tag 



SWEET WILLIAM SWIFT. 



mail's, tin- culture u very cosy, niul (hey urc ob- 

 tained almost throughout (he year, by planting at 

 different periods. In northern elimatcs, the culture 

 becomes more difficult : but one variety succeeds even 

 in the vicinity of Paris. Considered as an aliment 

 the sweet potato is very nutritious, wholesome, 

 and easy of digestion. The consumption is very 

 considerable, especially in the warmer parts of Ame- 

 rica, where even several savage tribes have intro- 

 duced it, on account of i(s easy culture 



SWEET WILLIAM(rfin//iHsAaria*Ms). This 

 species of pink is an old inhabitant of the flower gar- 

 den, and has produced numerous varieties ; but they 

 have not been named or improved, as the plant bus 

 never been treated by florists as a leading flower. 



SWEYN, OR SWENO, properly SVEND. See 

 Denmark and Ethelred II. 



SWIETEN, GERARD VAN, a celebrated physi- 

 t-ian, born at Leyden, in 1700. After studying at 

 Louvain, his parents being Catholics, he returned 

 to Leyden, and became the pupil of Boerhaave. In 

 1725, he took his doctor's degree, and published 

 an inaugural thesis on the Structure and Use of the 

 Arteries. He afterwards employed himself in illus- 

 trating the doctrines of his master, in his Commen- 

 taria in Boerhaavii Aphorisniis de cognosccndis et 

 curandis Morbis (1741 1772). Soon after, he 

 was appointed to a medical professorship at Leyden ; 

 but objections arising on the score of his religion, 

 he was obliged to resign his office. The empress 

 Maria Theresa indemnified him for the injury he 

 had sustained from the illiberality of his enemies, 

 by inviting him to Vienna, where, in 1745, he was 

 made a professor in the university, and afterwards 

 first physician to the empress, and- a baron of the 

 empire. He was also imperial librarian, and direc- 

 tor general of the study of medicine in Austria an 

 office which afforded him opportunities for intro- 

 ducing many important improvements in the healing 

 art. His Commentaries were reprinted at Paris and 

 Turin, and they have been translated into French 

 and English. He enjoyed the highest reputation till 

 his death, in 1772. His other works are Treatises 

 on the Diseases of the Army, and on Epidemics. 



SWIFT, JONATHAN, an eminent English writer, 

 was the posthumous son of an Englishman, who 

 settled in Ireland, and was born at Cashel, in the 

 county of Tipperary, Nov. 30, 1667. He was 

 placed at a school in Kilkenny when six years old, 

 and in his fifteenth year was removed to Trinity 

 College, Dublin, where, applying himself to history 

 and poetry, to the neglect of academical pursuits, 

 especially mathematics, he was, at the end of four 

 years, refused the degree of B. A. for insufficiency, 

 and, even at the end of seven years, was only ad- 

 mitted spedali gratid a species of favour which 

 was deemed highly discreditable. To this mortifi- 

 cation is attributed the contempt with which he 

 treats mathematical learning in his various writings ; 

 but another and a better effect of it was evinced in 

 a resolution to apply to his studies with more dili- 

 gence. This determination he steadily adhered to 

 for the following seven years, three of which he 

 spent at the university of Dublin, during which last 

 mentioned period he is said to have composed his 

 celebrated Tale of a Tub. In his twenty-first year, 

 the death of his uncle rendered it necessary for him 

 to pay a visit to Leicester, for the purpose of con- 

 sulting his mother, then resident in that nighbour- 

 hood. By her advice he was induced (o communi- 

 cate his situation to Sir WillianvTemple,-who had 

 married one of her relatives, and who at (hat time 



lived in retirement ;u Moor 1'aik, Surrey. He wa 

 received by the latter with great kindness ; and he 

 rendered himself so accep(able to the aged stales-- 

 man, that he resided with him at Moor Park and 

 Sheene for nearly two years. At (he latter place 

 he was introduced to king William, who often vi- 

 sited Temple privately ; and (he king, whose feel- 

 ings were all military, offered him a cap(aiin-\ <>f 

 horse, which, having already decided for the church, 

 he declined. Being attacked by the disorder wliidi 

 occasioned those fits of vertigo (hat afflicted him 

 more or less all his life, and finally destroyed his 

 reason, he was induced to revisit Ireland, but soon 

 returned, and resided with Sir William Temple as 

 before. Some time after, he determined upon gra- 

 duating M. A. at Oxford; and, having entered at. 

 Ilait liall, in May, 1G92, he received the desired 

 honour in the July following. He was probably 

 indebted to his known connexion with Temple for 

 this mark of respect ; but it has also been suspected 

 that the words spedali gratid, in his Dublin tc*ti- 

 monials, were mistaken for a compliment at Ox- 

 ford. He had certainly not distinguished himself 

 at this time by any public specimen of talent, al- 

 though he made some attempts at poetry in the 

 form of odes to his patron and king William. This 

 species of composition being wholly unfitted to his 

 genius, his relation Dryden is said honestly to have 

 told him that he would never be a poet ; tc 

 which is attributed the extraordinary rancour with 

 which he always alluded to that eminent writer. 

 After residing two years longer with his patron, 

 conceiving the latter to be neglectful of his inter- 

 est, he parted from him in 1694, with some tokens 

 of displeasure, and went to Ireland, where he took 

 orders. But he soon returned to Sir William 

 Temple, who, sinking under age and infirmities, 

 required his company more than ever. During the 

 few remaining years of that statesman's life, they 

 therefore remained together; and, on his death, 

 Swift found himself benefitted by a pecuniary legacy 

 and the bequest of his papers. He then accepted 

 an invitation from the earl of Berkeley, one of the 

 lords justices in Ireland, to accompany him as 

 chaplain and secretary. While in the family of 

 the earl of Berkeley, he began to make himself 

 known by his talent for humorous verses, as may 

 be seen by the petition of Francis Harris, and other 

 specimens. On the return of that nobleman to 

 England, he went to reside at his living of Laracor; 

 and, during his residence there, he invited to Ire- 

 land Miss Johnson, the lady whom he has rendered 

 celebrated by the name of Stella, daughter of the 

 steward to Sir William Temple. She was accom- 

 panied by Mrs Dingley ; and the two ladies 

 resided in the neighbourhood when Swift was at 

 home, and at the parsonage house during his ab- 

 sence : this connexion lasted till her death. In 

 1701, he took his doctor's degree, and, the same 

 year, first entered on the stage as a political writer, 

 by a pamphlet in behalf of the ministers, entitled 

 Contests and Dissentions between the Nobles and 

 Commons of Athens and Rome a work of no great 

 force. In 1704, he published, anonymously, his famous 

 Tale of a Tub, of which, although he would never 

 own it, he is the undoubted author. This piece 

 of humour, while it advanced his reputation as a wit, 

 did him no small injury as a divine, being deemed 

 light and indecorous by the functionaries of the 

 church. The Battle of the Books, appended to 

 the Tale of a Tub, is a burlesque comparison be- 

 tween ancient and modern authors, in which 



