[70] This character, intended to enliven the solemnity of public acts, appears to have been borrowed from the precedent of Oxford. In a curious book intitled _Terræ Filius_ (London, 1726), which consists of a series of satires upon that University, the anonymous author says--“It has, till of late, been a custom, from time immemorial, for one of our family to mount the Rostrum at Oxford at certain seasons [during the Acts of the Term], and divert an innumerable crowd of spectators, who flocked to hear him from all parts, with a merry oration, interspersed with secret history, raillery, and sarcasm.... Several indignities having been offered to the grave fathers of the University, they said to one another--‘Gentlemen, these are no jests; if we suffer this, we shall become the sport of freshmen and servitors. Let us expel him.’ And, accordingly, _Terræ Filius_ was expelled during almost every Act.” And again (p. xi.)--“Though it has, of late years, been thought expedient to lay aside the solemnity of a _Publick Act_, and it is very uncertain when _Terræ Filius_ will be able to regain his antient privileges.” There is a frontispiece to the book, signed W. Hogarth, which represents an enraged Don tearing in pieces the libel of the _Terræ Filius_, who is in the middle of an excited crowd of collegians and ladies. The author speaks of the seditious spirit of Oxford in the very way that the spirit of Dublin is censured at the same time; and just as the _Terræ Filius_ of Oxford had been censured and persecuted when his jests became libellous, so in Swift’s day, just before the Centenary time, one Jones, an intimate of Swift’s, had been deprived of his degrees for a satire, which Barrett has published as possibly composed by Swift to aid his friend.--_Cf._ Barrett’s _Early Life of Swift_ (London, 1808). The heads at Oxford, holding public acts in 1712, stopt the mouth of the _Terræ Filius_ (who is called a _statutable_ orator at this solemnity), having intelligence that he designed to utter something in derogation of the Reverend Mr. Vice-Chancellor, _op_. _cit_. p. 100. This is probably the affair spoken of in J. C. Jeaffreson’s _Annals of Oxford_, ii. 224, but referred to the year 1713. Mr. Jeaffreson has a whole chapter on the subject. [71] I owe to the kindness of Mr. J. R. Garstin my knowledge of this rare tract, of which the title-page is reproduced on page 52; the bidding prayer is given on page 10. A passage which smacks of the 17th century is as follows. The preacher is arguing that Learning can amply satisfy all the aspirations and desires of human nature. He concludes--“Lastly, what Raptures can the _Voluptuous_ man fancy, to which those of _Learning_ and _Knowledge_ are not equal? If he can relish nothing but the pleasures of his _Senses, Natural Philosophy_ exposes the _beautiful bosome_ of the _Universe_, admits him into _Nature’s_ garden, &c.”