Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667 –only a handful of years after the end of Puritanical rule in England– to an English mother and an English father, who died of syphilis just before Jonathan was born, supposedly the disease was contracted while he was away from home sleeping in a pair of “dirty sheets.” Jonathan was an only child, raised by various friends and family members. His English lineage as well as Irish ethnicity together affected his sense of civic duty as he maintained a lifelong sympathy for the Irish struggle. His upbringing was of an upper-crust variety among Anglo-Irish ruling class. He attended Kilkenny School from 1674-1682 and then Trinity College in Dublin from 1682-1686.
In 1689, Swift moved to England to reside at Moor Park in Surrey where he served as secretary to its owner, Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat who had pretensions…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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