The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-11-19

THE SUI
ians may have 10 answer for the academies Il
Laputa and Laesdo which come within thois
programme against pcdantry; but Swift alone
can assume the triilne gravity that belts the
first two voyaecs the mos, truly playful Of bis
1 writnga lie alone has the sincerity Of philnn-
! thropy turned sick that can conceive the Struld.
| bruR. or the Yahoo The disenchantod idealism
| Of the whole book gives II some unity. The art
| OF -Gulliver's Travels" moves within tho limits
which arc imposed by q sterilined Imagination
but are partially broI en- through by ovcrpower-
ing humanity. The whole story Is told ns though
written by master mariner deficient In
Imaginative power and suffering the sur
prisos Incident 10 a very literal ind. In
his last sane years, Swift did bost In
his verse; II Ia the most powerful Of anti
poctical verse that can be imagined He uses
metre, usually Buffers metre. With resource and
accuracy. for the deliberate purpose Of producing
pain rather than pleasure In the Lines on the
Death Of Dr. Swift" he speaks without mask. A
hard lowering. icy light broods upon his world.
A strange minute pedestrian fancy. .preferring
10 delineato the ugly, Is curiously united With
the accent Of honesty and strength All Of Swif's
writing bears the stamp Of will He suffers moth
ing TO appear In |, that Ia dead matter or incxpres
sivc Of himself A peculiar realistic memory
and dominant intellect give him tenacity 10
point detail AMI subtlety His prose- however,
has also rhythm, arrangement liehtness and
conciscncss; II has, In fact a power Of statement
that Ia beyond competition In English. II moro
philosophical or poeticnl minds be excluded.
Swift's correspondence with his friends Is, In Its
comic and dramatic aspects ono Of the enduring
fragments Of English literature; II shows moro
over. that his literary power was spontaneous
that he was born FREQ Hence tho case and clas-
steal transparency Of his style, apart from truth
or dignity, which Ia often absent from his matter
Out OF tho intricacies Of his nature, which still
challenge divinauon, there shine a radical verao-
ity toward friends and toward cause, a profound
scandaliIod humanity and daunucss indopcnd-
onoa
~.
Tho works OF Dcfoc. apart from his avowcd
fiction, those OF Steele and thoss Of Addison were
shaped In great measure by the changed pod.
ton OF the literary class and by the growth Of tho
press by the time Of Auno, nearly all the writcrs
great or little (savo those who. like Defoe
Vaudeville, were socially outcnsscd or those
who. like Shaftosbury or Bolingbroke wero above
need were in some way paid and installed. and
honorably cntreated From Addison 70 nckcll
from Arbuthno, and Gay TO tho young authors
whom Swift bcfriendcd oil looked 70 place for
reward and career: even Swift despite tho Tale
Of Tub became dean Popo indeed. was
disqualified for Office by his refusal as a Catholic,
to take the oath and he earned his Independence by
et,era In 1895. a formal release Of the press
from official censorship soon quickcncd Il into
a teeming proiusion OF mayly shecta The FIRST
daily paper was the Daily Cournnt which began
on March H. i102 This contained besides
news, the germ Of the occasional verse and Of
answers TO correspondence These things were
untitled TO satisfy the great swelling. centralized
boty Of readers There was no leading article
and no mag kzine article. The FIRST was founded
essentially by Deioc and perfected by Swift tho
second was originated by Steele, and perfected
by Addison No later change in the external
conditions Of literature unless II be the blow struck
at patronage by johnson. has 70 deeply affected
authorship as this double invention.
Daniel Defoe u68l-l73D played with un.
equalled relish tho par, Of the picturesque hero
In the field II letters lie was the most prUfuso
English author Of his time and passed through
many incarnetons His peculiar relations with
the truth raise more critical difficulties as " tho
authorship date and accuracy Of the works
ascribed TO him than Is the case with any other
English writer Faischood was u him no casual
mistress. but a WIFE, whose value he respected
profoundly. The scam between his facts and
his fances disSu ised by the deitncss Of his
literary tailoring and by the prosaic 81 lidi,y Of
detail with which he approached both. considered
merely as narrative material, He had no fancy,
however, Of tho aerial poetical or graceful kind
This lack prevented him from being great except
very huully, but II also prevented him from de
ceiying himself. With Defoe. Imagination has |
the circumstantial cast Of memory; his invention
Is without bounds but IL appeals purely TO |
tho positive intellect lie CARED little for
drtion, and snathed at words. but pos
scssed pre-eminenuy the skiil that lust stopped |
SHIRT Of art II is rather by the label than |
by the treatment that We can dis,ingui |
his fiction from his journalism: for his Icti IN
alloyed with truth 10 degree that cannot 10 |
ascertained. In his political writings however |
direct vociferous and telling they may be. the |
difficulty Of detecting his real opinions and gen
uine allegiance increases his life adyances
and Is. In some cases. insurmountablo |
Def e, originally Foe. Was the son Of London |
Dissenting butcher. In opp, siuOn under tho |
Stuarts he was active and valued whig PAM |
phlcteer under " lillian ILL.,, and held small post |
In 1899. This was the least oquivocal part OF |
his life. Tho Rspietp Of The Affairs OF France, |
which began in l7Oi and came out for many
years twice OF thrice q week. was the FIRST and |
chief OF Deioe's newspaper ventures In which,
with the instinct Of the heaven. born pressman,
he shouted with every resource Of abuse. paradox
and statistics his opinion on every political topic
the war Of the Spanish Succession. the condi.
ton Of trade the Union with Scotland, the Church
and the question Of tho succession 10 Anne. Tho
history Of his secret dealings with Harley, and
Of the way In which no wrote ill 1910 ostensbly
for tho " higs, then faced round under the plea
OF patriotism and once moro on the death Of
Queen Anne, steered not unsuccessiully In tho
cross currents all this. together with his strange
subterranear dealings In later life with certain
Journals has becn in part unravelled, though
much still awaits full explanation. The enor-
nous mass Of writing turned out by Defoe during
his career falls broadly into the four classes Of
periodical Journalism, pamphlets, fictitious his
tory and novels, 70 which might bo added verses
and miscellancs Of all surts His semi fictitious
history. exemplihod In tho journal OF tho Plague
Year" and the Memoirs OF a Cavalier" might
be classified with his novels, for Il shows the same
gifts Pamphletecrng was a most voluminous
accessory TO Defocs regular journalism. Tho
social paper the general article the catering for
he Il ~ n,tS 10,