Thelwall, Swift, and Stella

John Thelwall had something very good about him. We were once sitting in a / beautiful recess in the Quantocks, when I said to him, "Citizen John, this / is a fine place to talk treason in! " -- "Nay! Citizen Samuel," replied he, / "it is rather a place to make a man forget that there is any necessity for / treason!"

Thelwall thought it very unfair to influence a child's mind by inculcating / any opinions before it should have come to years of discretion, and be able / to choose for itself. I showed him my garden, and told him it was my / botanical garden. "How so? " said he, "it is covered with weeds. " -- "Oh," I / replied, "_that_ is only because it has not yet come to its age of / discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, / and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil towards roses and / strawberries."

I think Swift adopted the name of Stella, which is a man's name, with a / feminine termination, to denote the mysterious epicene relation in which / poor Miss Johnston stood to him.