insolence and resentment
of which he is accused were not easily to be avoided by a great mind
irritated by perpetual hardships and constrained hourly to return the
spurns of contempt, and repress the insolence of prosperity; and vanity
surely may be readily pardoned in him, to whom life afforded no other
comforts than barren praises, and the consciousness of deserving them.

Those are no proper judges of his conduct who have slumbered away their
time on the down of plenty; nor will any wise man easily presume to say,
"Had I been in Savage's condition, I should have lived or written better
than Savage."

This relation will not be wholly without its use, if those who languish
under any part of his sufferings shall be enabled to fortify their
patience by reflecting that they feel only these afflictions from which
the abilities of Savage did not exempt him; or those who, in confidence
of superior capacities or attainments, disregard the common maxims of
life, shall be reminded that nothing will supply the want of prudence;
and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make
knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.

SWIFT.

An account of Dr. Swift has been already collected, with great diligence
and acuteness, by Dr. Hawkesworth, according to a scheme which I laid
before him in the intimacy of our friendship. I cannot therefore be
expected to say much of a life, concerning which I had long since
communicated my thoughts to a man capable of dignifying his narrations
with so much elegance of language and force of sentiment.

Jonathan Swift was, according to an account said to be written by
himself, the son of Jonathan Swift, an attorney, and was born at Dublin
on St. Andrew's day, 1667: according to his own report, as delivered by
Pope to Spence, he was born at Leicester, the son of a clergyman who was
minister of a parish in Herefordshire. During his life the place of his
birth was undetermined. He was contented to be called an Irishman by the
Irish; but would occasionally call himself an Englishman. The question
may, without much regret, be left in the obscurity in which he delighted
to involve it.

Whatever was his birth, his education was Irish. He was sent at the age
of six to the school at Kilkenny, and in his fifteenth year (1682) was
admitted into the University of Dublin. In his academical studies he
was either not diligent or not happy. It must disappoint every reader's
e