"
Swift says that Stella "always said the best thing in the company," but
to judge by the specimens he has preserved, this must have been the
opinion of a lover, unless the society she moved in was extremely dull.
At the same time those who assert that her allusions were coarse, have
no good foundation for such a calumny. Her humour contrasted with that
of the Dean, both in its weakness and its delicacy. Swift was too fond
of bringing forward into the light what should be concealed, but saw the
fault in others, and imputed it to an absence of inventive power. He
writes--
"You do not treat nature wisely by always striving to get beneath the
surface. What to show and to conceal she knows, it is one of her
eternal laws to put her best furniture forward."
The last of his writings before his mind gave way was his "Directions to
Servants." It was compiled apparently from jottings set down in hours of
idleness, and shows that his love of humour survived as long as any of
his faculties. He was blamed by Lord Orrery for turning his mind to such
trifling concerns, and the stricture might have had some weight had not
his primary object been to amuse. That this was his aim rather than mere
correction, is evident from the specious reasons he gives for every one
of his precepts, and he would have found it difficult to choose a
subject which would meet with a more general response.
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