You may securely, therefore, crown a joy,
Not all the plagues of Hymen can destroy,
For tho' in marriage some unhappy be,
They are not, sure, so fair, so wise as thee.
CHAPTER III.
Swift--"Tale of a Tub"--Essays--Gulliver's Travels--Variety of Swift's
Humour--Riddles--Stella's Wit--Directions for Servants--Arbuthnot.
The year 1667 saw the birth of Swift, one of the most highly gifted and
successful humorists any country ever produced. A bright fancy runs like
a vein of gold through nearly all his writings, and enriches the wide
and varied field upon which he enters. He says of himself--
"Swift had the sin of wit, no venial crime;
Nay, 'tis affirmed he sometimes dealt in rhyme:
Humour and mirth had place in all he writ,
He reconciled divinity and wit."
Whether religion, politics, social follies, or domestic peculiarities
come before him, he was irresistibly tempted to regard them in a
ludicrous point of view. He observes--
"It is my peculiar case to be often under a temptation to be witty,
upon occasions where I could be neither wise nor sound, nor
anything to the matter in hand."
This general tendency was the foundation of his fortunes, and gained him
the favour of Sir William Temple, and of such noblemen as Berkeley,
Oxford, and Bolingbroke.
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