After his death, his letters were published; and in the private history which they unfold, he appears, notwithstanding all his follies, in the light of a tender husband and of an amiable and unselfish man.  He had principle, but he lacked resolution; and the wild, vacillating character of his life is mirrored in his writings, where The Christian Hero stands in singular contrast to the comic personages of his dramas.  He was a genial critic.  His exuberant wit and humor reproved without wounding; he was not severe enough to be a public censor, nor pedantic enough to be the pedagogue of an age which often needed the lash rather than the gentle reproof, and upon which a merciful clemency lost its end if not its praises.  He deserves credit for an attempt, however feeble, to reward virtue upon the stage, after the wholesale rewards which vice had reaped in the age of Charles II.

Steele has been overshadowed, in his connection with Addison, by the more dignified and consistent career, the greater social respectability, and the more elegant and scholarly style of his friend; and yet in much that they jointly accomplished, the merit of Steele is really as great, and conduces much to the reputation of Addison.  The one husbanded and cherished his fame; the other flung it away or lavished it upon his colleagues.  As contributors to history, they claim an equal share of our gratitude and praise.

JONATHAN SWIFT.—­The grandfather of Swift was vicar of Goodrich, in Herefordshire.  His father and mother were both English, but he was born in Dublin, in the year 1667.  A posthumous child, he came into the world seven months after his father’s death.  From his earliest youth, he deplored the circumstances among which his lot had been cast.  He was dependent upon his uncle, Godwin Swift, himself a poor man; but was not grateful for his assistance, always saying that his uncle had given him the education of a dog.  At the University of Dublin, where he was entered, he did not bear a good character:  he was frequently absent from his duties and negligent of his studies; and although he read history and poetry, he was considered stupid as well as idle.  He was more than once admonished and suspended, but at length received his degree, Speciali gratia; which special act of grace implied that he had not fairly earned it.  Piqued by this, he set to work in real earnest, and is said to have studied eight hours a day for eight years.  Thus, from an idle and unsuccessful collegian, he became a man of considerable learning and a powerful writer.

He was a distant connection of Sir William Temple, through Lady Temple; and he went, by his mother’s advice, to live with that distinguished man at his seat, Shene, in Moor Park, as private secretary.