The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1886-02-27
Dean Swift Literary Germs and Political
achievements OharrningglY Por-
traysd.
Tho Friend Of Ireland and champion Of
Frsedoul- TEllis PERSONAL Life Fill
Of Sadness.

9 across the seas STRAIN their sight to de
. cipher in the gloom is the self III sere.
i IspiEaph OF Jonathan Swift n
Hic depositam est CORPUS
JoNATHAN SNIFT, ~ q. r.
Hpisls ecciesits thsdrafis
!, Decaai.
Ubt stRys hiitgnatio
, Cor nitefius lacerire nequit,
I abb 4iator
al Et irnitara ST poseris
StreDuun pro virili lihertatis vindlcatorem
: Here resteth the body of Jonathan
} Swift, dean of this Cathedral church
where hercs Indignation can yex his
heart no longer. Go, traveller, initiate
ii thou canst a champion, strenuous tc
:. his utterrnost OF iiberty.''
4 a little way apart, Swallowed by his
name in death no less than In life. lies
I Stella, the pale, dark-haired child whose
wide eyes filled with strange IRE as they
| followed the poor and lonely scholar
| through stately Shene or the prirn
rocco epicureanism Of Moor Park,
sleeps as she lived at her masters feet.
| She dedi ated ali the days of her life to
Swift with devotion which is well
nigh without parallel in the history
OF Wuman's love for man AS we stand
awe struck and reverentiaI In the quiet
presence of the dead, our senses seem
troubled by a haunting influence as if d
phantom, svague, yelled, impalpable,
were fitting by as on the twilight air.
It is the haunting influence OF the So
i cret Of those two tortured lives, the Sc
cret that lies buried between their
graves.
/ Never, perhaps, before or since, has
the ordinance of heaven brought two
such entities together to play the part
OF patron and the patronized as Sir
William Temple and Jonathan Swift.
piece 81 1rSt dispieasing sham 4 'a CO., :
sicism in Che midssof the pleasant SUI
rey hills. and woods and waters, III
William Temple, Baronet, and csl,s T = z
Secretary Of State, had betake..
to rest his mind and body from /
grateful tolls OF statecraft. His nA,.
he soothed in an amiable and sufficient.
ly facile commerce with the Latin
muses., in a diplomatic assumption OF
acquaintance with bewildering phases
of the Greclan grammar which led him
to ludicrous shipwreck over the letters
Phalaris, and in the not-ungraceful ex-
ercise his wit in the composition Of es
says Of which posterity still remembers
at least the names. His body soIaced
with the pipins of Shene and the peach
es of his sunny walls, with philosophic
promenades between yeW groves adj
orned with busts of pagan wisdom,
with a deferential care of his govt, and
q reverential eye to the precepts Of the
ancients.
To this well-meaning, pompous,
blameless, periwegged pedant, the most
eminently respectable medley Of sense
and nonsense that even his age pro-
duced, there came, in the later years of
the dying seventeenth century, young
suppliant from Ireland, d penni-
less, remote kinsman. His
baronetstlip's most humble, obedient
servant 10 command -and, unhappijy, |
his servant at times dedicated himself
to the alteration of Temple in terms
more complainant, more servile than
these was Mr.. Jonathan Swift, a i
young student from Dublin, With much
wit, less learning, and mint estimally |
little means. The great man was grac-
ious; he received the dark, awkward |
young Irishman into his service; al |
lowed him TO drudge for him, fatter
him, fight his battles for him--most |
notably that immortal Rattle of the |
Books"--wait upon his huInors, swal |
low bis sonorous platitudes. and tinsei |
learning, and be III most things, mem
tai and physical, his decorous and de-
lighted slave. In return for SO rnucn /
homage the stranger WAS allotted some T
twenty pounds q year, place at the
servants table, the run Of the miscell-
aneous agglomeration Of literature
which Temple called q library, and the
companienship OF Hester johnson.
For the rest Of her life Hester john
son-she vas presumably, indeed, al
most certainly, Sir William Temples
daughter devoted herself to Swift.
There never was in ali the world. Or
out Of It, in the illinitable Kingdoms Of
fancy, more famous pair of lovers
than these two. Leila and Nahum,
Romeo and Juliet, Diarmuid and
graiaas-rep what names you please
Of famous lovers that the fancies of
poets have ever adorned by the Tigris
II the Avon or the Blackwater. the
aames Of Swift and Stella are to the E
,ull as famous. appeal no less keenly to |
heart and brain, TO the imagination
md TO pity Happy they were not,
souId not be.
by mind always turns, when / read
Il Swift and Stella to that iueHIess pair
Il lovers whom Dante saw In the third
;ircle Of hell, blown about for ever on
he racking wind, and finding comfort j
through the lapse Of eternal twilight id