of Swift's own life, in
which he was compelled to live on, a burden to himself and his friends.

In these three voyages the evident purpose is to strip off the veil of
habit and custom, with which men deceive themselves, and show the crude
vices of humanity as Swift fancies he sees them. In the fourth voyage the
merciless satire is carried out to its logical conclusion. This brings us
to the land of the Houyhnhnms, in which horses, superior and intelligent
creatures, are the ruling animals. All our interest, however, is centered
on the Yahoos, a frightful race, having the form and appearance of men, but
living in unspeakable degradation.

The _Journal to Stella_, written chiefly in the years 1710-1713 for the
benefit of Esther Johnson, is interesting to us for two reasons. It is,
first, an excellent commentary on contemporary characters and political
events, by one of the most powerful and original minds of the age; and
second, in its love passages and purely personal descriptions it gives us
the best picture we possess of Swift himself at the summit of his power and
influence. As we read now its words of tenderness for the woman who loved
him, and who brought almost the only ray of sunlight into his life, we can
only wonder and be silent. Entirely different are his _Drapier's Letters_,
a model of political harangue and of popular argument, which roused an
unthinking English public and did much benefit to Ireland by preventing the
politicians' plan of debasing the Irish coinage. Swift's poems, though
vigorous and original (like Defoe's, of the same period), are generally
satirical, often coarse, and seldom rise above doggerel. Unlike his friend
Addison, Swift saw, in the growing polish and decency of society, only a
mask for hypocrisy; and he often used his verse to shock the new-born
modesty by pointing out some native ugliness which his diseased mind
discovered under every beautiful exterior.

That Swift is the most original writer of his time, and one of the greatest
masters of English prose, is undeniable. Directness, vigor, simplicity,
mark every page. Among writers of that age he stands almost alone in his
disdain of literary effects. Keeping his object steadily before him, he
drives straight on to the end, with a convincing power that has never been
surpassed in our language. Even in his most grotesque creations, the reader
never loses the sense of reality, of being present as an eyewitness of the
most impossibl