And we see Stella setting out on and returning from her ride, with her riband
and mask: "Ah, that riding to Laracor gives me short sighs as well as you,"
he says; "all the days I have passed here have been dirt to those."

If the Journal shows us some of Swift's less attractive qualities, it shows
still more how great a store of humour, tenderness, and affection there was in
him. In these letters we see his very soul; in his literary work we are
seldom moved to anything but admiration of his wit and genius. Such daily
outpourings could never have been written for publication, they were meant
only for one who understood him perfectly; and everything that we know of
Stella--her kindliness, her wit, her vivacity, her loyalty--shows that she was
worthy of the confidence.

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JOURNAL TO STELLA


LETTER 1.[1]

CHESTER, Sept. 2, 1710.

Joe[2] will give you an account of me till I got into the boat; after which
the rogues made a new bargain, and forced me to give them two crowns, and
talked as if we should not be able to overtake any ship: but in half an hour
we got to the yacht; for the ships lay by [to] wait for my Lord Lieutenant's
steward. We made our voyage in fifteen hours just. Last night I came to this
town, and shall leave it, I believe, on Monday. The first man I met in