New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-07
MIR. STEPHENS SWIFT.
INV, so,,r prN,REs ON THE MoDERNs.


-, - &C many such--tU English Litefa-
- In tho Preface to the present sketch
NJ, oslio Stephen mentions eleven biographical
.a of Swift Not one Of them IL u sufficient
Iiso or has much merit. and his summary OF the
whole business is that the chief materials lot io
of Swift must still be sought in his WRITINGS sn"
correspondence Orrery il prctentious ana 'h'".
1)elany had au intimate personal KNOWLEDGE VI
evift hur his book IS IN the form of criticism
un,n Orrery. Deaue Swift grandson of Swilts
uucle Goodwin wrote an Essay on Doth his Pic'o-
ccssors. winch Mr.. Stephen pronounces looi's"'
Hawkcsw orth knew nothing; johnson o'os'"p.'
is Ubellous: Sheridans dull Scott (ot courso III,
ac.nrate. and so on There is room Tor iea'
biocrapher. and Mr. Henry Craik has undef'aSo"
70 fiji II. with what authority, gifts or knowleuUe
o,. can only conjecture. Mr.. FOrsters unhhishou
,oor is lahorious ard readable with difficulty so
far as it goes.
4 fatality attends Swift's biographers We nave
.oen what the earlier ones made OF their work. Mr.
Forster died while midway in Swits career ME-
John Morley was to have done TINS lie Ior INC
English Men Of Letters series. MI Morley Is per
mans tina most competent man living for the task,
but the pressure of other duties Obliged h'h 10
hand il over 10 Mr Leslie Stephen. Mr stephens
occupations are also multifarous Learned az
compIished sbilful writer as he is, TINS DOCK has
marks of haste, and is not equal In execution TO
either his Pops or johnson in the same series. The
purely personal or purely literary chapters are the
hest: the political part of Swfts life is not tCld
with funess hardly with much sign of zeal interest
On tho political life of the period Perhaps the
most serious criticism on Mr.. Stephens monograph
Is this: that when YOU have read it through. which
Won may do rapidly and with much pleasure, SNut
at the end does not seem rs great man as nc really
was. or his intellectual power. OF his prlde Oh
nature and energy OF character, there is ungruHg-
ing Acknowledgement from time to time, hut Mr'
Stephen's sympathy with Swift is not close enough
Ian, stating, admit, only the general IMPRESSION
the book has left. Tho recognition OF swirl
singnlar generosity and of many another fine trait
I'm n man whom il has been the fashion for CEN
,nrv ard q half to revile. is nevertheless full'
Whatever its Deficiencies Mr. Stephens Life gives
better account of Swift than is TO be found else
,xherc except by those whose enthusiasm Tor
great writer nav carry them to original sources 10
his works above all There is much more 10 Dc
.ald. but mnst content myself with note or TWO
on points quite incidental
Mr. Matthew Arnods Indebtedness to swirl lot
the phrase Sweetness and Light has been pointed
ont before now. The appearance OF Mr. Leshe
stephcn's Life Of Swift is likely to make his obhGa-
tjon still better known. Mr.. Arnold may nave
acknowledged it himself | have no DOCKS heIo
and caunct say. Or lie may have put me WoFuS
together without recollecting that Swift had done
80 before hun. 1t. does not much matter. Inc
words ysted before Swift and Swift neither estaO-
ushed q monopoly in them gave currency TO
tbcm II WAS from Mr. Arnold that they first
nosse I into common use, and it was Mr. Arnold who
Grt nreached the gosrel for which they have served
n text and summary. Most OF the preaching SWlt
did was in very different vein; nay. nothing Is
more curious than to see how Swift gets ms phrase
and to what simple natural facts 1t IS referred
The passage occurs in the famous apologize oil the
Bee aud the Spider in the Battle OF the BOOKS
The spider stands for the modeIns who spin out OF
their own insides; the bee for the anclents' VINO
went to nature. and who say:
whatevcr " have eot has been by infinite labor
md research aud ranging through every corner oil
nature; the difference is that, instead OF dlrt ana
poison we have rather chosen to I'll our ives WIN
fancy and wax. thus furnishing Hanklnu WIN INC
two noblest of things Sweetness and Light
Mr. Stephen who quotes the passage says moth
inv about Mr.. Arnold contentina himself with
capital letters, intended perhaps 10 attract the
renders attention TO the words. Carlyles better
known and much more considerable borrowings
from swift the bicgrapher could hardly pass over
in silence and does not. Mr.. Hayward VINO Is
mover more happy than ia confuting claims to
originality was, | think. one OF the first 10 point
Them ont For thirty years past he has proclaimed
nil over London that the germ of sartOr Resartus
vas IN be found in the Tale of Tub" Mr.
Stephen says:
In one of the first sections Swift announces the
pllCsophv aftcrward cXpOundcd by Herr leulel5-
df6ekh according to which man hlnself - but
micro -; if one of the suits OF clothes called
animals " be trimmed mp with q III cham, ana Il
red gown. and Il white ROD, ana pert Io9H, 10 IS
called Lord Mayor; II certain err ines ana luts DC
placed ia a certain pos ton, we style them uH9e;
and so al apt cojuncton Of lawn ana bIack satln
cntitle bishop.
! And Mr. Stephen proceeds TO remark hat
Though Swift does not himself develop this
philosophical doctrine its later form reflects light
upon the earlier theory For IN truth; swirl
fcaching comes to this that the solemn pGuSiblli-
tic Of the world are but 50 many snams "-eabo-
rate masks used TO disguise the passions for the
most part base and earthly, by when mankind is
really mpeIIed.
in other words while between Swift and Nr.
Matthew Arnold there is II mere coincidence of
phrase. Swift supplied Carlyle with philosophical
doctrine. The clotnes-p philosophy. tEaJ by which
Carlyle is perhaps best known, is in fact not Car
lyles but Swifts-
; Mr.. stephen remarks that all Swifts political |
writings during his last thirty years. the Diapers
Letters excepted, would scarcely fiji a volume of
20J pages and adds A modern journalist who |
could prove that he had written as little in six |
months would deserve a testimonial" Perhaps he |
wonld, but Mr. Leslie stephen would not earn it
for he writes pretty constantly aud copiously in the
daily and weekly press And he modern " |
as anybody. This life of Swift is full of touches |
curiously modern. Mr. stephen is never happier |
than when he can get an illustration from contem- |
poiary life aud he uses names and modern in |
stances with great freedom. Mr. Green ser\ es HIM
a. an example of martyr in the modern analogue |
Of Laud. A reference to Mr.. Gladstone points |
snccr at the men who believed the fate of the world
depended upon Harley Mr. Disraeli. not for the |
first time, is likened TO the still brilliant,
daring and self-conident st. John. When Swifts |