To those who read Gulliver's Travels apart from the other works of Swift, the question will probably present itself, What had been the life and experience of the man who could write such a book? It is not the work most typical of his genius : but it has achieved a popularity which none of his other works has approached. What, then, had been the course of his life when he produced a book which takes its place without question amongst the few which have become familiar as household words wherever books are either read or known?
When, in 1714, Swift came to settle permanently in Ireland, he was a man of forty-seven, who had passed through an experience so varied as falls to the lot of few literary men. With a character indomitably imperious, born to control all with whom he came in contact. Swift had passed his childhood and his youth under the shadow of poverty and dependence, and had spent his early manhood in the household of Sir William Temple, where he became familiar with those who were making history, and had made his power
