the words, ‘Dearly beloved Roger, the scripture moveth you and me.’ Swift, however, passed much of his time at Dublin, where he was familiar with the official society. Lady Betty Germain [see Germain, Lady Elizabeth], the daughter of Lord Berkeley, dated from this time a long friendship, and in 1700 he gave the first specimen of a peculiar vein of humour in the ‘Petition of Mrs. Frances Harris.’ He made various visits to London, where he spent altogether some four out of the next ten years, always finding time for a visit to his mother at Leicester. In February 1701 he took his D.D. degree at Dublin, and in April returned with Lord Berkeley to London. The impeachment of the whig lords was then exciting the political world, and a conversation with Berkeley led Swift to write his ‘discourse on the dissensions in Athens and Rome.’ The pamphlet was to show that the desirable balance of power had been upset by measures analogous to impeachments, and, though well written, appears now to be pedantic or ‘academical.’ It was, however, successful at the time, and was attributed to Somers and to Burnet. Bishop Sheridan told Swift himself, when he returned to Ireland, that it was written by Burnet, whereupon Swift could not refrain from claiming the authorship (Deane Swift, p. 122; Sheridan, p. 34). On his next visit to England he was welcomed as a promising whig author by Somers, Halifax, and Sunderland, who held out liberal prospects of preferment (Memoirs relating to the Change of Ministry). Though the impeached ministers are incidentally compared to Aristides and other virtuous persons, there is nothing in the pamphlet committing Swift to specifically whig doctrine. He says himself that this was the first occasion on which he began to trouble himself about the difference between whig and tory. On his return to Ireland in September 1701 Swift was accompanied by Esther Johnson, best known as Stella (though, according to Forster, the name was not given to her till after the famous journal), and her friend, Mrs. Dingley. Swift says (in his paper upon her death) that Stella's fortune was only 1,500l., and that she would get a better interest for her money in Ireland. The two ladies settled there permanently. During Swift's absence they lived in his houses at Dublin and Laracor, and when he was in Ireland took lodgings in his neighbourhood. Suggestions were naturally made that this implied a ‘secret history.’ Swift, however, carefully guarded against scandal. He never saw Stella except in presence of a third person, and says many years afterwards that he has not seen her in a morning these dozen years, except once or ‘twice in a journey’ (to Tickell, 7 July 1726). They visited England when Swift was there in 1705 and 1708 (Forster, pp. 131, 230; Craik, p. 176). In 1704 Dr. William Tisdal or Tisdall [q. v.], clergyman at Dublin, made an offer to Stella, and charged Swift with opposing his suit. In a remarkable letter (20 April 1704) Swift admits that if his ‘fortune and humour’ permitted him to think of marriage, he should prefer her to any one on earth. As matters are, however, he is prepared to give Tisdall a fair chance if he will make a proper application to the mother, and declares that he has been Tisdall's friend ‘in the whole concern.’ The letter, the tone of which is remarkably calm, has been variously interpreted. It admits an affection of which the natural end would be marriage. It may mean that he considered the obstacles in his own case to be so decisive that he could not fairly stand in the way of another match, or that he had private reasons for knowing Tisdall's suit to be hopeless, or that he did not choose to be forced to declare his intentions, and considered that he was giving Tisdall a sufficient hint to keep at a distance. It is certain that he afterwards speaks of Tisdall with marked dislike.
Swift was again in England from April to November 1702, and from November 1703 till May 1704. The Occasional Conformity Bill was now exciting bitter contests in parliament. Swift was mightily urged ‘by some great people’ to write against the bill. His strong church prejudices made it difficult for him to agree with the whigs, although he still considered himself to belong to the party, and his chance of preferment depended upon them. Somers and Burnet assured him eagerly that they meant no harm to the church. He at last wrote, though with many qualms, but too late to publish (to Tisdall, 16 Dec. 1703 and 3 Feb. 1703–4). Before leaving London in 1704 he published the ‘Battle of the Books’ and the ‘Tale of a Tub.’ The authorship was secret, though known in the Moor Park time, and doubtless guessed by many of his friends.
When he next came to London, in April 1705, he became known to the wits. Addison presented to him a copy of his travels (now in the Forster Library), inscribed ‘to the most agreeable companion, the truest friend, and the greatest genius of the age.’ The genius had no doubt been recognised in the ‘Tale of a Tub.’ Sheridan (p. 41) tells a story of the quaint behaviour at a coffee-house by which he got the name of the ‘mad parson’ and attracted the notice of the circle. He knew, however, enough distinguished men to have no difficulty about an introduction. The
