ABSTRACT
Swift understood the injunction, ‘He that hath friends must show himself friendly.’ For someone traditionally identified with misanthropy, he kept a startling variety of loyal intimates. If the dean plumed himself on his familiarity with magnates like Carteret, he never scrupled to pass his leisure hours with humbler companions, so long as they were intelligent, polite, honest, and in some way serviceable. The nearest and most obliging people he saw were of course parsons, especially those connected with the cathedral; for he dealt with them constantly in the routines of his work, and they had reason to think he might speed their careers. Though Swift could be playful and commanding by turns, he seldom expected too much of those he liked; and he repaid their good nature with hospitality, wit, and strenuous efforts to win them preferment.
