lady's instructor. The great man's tuition had always
one effect upon his pupils. Before Miss Vanhomrigh had made
much progress in her studies she was over head and ears in
love, and, to the astonishment of her master, she one day de-
clared the passionate and undying character of her attachment.
Swift met the confession with a weapon far more potent when
opposed to a political foe than when directed against the weak
-heart of a doting woman. He had recourse to raillery, but,
finding his banter of no avail, endeavoured to appease the un-
happy girl by ' an offer of devoted and everlasting friendship.
founded on the basis of virtuous esteem.' He might with equal
success have attempted to put out a conflagration with a bucket
of cold water. There was no help for the miserable man. He
returned to his deanery at the death of Queen Anne with two
love affairs upon his hands, but with the stern resolution of
encouraging neither, and overcoming both.

Towards the dos
I, the minuteness and

"Before iquitting knr,land he wrote to Esther Vanhomrio•nh
or Vanessa, as he styles her in his correspondence, intimating
bis intention to forget everything in England and to write to
her as seldom as possible. So far the claims of Vanessa were
disposed of. As soon as he reached his deanery he secured
lodgings for Stella and her compar ion, and reiterated his de-
termination to pursue his intercourse with the younglady upon
the prudent terms originally established. So far his mind was
sset at rest in respect of Stella But Swift had scarcely time to
congratulate himself upon his plans before Vanessa presented
herself in Dublin, and made known to the Dean her resolution
•to take up her abode permanently in Ireland. Her mother
was dead, so were her two brothers; she and her sister were
alone in the world, and they had a small property near Dublin,
to which it suited them to retire. Swift, alarmed by the pro-
ceeding, remonstrated, threatened, denounced—all in vain.
Vanessa met his reproaches with complaints of cruelty' and
neglect, and warned him of the consequences of leaving her
without the solace of his friendship and presence. Perplexed
and distressed, the Dean had no other resource than to leave
-events to their own development. He trusted that time
would mitigate and show the hopelessness of Vanessa's
passion, and in the meanwhile lie sought, by occasional
communication with her, to prevent any catastrophe that
might resift from actual despair. But his thoughts for Va-
nessa's safety were inimical to Stella's repose. She pined and
gradually 'ank under the alteration that had taken place in
Swift's deportment towards her since his acquaintance with
Vanessa. Swift, really anxious for the safety of his ward,
requested a friend to ascertain the cause of her malady. It was
not difficult to ascertain it. His indifference and public scan-
dal, which spoke freely of their unaccountable connexion, were
alone to blame for her sufferings. It was enough for Swift.
Ile had passed the age at which he had resolved to marry, but
be was ready to wed Stella provided the marriage were kept
secret and she was content to li7e apart. Poor Stella was more
than content, but she over-estimated her strength. The mar-
riage took place, and immediately afterwards the husband
withdrew himself in a fit of madness, which threw him into
gloom and misery for days. What the motives may have been
for the inexplicable stipulations of this wayward man it is im-
possible to ascertain. That they were the motives of a diseased,
and at times utterly irresponsible, judgment, we think cannot
be questioned. Of love, as a tender passion, Swift had no con-
ception. His writings prove it. The coarseness that pervades
his compositions has nothing in common with the suscepti-
bility that shrinks from disgusting and loathsome images in
which Swift revelled. In all his prose and poetical addresses
to his mistresses there is not one expression to prove the weak-
ness of his heart. He wri‘es as a guardian—he writes as a
friend—he writes as a father, but not a syllable escapes him
that can be attributed to the pangs and delights Of the lover.
4, Married to Stella, Swift proved himself more eager than
ever to give to his intercourse with Vanessa the character of
mere friendship. He went so far as to endeavour to engage
her affections for another man, but his attempts were rejected
with indignation and scorn. In the August of the year 1717,
Vanessa retired from Dublin to her house and property near
-Cellbridge. Swift exhorted her to leave Ireland altogether, but
she was not to be persuaded. In 1720, it would appear that
the Dean frequently visited the recluse in her retirement, and
(-upon such occasions Vanessa would plant a laurel or two in
honour of her guest, who passed his time with the lady reading
and writing verses in a rural bower built in a sequestered part
of her garden. Some of the verses composed by Vanessa have
been preserved. They breathe the fond ardour of the suffering
maid, and testify to the in erturbabli coldness of the man.
.k.
..e innocence of their intercourse inere cannot be a doubt.
In 1720, Vanessa lost her last remaining relative—her sister
died in her arms. Thrown hack upon herself by this bereave-
ment, the intensity of her love for the Dean became insupport-
able. Jealous and suspicious, and eager to put an end to a
terror that possessed her, she resolved to address herself to
Stella, and to ascertain from her own lips the exact nature of
ber relations with her so-called guardian. The momentous
question was asked in a letter, to which Stella calmly replied
by informing her interrogator that she was the Dean's wife.
-Vanessa's letter was forwarded by Stella to Swift himself, and
it roused him to fury. He rode off at once to Cellbridge, en-
tered the apartment in which Vanessa was seated, and glared
upon her like a tiger. The trembling creature asked her visitor
to sit down. He answered the invitation by flinging a packet
on the table, and riding instantly away. The packet was
opened; it contained nothing but Vanessa's letter to Stella.
Her doom was pronounced. The fond heart snapped. In a
few weeks the hopeless, desolate Vanessa was in her grave.
" Swift, agonised, rushed from the world. For two months
subsequently to the death of Vanessa his place of abode was
unknown. But at the end of that period he returned to Dublin
calmer for the conflict he had undergone. He devoted himself
industriously again to affairs of State. His pen had now a
nobler office than to sustain unworthy men in unmerited
power. We can but indicate the course of his labours. Ire-
land, the country not of his love, but of his birth and adoption;
treated as a conquered province, owed her rescue from absolute
thraldom to Swift's great and unconquerable exertions on her
behalf. He resisted the Enligh government with his single
band, and overcame them in the fight. His popularity in
Ireland was unparalleled even in that excited and generous-
hearted land. Rewards were offered to betray him, but a mil-
lion lives would have been sacrificed in his place before one
would have profited by the patriot's downfall. He was wor-
shipped, and every hair of his head was precious and sacred to
_the people who adored him.
"In 1726, Swift revisited England, for the first time since
.the death of Queen Anne, and published, anonymously as
usual, the famous satire of Gulliver's Travels. Its immediate
success heralded the universal fame that masterly and singular
work has since achieved. Swift mingled once more with his
literary friends, and lived almost entirely with Pope. Yet
courted on all sides he was doomed again to bitter sorrow.
News reached him that Stella was ill. Alarmedyatande
people
lpolef
self-reproaches, he hastened home to be received b
of Ireland in triumph, and to meet—and he was grateful for
the sight—the improved and welcoming looks of the woman for
whose dissolution he had been prepared. In March, 1727,
Stella being sufficiently recovered, the Dean ventured once
more to England, but soon to be resummoned to the hapless
couch of his exhausted and most miserable wife. Afflicted in
body and soul, Swift suddenly quitted Pope, with whom he
doomed
to _residing at Twickenham, and reaching his borne, was
to find his Stella upon the verge of the grave. Till the last
moment he continued by her bedside, evincing the tenderest
consideration, and performing what consolatory tasks he might
in the sick chamber. Shortly before her death part of a_co_n_-
versation W
between the melancholy pair was overheard. Well,
my dear,' said the Dean, if you wish it, it shall be owned.'
Stella's reply was given in few words. 'lt is too late.' On
the 28th of January,' writes one of the biographers of Swift,
Mrs. Johnson closed her weary pilgrimage, and passed to that
land where they neither marry nor are given in marriage,' the

second victim of oue and the same hopeless and consuming
passion.
"Swift stood ~lone in the world, and for his punishment was
doomed to endure the crashing solitude for the space of seven.
teen years. The interval WRII gloomy indeed. From his youth
the Dean had been subject to pailful fits of giddiness and
denfness. From 1736, these fits became more frequent and
severe. In MO, he went raving mad, and frenzy ceased only
to leave him a more pitiable idiot. During the space of three
years the poor creature was unconscious of what passed around
him. and spoke but twice. Upon the 19th of October, 1745,
God mercifully removed the tersible spectacle, from his misery,
degradation, and shame."

The papers on Southey, of which there are two in this
collection, era, if less amusing than thOse.above noticed,
more valuable. Here is a passage in which is elucidated

SOUTHEY'S DISLIKE OF SCIENTIFIC MEN

"It is impossible toYdeny that the grave and fatal fault of
Southey's character was want of reflection. It is painful to
note the countless evidences of the failing. Never has there
been so clear a proof given of the worthlessness of inordinate
labour unaccompanied by the constant exercise of superintend-
ing judgment. Southey gave so much time to the minds of other
men that he seems never to have had a moment to look into his
own. Nothing thoroughly distinct and perspicuous can be
ascertained of either his political or religious convictions, and
solely because neither the one set of views nor the other was
based upon well matured principles, or resulted from a severe,
though absolutely essential, process of thought, Southey re-
treated from hard mental discipline. His likes and his dislikes
depended upon no fixed rules. but partook of the nature of his
own mixed temperament. He is not, it is true, all things to all
men, but all men and all things before finding acceptance with
him must adapt themselves to his prejudices and prepos,es-
sions. Hence at different times of his life, we find him a free-
thinker, a Unitarian, an orthodox believer, and a heterodox
churchman; a socialist, a republican, a determined opnonent
of Roman Catholic claim's, a stickler for the rights of con-
science, a party man, a Tory, and a merciless castigator of the
powers that were. Is it not extraordinary that, possessing an
astounding memory from his childhood and no ordinary
powers of perception, he could by no ingenuity grasp the prin-
ciples of law, and was forced to give up the study in disgust?
It would be inexplicable but for the acknowledgment, made
ever and over again in these volumes, that Southey hated
science and scientific men, and therefore shrunk from a pur-
suit that brought hint continually in contact with the objects
of his dislike. I once passed an evening,' he writes, with
Professor Young at Davy's. The conversation was wholly
scientific. Generally speaking I have little liking for men
of science. Their pursuits seem to deaden the imagination and
harden the heart.' Again, in a letter to Mr. Townsend:—' As
a geologist you will enjoy one more pleasure than 1 do, who
am ignorant of every branch of science. Mineralogy and
botany are the only braLches which I wish I had possessed.
These two sciences add to our out-door enjoyments and
have no injurious effects. Clomical and physical studies seem,
on the contrary, to draw on veru prejudicial consequences.
Their utility is not to be doubted ; but it appears as ;f man
could not devote h,ntself to these pursuits without blunting his
finer faculties.' Once more, with reference to the great Sir
Humphry Davy—' These scientific men are, indeed, the victims
of science : they sacrifice to it their own feelings and virtues
and happiness.' Can any conclusions be more monstrous, or

indicafermore certainly utter want of reflection upon the part
of the man bold enough to utter them?"
The first volume of Murray's " Readings for the Rail"
amply fulfils the design of the publisher.

Half Hours of .English History. Selected and Illus-
trated by Charles Knight. London C. Knight.
The design of this publication is to give a half-hour's
reading narrative of each of the more graphic parts of
English history, in succession, chronologically arranged.
Thus those striking portions of the history of our coun-
try, upon which general renders, and the young especially,
delighted to dwell, and in which some incident or
y is complete in itself, and capable of popular illus-
tration, are presented in an attractive form, and with a
dramatic effect. The design is so far well carried out.
'ler down to the battle of Evesham.

The articl
of

are taken from eood sources

A chronology

rincipal events at the end serves to freshen the me-
ory, and is a useful accompaniment to the half-hour's
historical entertainment.

Knight's Pictorial Shakspeare. National Edition

London : Charles Knight,

We have Parts 22 and 23 of this carefully.printed and
nicely-illustrated edition of Shakspeare's plays before us,
and we can conscientiously recommend the work for
accuracy of text, and for general excellence as a popular
and cheap copy of the comedies and traeedies of our
great dramatist. Part 22 contains The Winter's Tale,
complete, and Part 23 The Tempest. The introductory
remsrks to each play, the foot-notes explanatory of the
text, and the notices relating to costume, &c., are written
with Mr. Knight's usual discrimination and antiquarian
learning. When complete, this edition of Knight's
Pictorial Shakspeare wili be indeed a " national" one.

On the Ordinance of Baptism as it was instituted of God,
kc. By Seacombe Ellison. London : Simpkin, Mar-

shall, and Co.

This is a zealous and able elucidation of the ordinance
of baptism, according to the author's views ; in which he
contends that the observance of baptism by water is neces-
sary according to the declarations and promises of the
gospel, for entering into covenant with the Lord and into
fellowship with the Apostles. In expounding the subject
he.quotes largely of the sacred Scriptures, and glances at
some of the different opinions professed by various
preachers of the present day.

Statistical Chart of the Principal Commercial Countries

of the World. By Leoni Levi. London : Simkin and Co

This is a most useful sheet-chart to hang up in the
merchant's counting-house for ready reference on all
occasions. It is compiled from the most authentic sources
and latest accounts, and it shows at a glance the superfi-
cial area in English square miles, the population, the
revenue in pounds sterling, the expenditure in pounds
stealing, the public debt in pounds sterling, the manufac-
tures, the produce, the mines, the imports in pounds
sterling, the exports in pounds sterling, and the shipping,
of the principal commercial countries in the world. There
is besides some miscellaneous information respecting the
railway system and monies, weights, measures, &c.. in a
supplemental column. We have every reason to believe
that the chart is carefully compiled, and it certainly pre-
sents at one view an immense amount of commercial
information.

The Chess-Player's Pocket Companion. By Samuel
Comyn, of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law.

London : Simpkin, Marshall and Co

The game of chess is almost as difficult a study as that
of the laws of England, though probably it is not so dry
a one. Mr. Comyn thinks it, however, sufficiently amu-
sing to devote to it the hours he snatches from Coke and
Lyttelton and he has digested his various readings on
the subject into a most compendious and, as far as we can
judge, easily-understood abridgment, showing the learner
the scientific modes of playing the game. Having been
induced to make a selection from the almost innumerable
variations in the different openings, and finding that he
was greatly instructed thereby, he has presented in this
little volume the fruit of his laborious study to those who
are unable to find leisure to perform the task for them-
selves. In order to render this chess•player's manual as
complete as possible, he has divided it into five parts.
The first contains the introduction and the laws of the
game; the second, a synopsis of the ordinary openings,
with observations thereon ; the third, some of the most
desirable modes of attack, with the best defences for the
second player to adopt, including the best mode of eva-
ding the king's gambit; the fourth is devoted to the
king's gambit ; and the fifth contains a few of the endings
of the game. The students of the ingenious and fascina-
ting game of chess will derive much instruction from this
" pocket companion,"

On the Prevention and Cure of Spinal Curvatures, and
Deformities of the Chest and Limbs. By Mrs.
Godfrey, Liverpool. London : John Churchill.
A work on surgery by a lady is an uncommon thing in
this country, although in America several have appeared,
which for scientific knowledge, combined with good sense,
are equal to many published by the professional practi-
tioners of the male sex. Mrs. Cioarrey has had great ex-
perience in the treatment of spinal and other deformities,
and has bad an amount of success corresponding with her
large practice ; and she has considered it her duty to com-
municate to the world the observations she has made on
the leading cases submitted to her skill, and to propagate
the theory she has based on a close anatomical study, and
on a careful attention to the symptoms and cure of a nu-
merous close of patients. Her treatise is one of great
value to medical men, as expounding the mode of treat-
ment which she found to produce the most beneficial re-
sults, and as suggesting a theory, reasonable and well-
supported, which, if generally admitted and adopted,
would explain the causes of spinal deformities, and con-
sequently tend very much to their diminution and cure.
The treatise is of still greater importance to parents and
young persons themselves, than to surgical professors, for
it informs them how these curvatures of the spine, the
chest, and the limbs, so numerous and distressing, may
be prevented by a due attention to exercise, diet, mental
exertion, and dress. On these points Mrs. Godlrey's
work is particularly well worth consulting, and she has
taken care to fortify the rules she recommends by the opi-
nions of some of the most eminent doctors of the day.
We could wish to make a few extracts touching the ill
effects of tight lacing, immoderate and unnatural exercises,
and improper diet, on young and delicate frames; but we
must refer our readers to the book itself. Here is, how-
ever, a hint that young mothers would do well to attend to:—

"If the babe is made to sit up, the body is bent forward, the
chest is pressed by the nurse's hand, and the back bowed ;
causing a depression of the inside of the spine, and an enlarge-
ment of the joints on the outside. Infants should therefore be
placed in the recumbent posture until the end of the first
month ; and, if delicate, to the end of the second; and then
should not be allowed to sit up long together.
"Great care should also be paid to the manner of their lying
in bed, in order that they may not lie either with their heads
high, or without a pillow; some have erred through these
extremes, which cause the head to fall over the top of the
shoulder."