rift in their friendship perhaps has deeper roots than differences
of opinion over particular political issues. ¹ One is struck, too,
by the fact that the friendship of these writers of talent failed
to produce literary fruits of any real consequence--a fact which
is perhaps only accidental but which may be indicative of differ-
ing interests and talents. Is it possible, then, that underlying
the surface of their clash over politics are fundamental differ-
ences in taste, temperament, and intellectual outlook? The present
chapter will explore this possibility, first by taking stock of their
literary relations and then by comparing their attitudes toward
three significant intellectual issues: the role of experimental
science, the question of the benevolist versus the egoistic view
of man, and the corollary problem involving a tendency to
"soften" the doctrine of original sin. These areas of comparison
are far from exhaustive, but they will serve at least to provide
a context of contrasting intellectual and literary traditions.
Within such a context a study of their specific personal and
political relations becomes more meaningful, and their under-
lying differences emerge as symptomatic of basic trends in the
morality of the age.

For two years before Swift's shift of political allegiance in 1710,
he was welcomed into a circle of Whig literary figures dominated
by Addison and Steele. This was a period of close friendship and
frequent association for the three men, and Swift's life in these
years has even been described as that of a Whig wit. We might
therefore expect that the literary productions of the "trium-
virate"--it is Swift's own term--would give evidence of a set of
common interests, of a community of taste. But in both extent
and character the literary connections among the three friends
fall surprisingly short of anything approaching "collaboration."
Though each of the works will be given detailed consideration
in subsequent chapters, it is worth taking a brief survey at this
point of all the literary points of contact among Swift, Steele,
and Addison.

The conversation of Swift and Addison during the early
stages of their intimacy must have turned often to literary figures
and ideas, but the only evidence of this mutual interest is

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