Mr. Wilde's Closing Years of Dean Swift's Life is less
a sketch of his latter days than a medical review of his bodily symptoms from the boyish period when he indulged himself in eating " a hundred golden pippins " at once, and, as he thought, permanently injured his di- gestion, up to his death under restraint and scarcely conscious of ex- ternal objects. By bringing together all his symptoms and sensations from his own letters and journals, as well as from the recorded accounts of eye-witnesses, Mr. Wilde has formed a curious collection of facts re- lating to Swift's bodily affections, and possessing both a unity and a bearing that will vainly be sought in common biographies by non-medi- cal men. It does not appear to us that Mr. Wilde accomplishes his main object, which is to overturn the opinion that Swift was insane. The moody silence in his closing years, Mr. Wilde says,7arose from paralysis ; the restlessness and other symptoms of his supposed madness, from bodily pain : which may be true, but the evidence of a disturbed or paralyzed intellect is too strong to be overthrown.
The second part of the book refers to the Dean's connexion with Stella, Esther Johnson, and passing allusions to Miss Vanhomrigh. Here too Mr. Wilde brings together the principal passages bearing upon this much- discussed topic ; submitting each to a critical examination, to determine its nature as an original or contemporary authority, or a mere report or compilation of after days. He presents the story, but apparently without attaching any weight to it, that Swift and Stella were both natural chil- dren of Sir William Temple, and that the relationship was not discovered till after the alleged marriage. His own view of the mystery is best read in his summing-up at the close of his survey.
" One of the great sources of uneasiness being removed, it may be asked, if none of these causes already hinted at existed, why did not Swift now acknowledge* Esther Johnson as his wife, or marry her if not already legally bound to her? The answer to this question must ever be surmise or conjec- ture. We may, however, again refer to dates. It was now the year 1724;
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Swift was fifty-seven, and Stella forty-two years of age, and both in very precarious health: the force of habit, the coldness of Swift's temperament, per- haps indifference on the part of Stella when the cause of her anxiety was removed, and a feeling that as they had (if the story of the marriage be true) lived for so many years of their lives separate, and both past their days of youth, they should live on as before. The very mystery of their connexion, which had been so long preserved, both might now be unwilling to disclose."
Some early satirical poems or lampoons, ascribed to Swift, are printed in this volume. The evidence in favour of the authorship is little more than conjectural ; but the pieces have a resemblance to Swift's style. They are all juvenile or unfinished : some of them are imperfect, or printed so because of their coarseness : all are relics rather curious than in- teresting.
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