Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-31
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BOOklOVer

1
Swift'S works; but 1t does give vita
impression of personality. The events
of Swift's life were not many or Strik-
| ing. His erratic, abnormal personality
reflected in his writings, is what has
| made him of interest during his owr
time and through the years since. His
boyhood and youth were passed in pow
cry, and he tasted the bitterness OF de-
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. upon uncles, who
accepted their duty without great will
ingnesS. With considerable difficulty he
managed to become educated-a grad
uate of Trinity College, Dublin. Hi
secretaryship to Sir William Temple OF
Moor Park, Surrey, during two different
periods was an important factor in his
career, for 1t was in the quiet of the
daily life at Moor Park that he found
q helpful environment for his writing
1t was there also that he met Esther
Johnson, daughter of a steward at Mool
Park, and established with her the rela-
ton Of teacher and pupil. Whether OF
not this meeting was happy event foI
| either or both of them is q question
which has never been settled. Most OF
| the evidence seems to be in the mega
| tive. She became the Stella" of the
journal to Stella" and is buried be-
side Swift in st. Patrick's Cathedral
Dublin; but no biographers have beer
|
| secretly married to him. She lived near
Swift with companion, saw much Of
him, refused other offers to marry and
admired him even when he was most
vehemently execrated by others. When
she died Swift mourned her deeply, and
rapidly sank into the lonely existence
which ended only with his insanity and
death. When we consider the char
acter Of Swift as it Is portrayed by his
biographers We are likely to think that
/ If Esther johnson refused to marry him
she was wise. and If he refused to
marry her she was lucky. He was q
misanthrope. and hated humanity
though he loved, sitter his fashion, GER
tain people. He feared women and Their
influence and hated the idea of mar
riage.
All his life Swift was Handicapped
and tortured, according to Van Doren
| by a defecC of the m mbraneS of the
ear which permitted a leakage of blood
| into the labyrinth of the ear. This
caused continual roaring and tumult
with giddineSS, SO that his nerves were
always narrowed. There must have
been also other ailments, and as he
! grew older he settled into q profound
melancholy, interrupted only at inter-
walls when a few friends came to his
house to share his meager fare. His
| friendship with the iraScIble Pope was
| one of the happiest relations Of his later
years. though each found the other very
irritating, and the chief enjoyment of
the association seems to have been
their correspondence, not their per-
Sonal visits. Feeling himself to be
buried in Ireland and to be kept by I'M
friendly politicians from the important
positions which he deserved Swift was
always a bitter man, and his old age
was not of the mellow type described
by Browning in Rabbi Ben Ezra" when
he says THE best is yet to be-" AFRO
CANT, pugnacious, avariciouS, Seething
with hatredS, Swift was not exactly a
lovable figure when five years before his
death his mind became completely
clcuded. Yet at the end he was like a
quiet child. He had still five years,
two of torture and three of a dreadful
peace (after he was paralysed), in
which to keep on OUTLYING his FRIENDS.
He made his will. Accustomed to CIV
ing q third of his income to charity,
he now became more avaricious than
ever to have more money to give. He
shut out the world. His house was his
dungeon. His deafness was almost COM
plete, his giddineSS almost unceasing
He fell like a tower, first a rush
In March guardians were assigned to
him by the Court of Chancery. In Au-
gust q commission inquired into his san
ity and found that he was of unsound
mind and memory and not capable Of
taking care of his psrson or fortune,
and that he hath been so since the goth
day Of May last past From being irTi-
table he became violent. He ragged II
anybody besides his servants looked at
VIC be- IArr I.fr
cousin said; would not eat or drink If
his servant stayed in the room. ; HIS
meat was served up ready cut and
sometimes it would lie an hour on the
table before he would touch 1t, and then
ate it walking Paralysis brought
him the relief of apathy. Swift had
submitted. It took him three years to
die, but he lived without rebellion. He
no longer paced his cage. He would
lost its wrinkles. His expression was
now benign or childlike."
1.-THE Babes Bed" Is the title chosen
by Glenway Wescott for his latest work
OF f1ctional rejection on American life,
more especially life in Wisconsin,. his
native State. The book may be called
novel probably, because nearly any
thing not strictly fact is called a novel
nowadays, but it has little plot and very
slight Characterization. A year-old
child lies in is bed in the second story
OF poor house, while below in the
dining room sit the child's father and
mother, grandfather and grandmother
and young uncle who has come home
TO Wisconsin on q visit. The child Is
bound in its bed by q continuance made
from pair Of old suspenders. 1t cries
loudly, and so causes dispute among
the people at the table below. The
mother insists that the child must learn
to go to sleep without rocking; the
father, weak, unsuccessful man, dis
likes the idea of child crying upstairs
alone. From this situation Glenway
WeScott weaveS an allegory, and appar-
emily expresses his own thoughts in the
words of the visiting young man: al
ways in an ephemeral Western town
in himself, in his mind, under as hum
BILE room, and, as it were, amid dis
united, frustrated elders, there would be
the babe weeping, unqualified, bound in
its bed, for its own good"
*K
H. H. Munro, who wrote stories under
the name of "Saki," was killed in the
World War. His stories have been COL
lected in one volume, 1.-THE Short Stories
Of Saki," with an introduction by
Christopher Morley. The stories de-
scribe a world of light-minded people
who have no such thing as social con-
science but delight in idleness and fri
volity, and are much concerned with
domestic problems. There are q num-
Der of enfants terribleS, badly brought
up, incorrtgible children, who are very
interesting to read about. The style Of
"Sakt" Is clever, pungent, epigrammatic.
HIS plots do not seem to matter, yet
-N.A-
twisted ones. Critics are assigning to
H. H. Munro real, If limited, place
in literature.
y X
Storm jameson, author of 1.-THE Lovely
Ship" and THE Voyage Home" family