without taking any degree; had obtained an ensign’s commission after dedicating to Lord Cutts a poem on Queen Mary’s death; and had written a little book called “The Christian Hero,” designed “to fix upon his own mind a strong impression of virtue and religion, in opposition to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable pleasures.”  At the close of the same year (1701) he brought out a successful comedy, “The Funeral,” which was followed by “The Lying Lover” and “The Tender Husband,” plays which gave strong evidence of the influence of Jeremy Collier’s attack on the immorality of the stage.  “The Tender Husband” owed “many applauded strokes” to Addison, to whom it was dedicated by Steele, who wished “to show the esteem I have for you, and that I look upon my intimacy with you as one of the most valuable enjoyments of my life.”  In 1705 Steele married a lady with property in Barbados, and on her death married, in 1707, Mary Scurlock, the “dear Prue” to whom he addressed his well-known letters.  For the rest, he had been made gentleman-waiter to Prince George of Denmark, and appointed Gazetteer, with a salary of L300, less a tax of L45 a year.  He was disappointed in his hopes of obtaining the Under-Secretaryship vacated by Addison.

From 1705 onwards there is evidence of frequent and familiar intercourse between Swift and Addison and Steele.  After Sir William Temple’s death, Swift had become chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, who gave him the living of Laracor; and during a visit to England in 1704 he had gained a position in the front rank of authors by the “Tale of a Tub” and the “Battle of the Books.”  At the close of 1707 he was again in England, charged with a mission to obtain for the Irish clergy the remission of First Fruits and Tenths already conceded to the English, and throughout 1708 what he calls “the triumvirate of Addison, Steele and me” were in constant communication.  In that year Swift published a pamphlet called “A Project for the Advancement of Religion and the Reformation of Manners,” which anticipated many of the arguments used in the Tatler and Spectator; and he also commenced his attack on John Partridge, quack doctor and maker of astrological almanacs.  On the appearance of Partridge’s “Merlinus Liberatus” for 1708, Swift—­borrowing a name from the signboard of a shoemaker—­published “Predictions for the year 1708, wherein the month and day of the month are set down, the persons named, and the great actions and events of next year particularly related, as they will come to pass.  Written to prevent the people of England from being further imposed on by vulgar almanack-makers.  By Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.”  Isaac Bickerstaff professed to be a true astrologer, disgusted at the lies told by impostors, and he said that he was willing to be hooted at as a cheat if his prophecies were not exactly fulfilled.  His first prediction was that Partridge would die on the 29th of March; and on the 30th a second pamphlet