oration of English verse, you will judge from your own perceptions, after perusing the best specimens of blank verse. It is manifest, however, that when employed, its value must be in proportion to its exactness, and to its coincidence with the sense. In these respects, Swift is without exception the most perfect rhymer in the language; and you will admire how the very word, which by its meaning seems most fit for the occasion, slides in without effort as the echo in sound to the terminating word of the preceding line. Even double and triple rhymes are ready at his call, and, though suggesting the most heterogenous ideas, are happily coupled by some of those whimsical combinations in which comic wit consists.

The diction of Swift is the most complete example of colloquial ease that verse affords. In aiming at this manner, other writers are apt to run into quaintness and oddity; but in Swift not a word or phrase occurs which does not belong to the natural style of free conversation. It is true, this freedom is often indecorous, and would at the present day be scarcely hazarded by any one who kept good company, still less by a clergyman. Yet he has known how to make distinctions; and while many of his satirical and humorous pieces are grossly tainted with indelicacies, some of his best and longest compositions are void of any thing that can justly offend. It is evident, indeed, that Swift, though destitute of genius for the sublimer parts

of

of poetry, was sufficiently capable of elegance, had he not preferred indulging his vein for sarcastic wit. No one could compliment more delicately when he chose it, as no one was a better judge of proprieties of behaviour, and the graces of the female character.

From the preceding representation, you will conclude that I cannot set you to read Swift's works straight forwards. In fact, your way through them must be picked very nicely, and a large portion of them must be left unvisited. It should be observed, however, to do him justice, that their impurities are not of the moral kind, but are chiefly such as it is the scavenger's office to remove.

The first of his poems which I shall point out to your notice is the longest and one of the most serious of his compositions. Its title, "Cadenus and Vanessa," denotes his own concern in the subject; for Cadenus is Decanus (the Dean) transposed; and Vanessa is the poetical name of Miss Vanhomrigh, a young lady whose unfortunate love for him met with a cold return. This piece, under an ingenious mythological fiction, contains a fine compliment to the lady, and much severe satire on the greater part of her sex, as well as on the foppish part of ours. You must, indeed, in reading Swift, arm yourself with patience to endure the most contemptuous treatment of your sex; for which, if really justified by the low state of mental cultivation among the females of that period, you may console

yourself

yourself by the advantageous comparison afforded by that of the present age. The poem does not finish the real story; for it says,

what success Vanessa met

Is to the world a secret yet.

The melancholy truth was, that after uniting himself secretly with another woman, he continued to visit Vanessa, and she retained her hopes of soft ening his obduracy, till a final explanation broke her heart. This poem was in her possession, and by her direction was published after her death.

The "Poems to Stella" will naturally follow. This was the lady to whom the former was sacrificed; but she seems to have had little enjoyment in the preference. His pride, or his singularity, made him refuse his consent to the publication of their marriage, and they continued to live apart as mere friends. Yet he appears to have sincerely loved her, probably beyond any other human being; and almost the only sentiments of tenderness in his writings are to be found in the poems addressed to her. This affection, however, does not in general characterize them, and the writer's disposition to raillery breaks out in the midst of his most complimentary strains. A Frenchman would be shocked at his frequent allusions to her advancing years. His exposure of her defects, too, may seem much too free for a lover, or even a husband; and it is easy to conceive that Stella's temper was fully tried in the connection. Yet a woman might

be

be proud of the serious approbation of such a man, which he expresses in language evidently coming from the heart. They are, indeed,

Without one word of Cupid's darts,

Of killing eyes and bleeding hearts;

but they contain topics of praise which far outlive the short season of youth and beauty. How much superior to frivolous gallantry is the applause testified in lines like these!

Say, Stella, feel you no content
Reflecting on a life well spent?
Your skilful hand employ'd to save
Despairing wretches from the grave,

And then supporting with your store

Those whom you dragg'd from death before?

Your generous boldness to defend

An innocent and absent friend;

That courage which can make you just

To merit humbled in the dust;

The detestation you express

For vice in all its glittering dress;

That patience under tortʼring pain

Where stubborn stoics would complain ?

In the lines "To Stella visiting him in sickness,” there is a picture of honour, as influencing the female mind, which is morally sublime, and deserves attentive study:

Ten thousand oaths upon record
Are not so sacred as her word;

The world shall in its atoms end

Ere Stella can deceive a friend; &c.

There

There is something truly touching in the description of Stella's ministring in the sick chamber, where

with a soft and silent tread

Unheard she moves about the bed.

In all these pieces there is an originality which proves how much the author's genius was removed from any thing trite and vulgar: indeed, his life, character and writings were all singularly his own, and distinguished from those of other men.

May I now, without offence, direct you by way of contrast to the "Journal of a Modern Lady ?” It is, indeed, an outrageous satire on your sex, but one perfectly harmless with respect to yourself or any whom you love. I point it out as an admirable example of the author's familiar and colloquial manIt also exhibits a specimen of his powers in that branch of poetical invention which is regarded as one of the higher efforts of the art. A more animated group of personifications is not easily to be met with than the following lines exhibit :

ner.

When, frighted at the clamorous crew,

Away the God of Silence flew,

And fair Discretion left the place,

And Modesty, with blushing face.
Now enters overweening Pride,
And Scandal ever gaping wide,
Hypocrisy with frown severe,
Scurrility with gibing air,

Rude Laughter, seeming like to burst,
And Malice, always judging worst,

And