the last, is essentially part of it ; not an episode or allusion being introduced merely for itself, but every minutest point not only harmonizing or consisting with the whole, but expressly supporting and strengthening it." Sir William Temple died on 27th January i698-'9, "and with him," writes Swift, " died all that was good and amiable among men." Then closed the quietest and happiest period in Swift's life. Sir William left him a small legacy, and committed to him " the care, and trust, and advantage, of publishing his post- humous writings." The amount ulti- mately received for the five volumes was about £40 a piece. Swift confided in King William IIl.'s promise of the first vacant prebend at Westminster or Canterbury, and dedicated to him his edition of Temple's works ; but neither promise nor dedication brought hira any preferment. In the summer of 1699, he accompanied Lord Berkeley to Ireland as chaplain and private secretary, on his appointment as one of the Lords-Justices. He was soon, however, ousted from the secretaryship, and deprived by intrigue of the expected deanery of Derry, but remained chaplain at the Castle, continuing his service, for political as well as personal reasons, under two later Viceroys. He lived upon terms of the most affec- tionate intimacy with the Berkeleys, for whose amusement some of his cleverest poetical pieces were thrown off. In February 1699- 1700 Swift was made vicar of Laracor, near Trim. With this ap- pointment was united the adjacent rectory of Agher, and afterwards the living of Rathbeggan, all in the diocese of Meath. Although nothing now stands but a ruined wall of his glebe-house at Lara- cor— although the church has been rebuilt, and few traces remain of the garden, the willows, and the stream in which be deligated, the place will long be re- garded with interest from the fact of his having resided there. Often, when in London, his heart reverted to the spot, and he wi-ote as longing to be away from court and politics, and amongst his fishponds and the sylvan beauties of the locality. His income at this time was £220, or about £600 in present value. Esther Johnson had been left by Sir William Temple a legacy of lands in " Monistown, in the County of Wicklow." Her property altogether amounted to about £1,500. After the break-up of the household at Moor Park, she re- sided at Farnham with her friend Mrs. Dingley. In 1700, says Swift, " I pre- vailed with her and her dear friend
what money they had into Ireland, a great part of their fortune being in an- nuities upon funds. Money was then ten per cent, in Ireland, besides the advan- tage of returning it, and all necessaries of life at half the price. They complied with my advice, and soon after came over ; but I happening to continue some time longer in England, they were much discouraged to live in Dublin, where they were wholly strangers. She was at that time about nineteen years old, and her person was soon distinguished. But the adventure looked so like a fj-olic, the censure held for some time, as if there were a secret history in such a removal ; which, how- ever, soon blew off by her excellent con- duct." He writes of her at this period : " She was sickly from her childhood until about the age of fifteen ; but then grew into perfect health, and was looked upon as one of the most beautiful, graceful, and agreeable young women in London, only a little too fat. Her hair was blacker than a raven, and every feature of her face in perfection." Excepting visits to her friends in England in 1705 and the winter of 1707- S, Esther Johnson spent the re- mainder of her life in Ireland. When Swift was at home, she and Mrs. Dingley occupied lodgings near him in Dublin or in Trim. They kept up a comfortable establishment — two maids and a man- servant, and at times a riding-horse for Esther. When Swift was absent they occu- pied his house in Dublin, or the vicarage at Laracor. On company days she and Mrs. Dingley presided at Swift's enter- tainments. " She grew to love Ireland," says Swift, " much better than the gene- rality of those who owe both their birth and riches to it. . . She detested the tyranny and injustice of England in their treatment of this kingdom. She had in- deed reason to love a country where she had the esteem and friendship of all who knew her, and the universal good re- port of all who ever heard of her." It is not probable that any more reasonable explanation of the relations that subsisted between Esther and Swift will ever be given than what is advanced by Mr. Forster in his Life of Stvift. Referring to a letter dated April 1704, wherein Swift had discouraged the suit of a clergyman named Tisdall, he says : " Written when Esther Johnson was in her twenty-second year and Swift in his thirty-sixth, the letter describes with exactness the relations that, in the opinion of the present writer — who can find no evidence of marriage that is at all reasonably sufficient — subsisted
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