prudence, and to be puzzled was to seem to deliberate. That Harley
should have had the playing of a great political game {37} while Swift
could only look on, is one of the anomalies of history which Swift's
sardonic humor must have appreciated to the full. Swift took his
revenge when he could by bullying his great official friends now and
then in the roughest fashion. He knew that they feared him, and
flattered him because they feared him, and he was glad of it, and
hugged himself in the knowledge. He knew even that at one time they
were uncertain of his fidelity, and took much pains by their praises
and their promises to keep him close at their side; and this, too,
amused him. He was amused as a tyrant might be at the obvious efforts
of those around him to keep him in good-humor, or as a man conscious of
incipient madness might find malign delight in the anxiety of his
friends to fall in with all his moods and not to cross him in anything
he was pleased to say.

Joseph Addison had a political position and influence on the other side
of the controversy which entitle him to be ranked among the statesmen
of the day. Only in the year before his tragedy of "Cato" had been
brought out, and it had created an altogether peculiar sensation. Each
of the two great political parties seized upon the opportunity given by
Gate's pompous political virtue, and claimed him as the spokesman of
their cause. The Whigs, of course, had the author's authority to
appropriate the applause of Cato, and the Whigs had endeavored to pack
the House in order to secure their claim. But the Tories were equal to
the occasion. They appeared in great numbers, Bolingbroke, then
Secretary of State, at their head. When Cato lamented the extinguished
freedom of his country the Whigs were vociferous in their cheers, and
glared fiercely at the Tories; but when the austere Roman was made to
denounce Caesar and a perpetual dictatorship, the Tories professed to
regard this as a denunciation of Marlborough, and his demand to be made
commander-in-chief for life, and they gave back the cheering with
redoubled vehemence. At last Bolingbroke's own genius suggested a
master-stroke. He sent for the actor who played Cato's part, thanked
him in face of the {38} public, and presented him with a purse of gold
because of the service he had done in sustaining the cause of liberty
against the tyranny of a perpetual dictator.

Addison held many high political off