Lord Bolingbroke; and I wonder none
of our friends ever undertook to answer it. I confess I was at first
of the same opinion with several good judges, who from the style and
manner suppose it to have issued from the sharp pen of the Earl of
Nottingham; and I am still apt to think it might receive his
lordship's last hand. The third and principal of this triumvirate is
the author of 'The Crisis,' who, although he must yield to the _Flying
Post_ in knowledge of the world and skill in politics, and to Mr.
Dunton in keenness of satire and variety of reading, hath yet other
qualities enough to denominate him a writer of a superior class to
either, provided he would a little regard the propriety and
disposition of his words, consult the grammatical part, and get some
information on the subject he intends to handle."[343]

So far this fine ironical satire may be inspected as a model; the
polished weapon he strikes with so gracefully, is allowed by all the
laws of war; but the political criticism on the literary character,
the party feeling which degrades a man of genius, is the drop of
poison on its point.

Steele had declared in the "Crisis" that he had always maintained an
inviolable respect for the clergy. Swift (who perhaps was aimed at in
this instance, and whose character, since the publication of "The Tale
of a Tub," lay under a suspicion of an opposite tendency) turns on
Steele with all the vigour of his wit, and all the causticity of
retort:--

"By this he would insinuate that those papers among the _Tatlers_ and
_Spectators_, where the whole order is abused, were not his own. I
will appeal to all who know the flatness of his style, and the
barrenness of his invention, whether he doth not grossly prevaricate?
_Was he ever able to walk without his leading-strings, or swim without
bladders, without being discovered by his hobbling or his sinking?_"

Such was the attack of Swift, which was pursued in the _Examiner_, and
afterwards taken up by another writer. This is one of the evils
resulting from the wantonness of genius: it gives a contagious example
to the minor race; its touch opens a new vein of invention, which the
poorer wits soon break into; the loose sketch of a feature or two from
its rapid hand is sufficient to become a minute portrait, where not a
hair is spared by the caricaturist. This happened to Steele, whose
literary was to be sacrificed to his political character; and this
superstructure was confes