It was after the death of these two amiable women, who had deserved so much from him, and whose enduring tenderness had flung round his odious life and character their only redeeming charm of sentiment and interest, that the native grossness and rancour of this incarnate spirit of libel burst forth with tenfold virulence.[123] He showed how true had been his love and his respect for _them_, by insulting and reviling, in terms a scavenger would disavow, the sex they belonged to. Swift's master-passion was pride,--an unconquerable, all-engrossing, self-revolving pride: he was proud of his vigorous intellect, proud of being the "dread and hate of half mankind,"--proud of his contempt for women,--proud of his tremendous powers of invective. It was his boast, that he never forgave an injury; it was his boast, that the ferocious and unsparing personal satire with which he avenged himself on those who offended him, had never been softened by the repentance, or averted by the concessions of the offender. Look at him in his last years, when the cold earth was heaped over those who would have cheered and soothed his dark and stormy spirit; without a friend--deprived of the mighty powers he had abused--alternately a drivelling idiot and a furious maniac, and sinking from both into a helpless, hopeless, prostrate lethargy of body and mind!--Draw,--draw the curtain, in reverence to the human ruin, lest our woman's hearts be tempted to unwomanly exultation! FOOTNOTES: [107] As Swift said truly and wittily of himself: As when a lofty pile is raised, We never hear the workmen praised, Who bring the lime or place the stones, But all admire Inigo Jones; So if this pile of scattered rhymes Should be approved in after-times, If it both pleases and endures, The merit and the praise are yours! _Verses to Stella._ [108] Sheridan's Life of Swift. [109] Dr. Johnson, who allows Stella to have been "virtuous, beautiful, and elegant," says she could not spell her own language: in those days few women _could_ spell accurately. [110] See her Letters. [111] See some very poor verses found in Miss Vanhomrigh's desk, and inserted in his poems, vol. x, p. 14. [112] "The Author on himself," (Swift's poems.) [113] Sheridan's Life of Swift, p. 316. [114] How pertinaciously Swift adhered to these conditions, is proved by the fact, that after the ceremony, he never saw her alone; and that several years after, when she was in a dangerous state of health, and he was writing to a friend about providing for her comforts, he desires "that she might not be brought to the Deanery-house on any account, as it was a very improper place for her to breathe her last in."--_Sheridan's Life_, p. 356.