untry, than Swift did
of his; a steady, persevering, inflexible friend; a wise, a watchful,
and a faithful counsellor, under many severe trials and bitter
persecutions, to the manifest hazard both of his liberty and fortune.

"He lived a blessing, he died a benefactor, and his name will ever live
an honour to Ireland."

In the poetical works of Dr. Swift there is not much upon which the
critic can exercise his powers. They are often humorous, almost always
light, and have the qualities which recommend such compositions,
easiness and gaiety. They are, for the most part, what their author
intended. The diction is correct, the numbers are smooth, and the rhymes
exact. There seldom occurs a hard-laboured expression, or a redundant
epithet; all his verses exemplify his own definition of a good style;
they consist of "proper words in proper places."

To divide this collection into classes, and show how some pieces are
gross, and some are trifling, would be to tell the reader what he knows
already, and to find faults of which the author could not be ignorant,
who certainly wrote not often to his judgment, but his humour.

It was said, in a Preface to one of the Irish editions, that Swift had
never been known to take a single thought from any writer, ancient or
modern. This is not literally true; but perhaps no writer can easily be
found that has borrowed so little, or that, in all his excellences and
all his defects, has so well maintained his claim to be considered as
original.

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