Author: Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667, and at the age of 6 went to Kilkenny school, then the best in Ireland. At 14 he was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating B.A. four years later. In 1688 he became Secretary to Sir William Temple at Moor Park, and there came in touch with many prominent politicians and even with the King. His post, however, seemed to offer no prospect of advancement, and in 1694 he left Temple, and returning to Ireland entered Holy Orders and was presented to the Prebend of Kilroot in County Antrim. In 1696 he went back to Moor Park, and remained there till Temple's death in 1699. Later he was presented to the living of Laracor, near Trim. In 1701 he graduated D.D. at Dublin, and in 1704 published anonymously A Tale of a Tub with The Battle of the Books-the former being a brilliant satire on Roman Catholics and on Calvinists. As a Tory pamphleteer he was of great service to the Government, but though he hoped for an English bishopric in reward, he was given only the Irish Deanery of St. Patrick. Feeling himself an exile, he lived in Ireland till his death, after four years of insanity, in 1745. Despite the disappointment of his hopes, he took up the cause of Ireland with vigour, and made himself the idol of the country by his Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures and The Letters of M. B. Drapier. The Drapier's Letters, as they are generally called, dealt with a current plan for coining copper in Ireland, for which a patent had been granted to a Birmingham tradesman. The Irish detested the scheme because they had no say in it, and Swift, taking their point of view, won a victory for Ireland and woke the dormant spirit of nationality. Though becoming more and more misanthropic and morbid, Swift continued to do his best to improve the miserable conditions of the Irish people, and devoted a third of his means to charity. The bulk of his fortune was left to found a hospital for the insane. Swift has been called the earliest and greatest of journalists and the prince of leader-writers. Gulliver's Travels is by far his most famous work. It consists of four parts, the first two, which form this volume, being the most popular. The book was written as a satire, and the satire grows more bitter as it proceeds, but generations have loved to read A Voyage to Lilliput and A Voyage to Brobdingnag as delightful stories which, in their way, have never been equalled.
