The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1886-02-27
EV ENT.S OF A LIFE.
Continued from first page. I,


1 tune: us the unloyely manufacturer OF
! false philosophy, Pope was famous u
/ his life, and his fame only increases
with the widening generations 'u
neither the political genius OF Boiling
broke nor the literary genius OF Pope
had the same influence upon their tinis
! and upon posterity as the genius o.
Jonathan Swift.
That reign in London was SWift's
summer. TT was during this time that
Swift wrote for SteIia's eyes that i'm
mortal Journal wherein, with more than
the skill Of the Egyptian en- balner, the
whole Of that many colored, fantastic
age is preserved for us; wherein too,
we see something more OF the heart
and soul of Swift than we are ever
privileged to find elsewhere. 1t was
during this reign in London, also that
Swift for the s,cond time made the
complete conquest of q wonen's heart,
aud that Stella found her only rival.
Vanessa is scarcely less famous than
Stella. Poor Miss " anhonlrigh is yet
more unhappy than Hester Johnson.
There is no need to linger over that
pitiabla tragedy. 1t was Swift's fate
to bring misfortune on those who loved
him, and star crossed Vanessa's last
memory of Cadenus is of his raging
eyes as he breaks in upon her III her
retreat al Marley Abbey, near Gel
bridge, where the poor soul was clois-
tered amid her congregation laurels,
filings, in awful silence. on the table the
letter she wrote IN the anguish OF her
heart to Stella, and so mounts and rides
furiously away out OF her sight and
out OF her life forever. The world will
always speculate as to which Of the
two women really won such affection
as Swift had TO offer. 10 my mind
Stella was the true star Of his life and
poor Yanessa's passion a fame he had
meant to kindle.
Swift's bright Respondent rule in
London came 60 an end with the crash
of the Queens death. and the utter
rout and ruin of the Tory party. He
returned to Ireland to niE Deanery Of
st. Patr1ck7s to write the 'sDrapier's
Letters to become more famous in
the land Of his birth than he had been
in England, to marry Steilo in secret,to
lose her and the light of his life, to
outlive her for seventeen years, and to
die at last in lT45, the year OF the
Young Pretender, after five darkened
years of disease, madness, and decay
having outliyed his genius, his friends,
his love, a human ghost. shadow s
shadow.
There is no greater and no sadder life
in all the history of the last century.
The man himself was described in the
very hours when he was the most fa-
NOUS, most conrted, most fattered, as
the most unhappy man on earth. In
deed he seems to have been most
Wretched, he certainly darkened the
lives of the two women who We're so
unfortunate as to love him. But we
forget the sadness Of the personal life
il the greatness Of the public career.
He was the ardent c champion of free
dom; he was the good friend Of Ireland;
he was always torn with 'BeTce indig-
nation against oppression and injus-
:sies. Ii,aAefay, whose reading of the
character Of Swiftis far too generally,
accepted. inds fault with Inc phrase,
and blanes somewhat bitterly the man
who uses it. las if he says, the
wretch who lay uader that stone wait
ing Gods Judgment had a right TO be
angry But it is certain that Swift,
from his own point of view, did feel a
& cree indignation with all wrong doing
with all Injustice, with ali dishonesty.
He was an errlng man, but he had the
right to be wrath with crimes of which
he was not guilty. His ways were not
always our ways, nor his thoughts our
thoughts; but be walked his way such
as it was courageonsly, and the temper
of his thoughts werenot unheroic. He
was loyal to his leaders in adversely,
he was true to the friends who were
sometime untrue to him; his voice was
always raised against oppression; he
had the courage to speak up for Ire
land and her liberties in some OF the
darkest DAYS in our history. To Ihack-
cray he is onIya lonely guilty wretch,
bravo and a bully, man of genius
employing that genius most eyilly. To
soberer and more sympathetic judg-
ments. Thackeray's study of Swift is a
cruel caricature. He may have been
'niserrimus," but when Grattan APP
peaied to thememory of one Of the true
est champions OF Ireland's rights and
liberties that Ireland ever had.
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