Excerpt from The Choice Works of Dean Swift: In Prose and Verse; Carefully Reprinted From the Original Editions
In the records of distinguished men who have done honour to their country, no name has been more a mark for slander and calumny, no career has been more misunderstood and misrepresented by prejudice and party rancour, than that of Jonathan Swift. Respecting the place of his birth, the events of his college career, his residence with Sir William Temple, his relations with two beautiful and accomplished women, the sincerity of his political and religious creed, and of his warmest personal friendships, charges and imputations have been preferred against him by successive biographers, critics, and gossip-mongers, as baseless and unfounded as they are at variance with each other. The ill-disguised contempt of Johnson, the more rancorous hatred of Jeffrey, and, later on, the brilliant but misplaced sarcasm and invective of Thackeray, have so far disguised for us the features of one of the noblest Englishmen of the last two centuries, that they have become scarcely recognizable.
The honest, if somewhat quaint, narrative of his life by Thomas Sheridan, the son of one of Swifts most cherished and talented personal friends, may therefore - shorn of a little of its garrulity - be reverted to with advantage, as in the main a trustworthy version of that touching and romantic story of the struggles, sorrows, and disappointments of genius.
After all, however, the best commentary on Swifts life are his own letters and journals and occasional poems - and indeed, more or less, the whole body of his writings.
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