the superiority of ancient or modern learning, in which his patron had taken an anxious share, and had experienced some rough treatment from Wotton. This controversy, with other foolish fashions, had passed to England from France, where Fontenelle and Perrault had first ventured to assert the cause of the moderns. Upon its merits it may be sufficient to observe, that the field of comparison is infinitely too wide to admit of precise parallels, or of accurate reasoning. In works of poetry and imagination, the precedence may be decidedly allotted to the ancients, owing to the superior beauties of their language, and because they were the first to employ these general and obvious funds of illustration, which can appear original in those only by whom they were first used. On the other hand, in physical science, which necessarily is gradually enlarging its bounds, both by painful research and casual discovery, and in ethics, where the moderns enjoy the advantages of a pure religion and more free polity, it seems that they have far outshone their predecessors. But there is an ardour in literary controversy which does not rest contented with a drawn-battle. The arguments in favour of the moderns were adopted in England by Mr Wotton in his Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, and indignantly combated by Sir William Temple in his treatise on the same subject. Among other works of the ancients on which he founded the plea of their

pre-eminence, Temple unhappily referred to the Epistles of Phalaris, now generally regarded as spurious, but which he pronounced to exhibit "such diversity of passion, such freedom of thought, such knowledge of life and contempt of death, as breathed in every line the tyrant and the commander." Wotton replied to this treatise, and was seconded by the learned Bentley, who had the double motive of detecting the spurious Pha-. laris, and of vindicating himself from the charge of incivility, respecting the loan of a manuscript from the king's library to the Honourable Mr Boyle, then engaged in an edition of the Epistles. This gave occasion to the treatise called Boyle against Bentley, and to the reply of that profound scholar, known by the name of Bentley against Boyle. Swift felt doubly interested in this dispute, first, on account of the share his pa tron had in the controversy, and secondly, because the literati of Oxford, with whose conduct towards him he had been so highly satisfied, were united against Bentley, and in the cause of his antagonist. The Battle of the Books was the consequence of Swift's interest in behalf of Sir William Temple, and it was probably shewn and handed about in manuscript during his lifetime, although it was not printed until some years afterwards. The idea is taken from Coutray's "Histoire Poetique de la Guerre novellement declarée entre les anciens et les modernes," a spirit

ed poem, divided into eleven books, inferior to Swift's work in personal satire and raciness of humour, but strongly resembling the Battle of the Books in the plan and management of the literary warfare. About the same time, Swift appears to have revised and completed his Tale of a Tub, one of his most remarkable productions. The preliminary advertisements of the bookseller in 1704, mention, that both these treatises appear to have been arranged for publication in 1697, the last year of Sir William Temple's life; there is, therefore, reason to believe that his death prevented their being then given to the world.

During this period, Swift's muse did not remain entirely idle. The following nervous verses on the burning of Whitehall, occur in his hand-writing, and with his corrections, among the papers of Mr Lyons. It is remarkable, that while the first couplet breathes that zeal for the property of the church, which afterwards dictated so many of Swift's publications, the tenor of the whole is completely in unison with revolution principles, and perhaps they are more violently expressed respecting the execution of Charles the First, than would have received the applause of many determined Whigs. The rough satirical force of the lines somewhat resembles the poetry of Churchill.

ON THE BURNING OF WHITEHALL, IN 1697.*

This pile was raised by Wolsey's impious hands,
Built with the church's patrimonial lands.
Here bloody Henry kept his cruel court,

Hence sprung the martyrdoms of every sort.
Weak Edward here, and Mary the bigot,
Did both their holy innovations plot.

A fiercer Tudor filled the churchman's seat
In all her father's attributes complete.
Dudley's lewd life doth the white mansion stain
And a slain guest obscures a glorious reign +.
Then Northern James dishonoured every room
With filth and palliardisme brought from home 1.
Next the French consort dignified the stews,
Employing males to their first proper use.
A bold usurper next did domineer,

Whirl'd hence by th' angry demons of the air.
When saunt'ring Charles returned, a fulsome crew
Of parasites, buffoons, he with him drew;
Nay worse than these fill the polluted hall,
Bawds, pimps, and panders, the detested squaul
Of riots, fancy'd rapes, the devil and all .

* Such is the date upon the manuscript. But Whitehall was burned in April 1690-1; the date therefore must be that of the year in which the verses were composed, not that in which the accident took place.

+ Beheading of Queen Mary.

After this a line scratched out,

And here did under the black plaster groan.

Originally thus:

Of spurious brats abhorr'd by all.

This pious prince here too did breathe his last,
His certain death on different persons cast.
His wise successor brought a motley throng,
Despising right, strongly protecting wrong;
To these assistant herds of preaching cowls
And troops of noisy senseless fighting fools.
Guerdon for this: he heard the dread command
"Embark and leave your crown and native land."
He gone, the rank infection still remains,
Which to repel requires eternal pains.
No force to cleanse it can a river draw,
Nor Hercules could do't, nor great Nassau.
Most greedy financiers, and lavish too,
Swarm in, in spite of all that prince could do,
Projectors, peculats, the palace hold,
Patriots exchanging liberty for gold,

Monsters unknown to this blest land of old.
Heaven takes the cure in hand, celestial ire
Applies the oft-tried remedy of fire;

The purging flames were better far employ'd,

Than when old Sodom was, or Troynovant destroy'd.

The nest obscene of every pampered vice,

Sinks down of this infernal paradise,

Down come the lofty roofs, the cedar burns,

The blended metal to a torrent turns.

The carvings crackle and the marbles rive,
The paintings shrink, vainly the Henries strive
Propt by great Holbein's pencil, down they fall,
The fiery deluge sweeps and swallows all.

But mark how Providence, with watchful care,
Did Inigo's famed building spare,

*The Banqueting-house, built upon a plan by the celebrated Inigo Jones, alone escaped the conflagration. It is unnecessary to add, that in front of this structure Charles I. was beheaded.