588 SWIFT. From this moment his popularity was unbounded. Ali ranks and professions listed themselves under the banner of the Drapier. The Drapier became the idol of Ireland, even to a degree of devotion, and bumpers were poured forth to the Drapier, as large and as frequent as to the glorious and immortal memory. Acclamations and vows for h i s pros perity attended him wherever h e went, and his effigies were painted i n every street i n Dublin. He was consulted i n a l l points relating t o domestic policy i n general, and t o the trade o f Ireland i n particular; but h e was more imme diately regarded a s the legislator o f the weavers, who fre quently came t o him i n a body t o receive his advice for the regulation o f their trade. And when elections were depending for the city o f Dublin, many corporations re fused t o declare themselves till they had consulted his sentiments and inclinations. Over the populace h e was the most absolute monarch that ever governed; and h e was regarded b y persons o f every rank with veneration and esteem. Melancholy i s the lot o f frail humanity. This idol o f his country was becoming daily more subject t o those attacks o f giddiness and deafness which finally terminated i n a total abolition o f his mental functions. I n 1736, while writing “The Legion Club,” a satire o n the Irish parlia ment, h e was seized with one o f these fits, the effect o f which was s o dreadful, that h e left the poem unfinished, and never afterwards attempted any composition which required a course o f thinking, o r perhaps more than one sitting t o finish. From this time his memory was perceived gradually t o decline, and his passions t o pervert his understanding. The attacks o f his complaint became violent and frequent, and terminated i n 1742, i n a complete privation o f reason. I t would b e distressing t o humanity t o detail the melan choly series o f his few succeeding years; suffice i t t o say, that h e expired without pang o r convulsion, i n October 1745, i n the seventy-eighth year o f his age. Swift had always entertained a strong presentiment
