upon so unhappy a foot as the clergy of England. The use of ' foot,' for which custom has now substituted 'footing,' is common in Swift's writings. The description of the degraded position of the clergy at the close of the 17th century, given by Lord Macaulay (ch. iii. of History) , is well known. Macaulay has drawn many of his most telling strokes from Eachard's Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion inquired into, which was published in 1670, and attracted much attention at the time. Swift seems not to have been ill-disposed towards Eachard's book, and in the Apology for the Tale of a Tub he speaks of Eachard having, by taking notice of them, kept alive the memory of his answerers, which would otherwise have perished. But the tone of the book is scarcety that which suited Swift. Eachard attributes much of the contempt of the clergy to their education upon old-fashioned lines ; and the effect of his book is rather to prove that the general contempt was deserved, than that the age was blind to merit. Eachard's book is addressed to R. L., probably Roger L'Estrange, and this would not naturally earn for it Swift's good-will.