"'Robert, my dear,' said Jenny, with the deferential air of a scholar, 'Robert, what did Mr. Carraways mean when he said he hated dog—dogmatism?' Topps was puzzled. 'Robert, my dear,' Jenny urged, 'what—what in the world is dogmatism?' Now it was the weakness of Topps, never to confess ignorance of anything soever to his wife. 'A man should never do it,' Topps had been known in convivial seasons to declare; 'it makes 'em conceited.' Whereupon Topps prepared himself, as was his wont, to make solemn, satisfying, answer. Taking off his hat, and smoothing the wrinkles of his brow, Topps said, 'Humph! what is dogmatism? Why, it is this, of course: dogmatism is puppyism come to its full growth.'"
E D. STEANE JACKSON.
Saffron Walden, Aug. 10.
Was Stella Swift's Sister? (Vol. iii., p. 450.; Vol. iv., p. 110.).
—That Swift was the son of Sir William Temple seems to have been completely disproved by Mason. Swift was born in Dublin, 30th November, 1667, in the house of his uncle Godwin Swift, who, after the death of his younger brother, Jonathan, in the preceding April, took charge of his widow. Sir William Temple appears from his letters to have been abroad in a public capacity from 1665 to 1670. If therefore, there existed such consanguinity between Swift and Stella as to be a bar to their marriage, it must have arisen in some other way. Swift says that Stella "was born at Richmond in Surrey, on 13th March, 1681; her father being the younger brother of a good family in Nottinghamshire [Qy. Sir Wm. Temple? Sheen, where he resided, was close by], her mother of a lower degree." There can be little doubt that she was illegitimate. The question arises, who was her mother? On this point the Richmond registry might perhaps throw some light. Has it ever been searched? In order that the supposed consanguinity should have existed, her mother must have been either Swift's mother, Abigail Swift (née Erick) of Leicestershire, or (what seems more probable) an illegitimate half-sister of Swift. It has been surmised, however, that an impediment to Swift's marriage of an entirely different nature from consanguinity may have existed; or that, feeling himself to be labouring under an hereditary disease, he may have been unwilling to propagate it. I am much inclined to think that the objection to the marriage of Swift and Stella, which certainly must have existed, was of this last description; and that it would have been equally strong the case of any other female. However this may be, I believe that full credit may be given to what Swift has stated respecting the perfect purity of his intercourse with Stella.
"I knew her from six years old, and had some share in her education, by directing what books she should read, and perpetually instructing her in the principles of honour and virtue, from which she never swerved in any one action or moment of her life."—Swift's Works, vol ix. p. 489. (citante Mason).
E. H. D. D.
Charles Lamb's Epitaph (Vol. iii., pp. 322. 459.).
—It has been suggested to me by a lady who was an intimate friend of Lamb's, that Mr. Justice Talfourd was the author of this epitaph. The observation, however, was made without, I believe, any certain knowledge on the subject.
COWGILL.