satirical; of political allegories
of great potency, of fiction erected of impossible materials, and yet so
creating and peopling a world of fancy as to illude the reader into
temporary belief in its truth.

POEMS.--His poems are rather sententious than harmonious. His power,
however, was great; he managed verse as an engine, and had an entire
mastery over rhyme, which masters so many would-be poets. His _Odes_ are
classically constructed, but massive and cumbrous. His satirical poems are
eminently historical, ranging over and attacking almost every topic,
political, religious, and social. Among the most characteristic of his
miscellaneous verses are _Epigrams and Epistles, Clever Tom Pinch Going to
be Hanged, Advice to Grub Street Writers, Helter-Skelter, The Puppet
Show_, and similar odd pieces, frequently scurrilous, bitter, and lewd in
expression. The writer of English history consults these as he does the
penny ballads, lampoons, and caricatures of the day,--to discern the
_animus_ of parties and the methods of hostile factions.

But it is in his inimitable prose writings that Swift is of most value to
the historical student. Against all comers he stood the Goliath of
pamphleteers in the reign of Queen Anne, and there arose no David who
could slay him.

THE TALE OF A TUB.--While an unappreciated student at the university, he
had sketched a satirical piece, which he finished and published in 1704,
under the title of _The Tale of a Tub_. As a tub is thrown overboard at
sea to divert a whale, so this is supposed to be a sop cast out to the
_Leviathan_ of Hobbes, to prevent it from injuring the vessel of state.
The story is a satire aimed against the Roman Catholics on the one hand,
and the Presbyterians on the other, in order that he may exalt the Church
of England as, in his judgment, free from the errors of both, and a just
and happy medium between the two extremes. His own opinion of its merits
is well known: in one of his later years, when his hand had lost its
cunning, he is said to have exclaimed, as he picked it up, "What a genius
I had when I wrote that book!" The characters of the story are _Peter_
(representing St. Peter, or the Roman Catholic Church), _Martin_ (Luther,
or the Church of England), and _Jack_ (John Calvin, or the Presbyterians).
By their father's will each had been left a suit of clothes, made in the
fashion of his day. To this Peter added laces and fringes; Martin took off
some of the o