July 27. 1830
Thelwall — Swift — 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.