Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 30, 1667. He was, or was alleged to be, the posthumous child of Jonathan Swift, a minor law official of the Kings Inn, Dublin, and his wife, Abigail Erick. His childhood was in some ways unusualas a year-old baby he was brought to England, while his mother remained in Ireland, and when he was brought back to Ireland a year or two later, his mother returned to England, leaving young Jonathan to be raised by his uncle Godwin Swift. Though his parents were poor, young Jonathan was given the best education that could be had in Ireland. His uncle Godwin paid for him to attend Kilkenny Grammar School and later Trinity College, yet Swift later said of him that He gave me the education of a dog. Any study of Swifts life will show several such mysteries, many of which have never been explained. At age fourteen in 1682, young Jonathan entered Trinity College in Dublin. It was the only university in Ireland, with a few hundred students, most in training to become clergymen. Swift did not like the provost, and read more history and poetry than his formal studies. Graduating in 1685, when he was eighteen, Swift obtained his bachelor of arts degree only by a special concession. He stayed on for a year, intending to obtain his masters degree, but the civil war in England seemed likely to spread to Ireland, and Swift left for England, where he visited his mother. ...