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ADDISON 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 
 
 WITH NOTES BV 
 
 MARGARET A. EATON, A. B. 
 
 'K4i/ J o« . 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON 
 New York Chicago San Francisco 
 
THE LIBRARY OF 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 JUN. 6 1902 
 
 COPVRIOHT ENTRY 
 
 >fcASi=:5©Ca No. 
 COPY B. 
 
 COPTRIGHfED 
 By EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 1899. 
 
 ■ • ••,*•• • •••••• 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Probably no writer who ever lived has succeeded in pro- 
 ducing such scholarly, and at the same time such popular and 
 intensely interesting work, as Thomas Babington Macaulay. 
 Certainly his essays are the most brilliant series in the English 
 language. 
 
 Macaulay's father was a Scotchman who had lived for some 
 time in the West Indies and who, on his return to England, 
 had joined the anti-slavery party. Thomas, his eldest son, was 
 born at Rothley Temple, October 25, 1800. He was a remark- 
 able child, with a passion for reading and a wonderful memory. 
 He did not care for games nor for the companionship of boys of 
 his own age, but amused himself by writing hymns, essays, 
 poems and histories. At thirteen he wrote: — "The books 
 which I am at present employed in reading to myself are, in 
 English, Plutarch's " Lives," and Milner's " Ecclesiastical 
 History;" in French, Fenelon's " Dialogues of the Dead." I 
 shall send you back the volumes of Madam de Genlis's " Petit 
 Romans " as soon as possible, and should be very much 
 obliged for one or two more of them." 
 
 In 1818 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and soon 
 distinguished himself in literature and in debate. Mathematics 
 he hated and studied only under protest, but he read everything 
 from Plato to the latest novel. He could take in the contents 
 of a page almost at a glance and finish a whole book while 
 another was reading a chapter. What he read he never for- 
 got. He could repeat "Paradise Lost" by heart, and two 
 newspaper poems which he had once read in a Cambridge 
 coffee-house, he was able to reca,ll word for word forty years 
 later. 
 
iv. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 \Vhile at college he won the chancellor's medal for a poem 
 on " Pompeii," and, after taking his degree, was elected to z 
 fellowship. 
 
 Soon after he began to contribute to the magazines, and in 
 1825 his essay on Milton appeared in the Edinburgh Review. 
 At that time the reputation of Milton was under a cloud in 
 England owing to the influence of Johnson's life. This essay 
 of Macaulay's was not so much a critical estimate of the poet 
 as an eloquent appeal in his behalf. As such it had a wonder- 
 ful success and its author rapidly became famous. 
 
 In 1825 he was admitted to the bar, but his literary work 
 increased more rapidly than his law practice. Four years later, 
 however, he gave up both to enter Parliament. Here he made 
 many brilliant speeches and won renown as a debater. His 
 conversational powers, too, were remarkable. Everything that 
 he had ever read or heard he could recall on the instant, and 
 his fund of information was exhaustless. 
 
 In 1834 he was made president of a Law Commission for 
 India and for three years he lived in Calcutta where he obtained 
 much of the information which make his essays on Clive and 
 Warren Hastings so absorbingly interesting. 
 
 On his return to England he again entered Parliament and 
 became War Secretary in 1839. In spite of his many duties 
 he still found time to write essays, and in 1842 made a new 
 departure by publishing the " Lays of Ancient Rome." 
 
 Two years later, he entered upon his greatest work, the 
 "History of England from the Time of James II." His 
 avowed purpose was to write a book which should " supersede 
 the last fashionable novel on the tables of young ladies." And, 
 strange as it may seem, he succeeded. The volumes were 
 awaited with the greatest eagerness and the publishers could 
 hardly keep pace with the demand. 
 
 Only four volumes of this work were ever finished. 
 Macaulay's incessant labors had told upon his strength and he 
 died December 38, 1859, three years ^fter receiving the title of 
 
INTRODUCTION. V. 
 
 Baron. He was buried in Westminster Abbey near Johnson 
 and Addison. 
 
 Macaulay's chief characteristic was his intensity. He never 
 did anything by halves and it is this trait that often makes his 
 writings only partially true. His style well repays careful study, 
 for it is always clear and forceful and often full of glow and 
 eloquence. There is not a feeble line in all his work. "The 
 first rule of all writing," he has said, " that rule to which every 
 other is subordinate, is that the words U3ed ])y the writer shall 
 be such as most fully and precisely convey his meaning to the 
 great body of his readers." 
 
 List of Macaulay's Chief Works. 
 
 ESSAYS. 
 
 Milton, 1825. 
 
 The West Indies, 1825. 
 
 The London University, 1825. 
 
 Machiavelli, 1827. 
 
 Social and Industrial Capacities of Negroes, 1827. 
 
 John Dryden, 182S. 
 
 History, 1828. 
 
 Hallam's Constitutional History, 1828. 
 
 Mill on Government, 1829. 
 
 Utilitarian Theory of Government, 1829. 
 
 Southey's Colloquies on Society, 1830. 
 
 Civil Disabilities of the Jews, 1831. 
 
 Moore's Life of Byron, 1831. 
 
 Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1831. 
 
 Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden, 1831. 
 
 Rev. Edward Nare's Memoirs of Mirabeau, 1832. 
 
 Horace Walpole, 1833. 
 
 Earl of Chatham, 1834. 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh, 1835. 
 
 Lord Bacon, 1837. 
 
 Sir William Temple, 1838. 
 
VI. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Gladstone on Church and State, 1839. 
 
 Lord Clive, 1840. 
 
 Von Rouke, 1840. 
 
 Leigh Hunt, 1841. 
 
 Lord Holland, 1841. 
 
 Warren Hastings, 1 841. 
 
 Frederick the Great, 1 842. 
 
 Madam D'Arblay, 1843. 
 
 Addison, 1843. 
 
 Barrere, 1844. 
 
 Earl of Chatham, 1844. 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES (ENCYCLOPEDIA BRIITANICA.) 
 
 Frances Atterbury, 1853. 
 John Banyan, 1854. 
 Oliver Goldsmith, 1856. 
 Samuel Johnson, 1856. 
 William Pitt, 1859. 
 
 Lays of Ancient Rome, 1842. 
 
 History of England from the Accession of James 11., 1848. 
 
JOSEPH ADDISON 
 
THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 OF ADDISON. 
 
 Some reviewers are of opinion that a lady 
 who dares to pubHsh a book renounces by that 
 act the franchises appertaining to her sex, and 
 can claim no exemption from the utmost rigor 
 of critical procedure. From that opinion we 5 
 dissent. We admit, indeed, that, in a country 
 which boasts of many female writers eminently 
 qualified by their talents and acquirements to 
 influence the public mind, it would be of most 
 pernicious consequence that inaccurate history 10 
 or unsound philosophy should be suffered to 
 pass uncensured, merely because the offender 
 chanced to be a lady. But we conceive that, 
 on such occasions, a critic would do well to 
 imitate the courteous knight who found him- 1.:, 
 self compelled by duty to keep the lists against 
 Bradamante. He, we are told, defended suc- 
 cessfully the cause of which he was the 
 champion, but, before the fight began, ex- 
 
 17. Bradamante. A lady knight-errant in Ariosto's " Orlando Furioso," 
 XLV. The courteous knight was Ruggiero. 
 
 7 
 
8 ADDISON. 
 
 changed Balisarda for a less deadly sword, 
 of which he carefully blunted the point and 
 edge. 
 
 Nor are the immunities of sex the only 
 5 immunities which Miss Aikin may rightfully 
 plead. Several of her works, and especially 
 the very pleasing " Memoirs of the Court of 
 King James I.," have fully entitled her to the 
 privileges enjoyed by good writers. One of 
 
 10 those privileges we hold to be this: that such 
 writers, when, either from the imlucky choice 
 of a subject or from the indolence too often 
 produced by success, they happen to fail, shall 
 not be subjected to the severe discipline which 
 
 15 it is sometimes necessary to inflict upon dunces 
 and imposters, but shall merely be reminded 
 by a gentle touch, like that with which the 
 Laputan flapper roused his dreaming lord, 
 that it is high time to wake. 
 
 20 Our readers will probably infer from what 
 we have said that Miss Aikin's book has 
 disappointed us. The truth is, that she is not 
 
 I. Balisarda. Ruggiero's enchanted sword which could cut through 
 any substance. 
 
 5. Miss Lucy Aikin, (1781-1864.) A well-known critic and compiler. 
 It is her " Life of Joseph Addison" that Macaulay is reviewing in this 
 essay. 
 
 18. Laputan flapper. In Dean Swift's story of " Gulliver's Travels," 
 the hero visits the country of Lapiita where the inhabitants are so absent- 
 minded that they have to be attended by a servant whose business it is to 
 flap them with a bladder to keep their attention aroused. 
 
ADDISON. 9 
 
 well acquainted with her subject. No person 
 who is not familiar with the political and 
 literary history of England during the reigns 
 of William III., of Anne, and of George I., can 
 possibly write a good life of Addison. Now, s 
 we mean no reproach to Miss Aikin, and many 
 will think that we pay her a compliment, when 
 we say that her studies have taken a different 
 direction. . She is better acquainted with Shake- 
 speare and Raleigh than with Congreve andio 
 Prior, and is far more at home among the ruffs 
 and peaked beards of Theobald's than among 
 the Steenkirks and flowing periwigs which 
 surrounded Queen Anne's tea table at Hamp- 
 ton. She seems to have written about the 15 
 Elizabethan age, because she had read much 
 about it; she seems, on the other hand, to 
 have read a little about the age of Addison, 
 because she had determined to write about it. 
 The consequence is, that she has had to 20 
 
 10. Sir Walter Raleigh, (1552-1618.'^ Noted as a statesman, explorer 
 and author as well as for his chivalry to Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 10. Congreve and Prior. Both poets of the time of Addison. 
 
 12. Theobald's. The country seat of Cecil, Lord of Burleigh, the 
 famous minister of Queen Elizabeth. It was afterwards one of the 
 residences of James I. and the place of his death. 
 
 13. Steenkirks. At the battle of Steenkirks in Holland, when William 
 III. was defeated, the fine gentlemen of the court rode into the fight with 
 their cravats all disordered. After this it became the fashion to wear 
 loosely arranged cravats of lace called " Steenkirks." 
 
 14. Hampton Court. A palace on the Thames, built by Cardinal 
 Woisey and afterwards the favorite residence of many of the English 
 sovereigns. 
 
10 ADDISON. 
 
 describe men and things without having either 
 a correct or a vivid idea of them, and that she 
 has often fallen into errors of a very serious 
 kind. The reputation which Miss Aikin has 
 
 5 justly earned stands so high, and the charm of 
 Addison's letters is so great, that a second 
 edition of this work may probably be required. 
 If so, we hope that every paragraph will be 
 revised, and that every date and fact about 
 
 10 which there can be the smallest doubt will be 
 carefully verified. 
 
 To Addison himself we are bound by a 
 sentiment as much like affection as any senti- 
 ment can be which is inspired by one who has 
 
 15 been sleeping a hundred and twenty years in 
 Westminster Abbey. We trust, however, that 
 this feeling will not betray us into that abject 
 idolatry which we have often had occasion to 
 reprehend in others, and which seldom fails 
 
 20 to make both the idolator and the idol ridicu- 
 lous. A man of genius and virtue is but a 
 man. All his powers cannot be equally devel- 
 oped, nor can we expect from him perfect 
 self-knowledge. We need not, therefore, hesi- 
 
 23tate to admit that Addison has left us some 
 compositions which do not rise above medi- 
 ocrity, some heroic poems hardly equal to 
 
ADDISON. 1 1 
 
 Parnell's, some criticisms as superficial as Dr. 
 Blair's, and a tragedy not very much better 
 than Dr. Johnson's. It is praise enough to 
 say of a writer, that, in a high department of 
 literature in which many eminent writers haves 
 distinguished themselves, he has had no equal ; 
 and this may with strict justice be said of 
 Addison. 
 
 As a man he may not have deserved the 
 adoration which he received from those, who, lo 
 bewitched by his fascinating society, and in- 
 debted for all the comforts of life to his 
 generous and delicate friendship, worshipped 
 him nightly in his favorite temple at Button's. 
 But, after full inquiry and impartial reflec- 1^ 
 tion, we have long been convinced that he 
 deserved as much love and esteem as can be 
 justly claimed by any of our infirm and erring 
 race. Some blemishes may undoubtedly be 
 detected in his character; but the more care- 20 
 fully it is examined, the more will it appear, 
 
 1. Thomas Parnell, 1679-1717.) An Irish poet of Queen Anne's 
 reign. His best known poem is the " Hermit." 
 
 2. Dr. Blair, (1718-1800.) A Scotch preacher and professor of rhet- 
 oric at Edinburgh University. 
 
 3. Dr. Samuel Johnson, (1709-1784.) The foremost man of letters of 
 his time. The play referred to is his " Irene," which is here compared 
 with Addison's " Cato." 
 
 14. Button's. A celebrated London coffee-house in Queen Anne's 
 reign. These coffee-houses were virtually clubs where the wits and 
 scholars used to assemble for social intercourse. 
 
12 ADDISON. 
 
 to use the phrase of the old anatomists, sound 
 in the noble parts, free from all taint of perfidy, 
 of cowardice, of cruelty, of ingratitude, of envy. 
 Men may easily be named in whom some 
 
 5 particularly good disposition has been more 
 conspicuous than in Addison. But the just 
 harmony of qualities, the exact temper between 
 the stern and the humane virtues, the habitual 
 observance of every law, not only of moral 
 
 10 rectitude, but of moral grace and dignity, 
 distinguish him from all men who have been 
 tried by equally strong temptations, and about 
 whose conduct we possess equally full infor- 
 mation. 
 
 15 His father was the Rev. Lancelot Addison, 
 who, though eclipsed by his more celebrated 
 son, made some figure in the world, and 
 occupies with credit two folio pages in the 
 *' Biographia_Britaiiiiica.'' Lancelot was sent 
 
 20 up, as a poor scholar, from Westmoreland to 
 Queen's College, Oxford, in the time of the 
 Commonwealth, made some progress in learn- 
 ing, became, like most of his fellow students, 
 
 19. Biographia Brittanica. A series of short biographical sketches 
 published in London, 1747-1766. 
 
 21. Queen's College. So named in 1340 for Philippa, Que?n of 
 Edward III. 
 
 22. Commonwealth The period from 1649 to the Restoration in 1660, 
 established by Cromwell. 
 
ADDISON. 13 
 
 a violent Royalist, lampooned the heads of 
 the university, and was forced to ask pardon 
 on his bended knees. When he had left 
 college, he earned a humble subsistence by 
 reading the liturgy of the fallen church 5 
 to the families of those sturdy squires 
 whose manor houses were scattered over 
 the Wilds of Sussex. After the restora- 
 tion, his loyalty was rewarded with the post of 
 chaplain to the garrison of Dunkirk. When 10 
 Dunkirk was sold to France, he lost his 
 employment. But Tangier had been ceded 
 by Portugal to England as a part of the 
 marriage portion of the Infanta Catherine ; 
 and to Tangier, Lancelot Addison was sent. 15 
 A more miserable situation can hardly be con- 
 ceived. It was difficult to say whether the 
 unfortunate settlers were more tormented by 
 the heats, or by the rains ; by the soldiers 
 within the wall, or by the Moors without it. 20 
 One advantage the chaplain had. He enjoyed 
 
 5 Fallen church. The Episcopal, whose worship was forbidden under 
 Cromwell and replaced by the i^resbyterian. 
 
 8. "Wilds of Sussex This region was originally a forest and wild is 
 the A. S. weald, meaning forest. 
 
 10. Dunkirk. A fortified seaport in France on the Straits of Dover. 
 It was captured by Cromwell in 1658, but afterward sold to France by 
 Charles II. 
 
 12. Tangier. A port of Morocco on the Straits of Gibraltar. 
 
 14. Infanta. A name given to the Spanish princesses of the royal blood 
 with the exception of the eldest. 
 
14 ADDISON. 
 
 an excellent opportunity of studying the his- 
 tory and manners of Jews and Mohammedans; 
 and of this opportunity he appears to have made 
 excellent use. On his return to England, after 
 
 5 some years of banishment, he published an 
 interesting volume on the " Polity and Religion 
 of Barbary," and another on the " Hebrew 
 Customs and the State of Rabbinical Learning." 
 He rose to eminence in his profession, and 
 
 10 became one of the royal chaplains, a doctor of 
 divinity, Archdeacon of Salisbury, and Dean 
 of Lichfield. It is said that he would have 
 been made a bishop after the Revolution, if 
 he had not given offence to the government 
 
 15 by strenuously opposing, in the Convention 
 of 1689, the liberal policy of William and 
 Tillotson. 
 
 In 1672, not long after Dr. Addison's return 
 from Tangier, his son Joseph was born. Of 
 
 •20 Joseph's childhood we know little. He learned 
 his rudiments at schools in his father's neigh- 
 borhood, and was then sent to the Charter 
 House. The anecdotes which are popularly re- 
 lated about his boyish tricks do not harmonize 
 
 17. Tillotson. ''1630-1694.) A noted prelate cf the English church who 
 was made Archbishop of Canterbury by William III. 
 
 22. Charter House. A famous London school for boys founded for 
 the benefit of " the sons of poor gentlemen." Thackeray describes the 
 place in the " Newcomes." 
 
ADDISON. 15 
 
 very well with what we know of his riper years. 
 There remains a tradition that he was the ring- 
 leader in a barring-out, and another tradition 
 that he ran away from school, and hid himself 
 in a wood, where he fed on berries, and slept 5 
 in a hollow tree, till, after a long search, he 
 was discovered and brought home. If these 
 stories be true, it would be curious to know by 
 what moral discipline so mutinous and enter- 
 prising a lad was transformed into the gentlest 10 
 and most modest of men. 
 
 We have abundant proof, that, whatever 
 Joseph's pranks may have been, he pursued 
 his studies vigorously and successfully. At 
 fifteen he was not only fit for the university, but 15 
 carried thither a classical taste and a stock of 
 learning which would have done honor to a 
 master of arts. He was entered at Queen's 
 College, Oxford ; but he had not been many 
 months there when some of his Latin vevses2o 
 fell by accident into the hands of Dr. Lan- 
 caster, Dean of Magdalen College. The young 
 scholar's diction and versification were already 
 such as veteran professors might envy. Dr. 
 Lancaster was desirous to serve a boy of such 25 
 promise; nor was an opportunity long wanting. 
 
 3. Barring-out. An old custom of shutting the master out of the 
 school-room until he had conie to terms. 
 
lb ■ ADDISON. 
 
 The Revolution had just taken place, and no- 
 where had it been hailed with more delight 
 than at Magdalen College. That great and 
 opulent corporation had been treated by James, 
 sand by his chancellor, with an insolence and 
 injustice, which, even in such a prince and in 
 such a minister, may justly excite amazement, 
 and which had done more than even the 
 prosecution of the bishops to alienate the 
 
 10 Church of England from the throne. A 
 president, duly elected, had been violently 
 expelled from his dwelling; a Papist had been 
 set over the society by a royal mandate ; the 
 fellows who, in conformity with their oaths, 
 
 15 had refused to submit to this usurper, had 
 been driven forth from their quiet cloisters and 
 gardens, to die of want, or to live on charity. 
 But the day of redress and retribution speedily 
 came. The intruders were ejected ; the vener- 
 
 20 able house was again inhabited by its old 
 inmates; learning flourished under the rule of 
 the wise and virtuous Hough ; and with learn- 
 
 I. Revolution. That of i688 which made William of Orange King of 
 England. 
 
 5. Chancellor. Jeffreys, a judge noted for his cruelty and persecu- 
 tions. 
 
 9 Prosecution. Six bishops had been prosecuted in 1687 by James 
 II. for refusing to read before their congregations a Declaration of Indul- 
 gence to Catholics. 
 
 II. President. Dr. John Hough, (1651-1743.) He was president of 
 Magdalen during Addison's residence there. 
 
ADDISON. 17 
 
 ing was united a mild and liberal spirit too 
 often wanting in the princely colleges of 
 Oxford. In consequence of the troubles 
 through which the society had passed, there 
 had been no valid election of new members 5 
 during the year 1688. In 1689, therefore, 
 there were twice the ordinary number of 
 vacancies ; and thus Dr. Lancaster found it 
 easy to procure for his young friend adn>it- 
 tance to the advantages of a foundation then 10 
 generally esteemed the wealthiest in Europe. 
 At Magdalen, Addison resided during ten 
 years. He was at first one of those scholars 
 who are called ** Demies," but was subse- 
 quently elected a fellow. His college is still 15 
 proud of his name ; his portrait still hangs in 
 the hall ; and strangers are still told that his 
 favorite walk was under the elms which fringe 
 the meadow on the banks of the Cherwell. It 
 is said, and is highly probable, that he was 20 
 distinguished among his fellow students by the 
 delicacy of his feelings, by the shyness of his 
 manners, and by the assiduity with which he 
 prolonged his studies far into the night. It is 
 certain that his reputation for ability and 25 
 
 14. Demies. The corporation of the college consisted of a president 
 and thirty scholars called " demies." The fellows form the governing 
 body of their college but are not necessarily resident. 
 
1 8 ADDISON. 
 
 learning stood high. Many years later the 
 ancient doctors of Magdalen continued to talk 
 in their common room of his boyish composi- 
 tions, and expressed their sorrow that no copy 
 
 5 of exercises so remarkable had been preserved. 
 It is proper, however, to remark that Miss 
 Aikin has committed the error, very pardon- 
 able in a lady, of overrating Addison's classical 
 attainments. In one department of learning, 
 
 10 indeed, his proficiency was such as it is hardly 
 possible to overrate. His knowledge of the 
 Latin poets, from Lucretius and Catullus, down 
 to Claudian and Prudentius, was singularly 
 exact and profound. He understood them 
 
 15 thoroughly, entered into their spirit, and had 
 the finest and most discriminating perception 
 of all their peculiarities of style and melody ; 
 nay, he copied their manner with admirable 
 skill, and surpassed, we think, all their British 
 
 20 imitators who had preceded him, Buchanan 
 and Milton alone excepted. This is high 
 praise ; and beyond this we cannot with justice 
 
 12. Lucretius, (95-55 B.C.* A great Roman poet. His De Reruin 
 Natura is perhaps the greatest didactic poem ever written. 
 
 12. Catullus, 86-46 B.C.) A celebrated lyric poet. 
 
 13. Claudian. A writer of epics and the last of the classical poets. 
 
 13. Prudentius. A Christian poet of Spanish origin. 
 
 20. Buchanan, (i5o6-i582.> A famous scholar, tutor of Mary Queen 
 of Scots, and the young James VI. He is noted for his polished Latin 
 style. 
 
ADDISON. 19 
 
 go. It is clear that Addison's serious atten- 
 tion during his residence at the university was 
 almost entirely concentrated on Latin poetry, 
 and that, if he did not wholly neglect other 
 provinces of ancient literature, he vouchsafed 5 
 them only a cursory glance. He does not 
 appear to have obtained more than an ordinary 
 acquaintance with the political and moral 
 writers of Rome ; nor was his own Latin prose 
 by any means equal to his Latin verse. His 10 
 knowledge of Greek, though doubtless such as 
 was, in his time, thought respectable at 
 Oxford, was evidently less than that which 
 many lads now carry away every year from 
 Eton and Rugby. A minute examination of is 
 his works, if we had time to make such an 
 examination, would fully bear out these re- 
 marks. We will briefly advert to a few of the 
 facts on which our judgment is grounded. 
 
 Great praise is due to the notes which Addi- 20 
 son appended to his version of the second and 
 third books of the "Metamorphoses." Yet 
 those notes, while they show him to have 
 been, in his own domain, an accomplished 
 scholar, show also how confined that domain 25 
 
 15 Eton and Rugby. The two great English schools for boys. 
 22. M tamorphoses. Mythological poems by the Latin poet Ovid. 
 
20 ADDISON. 
 
 was. They are rich in apposite references to 
 Virgil, Statins, and Claudian ; but they contain 
 not a single illustration drawn from the Greek 
 poets. Now if, in the whole compass of Latin 
 5 literature, there be a passage which stands in 
 need of illustration drawn from the Greek 
 poets, it is the story of Pentheus in the third 
 book of the " Metamorphoses." Ovid was 
 indebted for that story to Euripides and 
 
 10 Theocritus, both of whom he had sometimes 
 followed minutely. But neither to Euripides 
 nor to Theocritus does Addison make the 
 faintest allusion ; and we therefore believe that 
 we do not wrong him by supposing that he 
 
 15 had little or no knowledge of their works. 
 
 His travels in Italy, again, abound with 
 classical quotations happily introduced ; but 
 scarcely one of those quotations is in prose. 
 He draws more illustrations from Ausonius 
 
 20 and Manilius than from Cicero. Even his 
 notions of the political and military affairs of 
 the Romans seem to be derived from poets and 
 poetasters. Spots made memorable by events 
 
 2. Statius, (45-96.) A Latin poet, author of the " Thebais." 
 
 9. Euripides, (481 B C.) The last of the three great Greek writers 
 of tragedy. The other two were Sophocles and iEschylus. 
 
 10. Theocritus. A Sicilian poet of the third century B. C. His idyls 
 are the greatest in Greek Hterature. 
 
 20. Ausonius and Manilius. Both minor poets of the Augustan tra. 
 
ADDISOX. 21 
 
 which have changed the destinies of the world, 
 and which have been worthily recorded by 
 great historians, bring to his mind only scraps 
 of some ancient versifier. In the gorge of the 
 Apennines he naturally remembers the hard- 5 
 ships which Hannibal's army endured, and 
 proceeds to cite, not the authentic narrative of 
 Polybius, not the picturesque narrative of Livy, 
 but the languid hexameters of Silius Italicus. 
 On the banks of the Rubicon he never thinks 10 
 of Plutarch's lively description, or of the stern 
 conciseness of the Commentaries, or of those 
 Letters to Atticus which so forcibly express 
 the alterations of hope and fear in a sensitive 
 mind at a great crisis. His only authority for 15 
 the events of the civil war is Lucan. 
 
 All the best ancient works of art at Rome 
 
 6. Hannibal, '247-183 B. C.) A Carthaginian who invaded Italy and 
 defeated the Romans in many battles. He was finally defeated by Scipio. 
 
 8. Polybius, (204 B. C.) He wrote a general history of Greece and 
 Rome only five books of which are now extant. 
 
 8. Livy, (59 B.C.-18 A.D.) One of the greatest Roman historians. 
 He wrote the " Annals of Rome " from its foundation to the year 9 B.C. 
 
 9. Silius Italicus. A poet of little note who wrote an epic on the 
 second war with Hannibal. 
 
 10. Rubicon. The river forming the boundary line between Gaul and 
 Italy. The crossing of this river by one nation or the other was virtually 
 a declaration of war. 
 
 11. Plutarch, (66-120.) A great Greek biographer. 
 
 12. Commentaries. Caesar's history of the Gallic War. 
 
 13. Atticus. These letters were addressed to him by Cicero. 
 
 16. Lucan, (37 A.D.) Author of a poem describing the civil war 
 between Csesar and Pompey. 
 
22 ADDISON. 
 
 and Florence are Greek. Addison saw them, 
 however, without recalHng one single verse of 
 Pindar, of Callimachus, or of the Attic drama- 
 tists ; but they brought to his recollection 
 
 5 innumerable passages of Horace, Juvenal, 
 Statius, and Ovid. 
 
 The same may be said of the treatise on 
 medals. In that pleasing work we find about 
 three hundred passages extracted with great 
 
 10 judgment from the Roman poets; but we do 
 not recollect a single passage taken from any 
 Roman orator or historian, and we are con- 
 fident that not a line is quoted from any Greek 
 writer. No person who had derived all his 
 
 i"- information on the subject of medals from 
 
 Addison would suspect that the Greek coins 
 
 were in historical interest equal, and in beauty 
 
 of execution far superior, to those of Rome. 
 
 If it were necessary to find any further 
 
 20 proof that Addison's classical knowledge was 
 confined within narrow limits, that proof would 
 be furnished by his " Essay on the Evidences 
 of Christianity." The Roman poets throw 
 
 3. Pindar, (522 B.C.) The greatest Greek lyric poet. 
 
 3. Callimachus. A Greek epigrammatic poet. 
 
 5. Horace. A great Augustan poet. His odes and ratires are the 
 most perfect in the Latin tongue. 
 
 5. Juvenal, ''56-140.) A celebrated satirist who inveighed bitterly 
 against the crimes and follies of Roman society. 
 
ADDISON. 23 
 
 little or no light on the literary and historical 
 questions which he is under the necessity of 
 examining in that essay. He is, therefore, left 
 completely in the dark ; and it is melancholy 
 to see how helplessly he gropes his way from 5 
 blunder to blunder. He assigns as grounds 
 for his religious belief stories as absurd as that 
 of the Cock Lane ghost, and forgeries as rank 
 as Ireland's Vortigern ; puts faith in ihe lie 
 about the Thundering Legion ; is convinced 10 
 that Tiberius moved the senate to admit Jesus 
 among the gods ; and pronounces the letter of 
 Agbarus, King of Edessa, to be a record of 
 great authority. Nor were these errors the 
 effects of superstition, for to superstition Addi-15 
 son was by no means prone. The truth is, 
 that he was writing about what he did not 
 understand. 
 
 Miss Aikin has discovered a letter, from 
 which it appears, that, while Addison resided 20 
 
 8 Cock Lane ghost. A ghost supposed to haunt the bed of a young 
 girl who lived in Cock Lane in 1762. It was found to be an imposture. 
 
 9. Vortigern. Ireland forged a lease for Stratford-on-Avon containing 
 the pretended signature of Shakespeare, and pretended to have found an 
 unpublished tragedy called " Vortigern and Rowena." 
 
 10. Thundering Legion. There is a story that a legion of Christians 
 in the army of Marcus Aurelius, having prayed for rain, were answered by 
 a thunder storm. Hence their name. 
 
 11. Tiberius, (42 B.C. 37 A.D.) The second Roman emperor. 
 
 13. Agbarus. Legend says that this king, falling ill and hearing of the 
 wonderful cures of Jesus, wrote a letter to him, and received a reply 
 promising that one of the disciples should be sent to him. 
 
24 ADDISON. 
 
 at Oxford, he was one of several writers whom 
 the booksellers engaged to make an English 
 version of Herodotus ; and she infers that he 
 must have been a good Greek scholar. We 
 
 5 can allow very little weight to this argument, 
 when we consider that his fellow-laborers were 
 to have been Boyle and Blackmore. Boyle is 
 remembered chiefly as the nominal author of 
 the worst book on Greek history and philology 
 
 10 that ever was printed; and this book, bad as 
 it is, Boyle was unable to produce without 
 help. Of Blackmore's attainments in the 
 ancient tongues, it may be sufficient to say, 
 that in his prose he has confounded an 
 
 15 aphorism with an apothegm, and that when, in 
 his verse, he treats of classical subjects, his 
 habit is to regale his readers with four false 
 quantities to a page. 
 
 It is probable that the classical acquirements 
 
 20 of Addison were of as much service to him as 
 if they had been more extensive. The world 
 generally gives its admiration, not to the man 
 who does what nobody else even attempts to 
 do, but to the man who does best what multi- 
 
 3. Herodotus, (434 B.C.) The earliest Greek historian, often called 
 the ' Father of History." 
 
 7. Boyle and Blackmore. Both rather dull and prosaic writers of the 
 period. The latter was court physician. 
 
ADDISON. 25 
 
 tudes do well. Bentley was so immeasurably 
 superior to all other scholars of his time, that 
 few among them could discover his superiority. 
 But the accomplishment in which Addison 
 excelled his contemporaries was then, as it is^ 
 now, highly valued and assiduously cultivated 
 at all English seats of learning. Everybody 
 who had been at a public school had written 
 Latin verses : many had written such verses 
 with tolerable success, and were quite able to 10 
 appreciate, though by no means able to rival, 
 the skill with which Addison imitated Virgil. 
 His lines on the *' Barometer" and the " Bowl- 
 ing Green " were applauded by hundreds to 
 whom the "Dissertation on the Epistles of is 
 Phalaris " was as unintelligible as the hierogly- 
 phics on an obelisk. 
 
 Purity of style, and an easy flow of numbers, 
 are common to all Addison's Latin poems. 
 Our favorite piece is the '' Battle of the Cranes 20 
 and Pygmies," for in that piece we discern a 
 gleam of the fancy and humor which many 
 years later enlivened thousands of breakfast 
 tables. Swift boasted that he was never known 
 
 I. Richard Bentley, (1662-1742.) The foremost divine and classical 
 scholar of his time. He exposed the spurious character of the " Epistles 
 of Phalaris," edited by Boyle. 
 
 24. Jonathan Swift, (1666-1745.^ A distinguished master of English 
 prose. His best known work is " Gulliver's Travels." 
 
26 ADDISON. 
 
 to steal a hint; and he certainly owed as little 
 to his predecessors as any modern writer. 
 Yet we cannot help suspecting that he bor- 
 rowed, perhaps unconsciously, one of the 
 
 5 happiest touches in his " Voyage to Lilliput " 
 
 from Addison's verses. Let our readers judge. 
 
 " The Emperor," says Gulliver, " is taller by 
 
 about the breadth of my nail than any of his 
 
 court, which alone is enough to strike an awe 
 
 10 into the beholders." 
 
 About thirty years before " Gulliver's 
 Travels" appeared, Addison wrote these 
 lines : — 
 
 " Jamque acies inter medias sese arduus infert 
 16 Pygmeadum ductor, qui, maj estate verendus, 
 
 Incessuque gravis, reliquos supereminet omnes 
 Mole gigantea, mediainque exsurgit in ulnam." 
 
 The Latin poems of Addison were greatly 
 and justly admired both at Oxford and Cam- 
 20 bridge, before his name had ever been heard 
 by the wits who thronged the coffee-houses 
 round Drury Lane Theatre. In his twenty- 
 second year he ventured to appear before the 
 public as a writer of English verse. He 
 
 5. Lilliput. The land cf the pygmies where Gulliver first sojourns 
 17. " And now into the midst of the line of battle the bold leader of the 
 
 Pygmies makes his way, who, awful in his majesty and commanding in 
 
 his mein, all the rest o'ertops with his gigantic form, and rises to the 
 
 middle of the arm." 
 
 22. Drury Lane. The leading theatre of the time. This region was 
 
 really the hterary center of the town. 
 
ADDISON. 27 
 
 addressed some complimentary lines to Dry- 
 den, who, after many triumphs and many 
 reverses, had at length reached a secure and 
 lonely eminence among the literary men of 
 that age. Dryden appears to have been much 5 
 gratified by the young scholar's praise ; and 
 an interchange of civilities and good offices 
 followed. Addison was probably introduced 
 by Dryden to Congreve, and was certainly 
 presented by Congreve to Charles Montague, 10 
 who was then chancellor of the exchequer, and 
 leader of the Whig party in the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 At this time, Addison seemed inclined to 
 devote himself to poetry. He published a 15 
 translation of part of the fourth '* Georgic," 
 " Lines to King William," and other perform- 
 ances of equal value ; that is to say, of no value 
 at all. But in those days the public was in the 
 habit of receiving with applause pieces which 20 
 would now have little chance of obtaining the 
 Newdigate prize or the Seatonian prize. And 
 
 5. John Dryden. The most famous poet ot the period. He was made 
 laureate in 1668. 
 
 9. Congreve, '1670-1729.) A dramatic poet greatly admired for his 
 fine workmanship. 
 
 ID. Charles Montague, ''1661-1715 ) Earl of Halifax, a close friend of 
 Addison's and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William HI. 
 
 16. Georgics. Pastoral Poems of Vergil. 
 
 22. Prize. These were scholarships given for the best English poems, 
 the first at Oxford, the second at Cambridge. 
 
28 ADDISON. 
 
 the reason is obvious. The heroic couplet 
 was then the favorite measure. The art of 
 arranging words in that measure, so that the 
 Hnes may flow smoothly, that the accents may 
 
 5 fall correctly, that the rhymes may strike the 
 ear strongly, and that there may be a pause at 
 the end of every distich, is an art as mechanical 
 as that of mending a kettle, or shoeing a horse, 
 and may be learned by any human being who 
 
 10 has sense enough to learn anything. But, like 
 other mechanical arts, it was gradually im- 
 proved by means of many experiments and 
 many failures. It was reserved for Pope to 
 discover the trick, to make himself complete 
 
 15 master of it, and to teach it to everybody else. 
 From the time when his " Pastorals " appeared, 
 heroic versification became matter of rule and 
 compass ; and before long all artists were on a 
 level. Hundreds of dunces who never blun- 
 
 2odered on one happy thought or expression 
 were able to write reams of couplets, which, 
 as far as euphony was concerned, could not be 
 distinguished from those of Pope himself, and 
 which very clever writers of the reign of 
 
 I. Heroic couplet. Iambic pentameter verse. Lowell calls it 'the 
 rocking-horse measure." 
 
 13. Alexander Pope, (1688-1744.) Pope brought this kind of couplet 
 to its greatest perfection. It lends itself most readily to his clever, caustic 
 mind and keen wit. 
 
ADDISON. 29 
 
 Charles II. — Rochester, for example, or Mar- 
 veil, or Oldham — would have contemplated 
 with admiring despair. 
 
 Ben Jonson was a great man, Hoole a very 
 small man. But Hoole, coming after Pope, 5 
 had learned how to manufacture decasyllable 
 verses, and poured them forth by thousands 
 and tens of thousands, all as well turned, as 
 smooth, and as like each other as the blocks 
 which have passed through Mr. Brunei's mill 10 
 in the dockyard at Portsmouth. Ben's heroic 
 couplets resemble blocks rudely hewn out by 
 an unpracticed hand with a blunt hatchet. 
 Take as a specimen his translation of a 
 celebrated passage in the " ^neid" : — 15 
 
 " This child our parent earth, stirr'd up with spite 
 Of all the gods, brought forth, and, as some write, 
 She was last sister of that giant race 
 That sought to scale Jove's court, right swift of pace, 
 And swifter far of wing, a monster vast 20 
 
 And dreadful. Look, how many plumes are placed 
 On her huge corpse, so many waking eyes 
 Stick underneath, and, which may stranger rise 
 In the report, as many tongues she wears." 
 
 I. Rochester, (1647-1680.) A favorite of Charles III., a man of wit 
 and talent but licentious and vicious. 
 
 1. Marvell. A friend of Milton's and a poet of no small ability. 
 
 2. Oldham, (1653-1683.) He wrote satires in imitation of Juvenal. 
 
 4. Ben Jonson, (1574-1637.) Probably the greatest English dramatist 
 after Shakespeare. He was poet laureate in 1619 
 
 5. Hoole, (1727-1803.) Wrote translations and inferior dramas. 
 
 10. Brunei. A noted engineer in his day. He constructed the first 
 tunnel under the Thames. 
 
 24. These lines are a translation of the " JEne'id," Book IV., lines 178- 
 183, and occur in Jonson's " Poetaster," V., i. 
 
30 ADDISON. 
 
 Compare with these jagged, misshapen dis- 
 tichs the neat fabric which Hoole's machine 
 produces in unHmited abundance. We take 
 the first Hnes on which we open in his version 
 5 of Tasso. They are neither better nor worse 
 than the rest: — 
 
 " O thou, whoe'er thou art, whose steps are led, 
 By choice or fate, these lonely shores to tread, 
 No greater wonders east or west can boast 
 10 Than yon small island on the pleasing coast. 
 
 If e'er thy sight would blissful scenes explore, 
 The current pass, and seek the further shore." 
 
 Ever since the time of Pope there has been 
 a ghit of hnes of this sort ; and we are now as 
 
 ishttle disposed to admire a man for being able 
 to write them as for being able to write his 
 name. But in the days of William III. such 
 versification was rare ; and a rhymer who had 
 any skill in it passed for a great poet, just as, 
 
 20 in the dark ages, a person who could write his 
 own name passed for a great clerk. Accord- 
 ingly, Duke, Stepney, Granville, Walsh, and 
 others whose only title to fame was that 
 they said in tolerable meter what might have 
 
 •25 been as well said in prose, or what was not 
 worth saying at all, were honored with marks 
 
 5. Torquato Tasso, ''1544-1595 ) An Italian epic poet. His chief 
 work is "Jerusalem Delivered." 
 
 22. All minor English poets of Addison's day. 
 
ADDISON. 3 1 
 
 of distinction which ought to be reserved for 
 genius. With these Addison must have 
 ranked, if he had not earned true and last- 
 ing glory by performances which very little 
 resembled his juvenile poems. 6 
 
 Dryden was now busied with Virgil, and 
 obtained from Addison a critical preface to the 
 " Georgics." In return for this service, and 
 for other services of the same kind, the veteran 
 poet, in the postscript to the translation of the lo 
 " ^neid," complimented his young friend with 
 great liberality, and indeed with more liberality 
 than sincerity. He affected to be afraid that his 
 own performance would not sustain a compari- 
 son with the version of the fourth " Georgic,"i5 
 by ** the most ingenious Mr. Addison of 
 Oxford." " After his bees," added Dryden, 
 *' my latter swarm is scarcely worth the 
 hiving." 
 
 The time had now arrived when it was 20 
 necessary for Addison to choose a calling. 
 Everything seemed to point his course towards 
 the clerical profession. His habits were regu- 
 lar, his opinions orthodox. His college had 
 large ecclesiastical preferment in its gift, and 25 
 boasts that it has given at least one bishop 
 
 17. After his bees. The fourth Georgic has for its subject the keeping 
 of bees. 
 
32 ADDISON. 
 
 to almost every see in England. Dr. Lancelot 
 Addison held an honorable place in the 
 Church, and had set his heart on seeing his 
 son a clergyman. It is clear, from some 
 
 6 expressions in the young man's rhymes, that 
 his intention was to take orders. But Charles 
 Montague interfered. Montague had first 
 brought himself into notice by verses, well 
 timed and not contemptibly written, but never, 
 
 10 we think, rising above mediocrity. Fortu- 
 nately for himself and for his country, he early 
 quitted poetry, in which he could never have 
 attained a rank as high as that of Dorset or 
 Rochester, and turned his mind to official and 
 
 15 parliamentary business. It is written that the 
 ingenius person who undertook to instruct 
 Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, in the art of 
 flying, ascended an eminence, waved his wings, 
 sprang into the air, and instantly dropped into 
 
 20 the lake. But it is added that the wings 
 which were unable to support him through the 
 sky, bore him up effectually as soon as he 
 was in the water. This is no bad type of the 
 fate of Charles Montague, and of men like 
 
 25 him. When he attempted to soar into the 
 
 13. Earl of Dorset, (1637-1706.) A courtier of Charles II. and a gen- 
 erous patron of letters. 
 
 17. Rasselas. The hero of the tale of that name by Dr. Johnson. He 
 is said to have written it in a week's time to pay for his mother's funeral. 
 
ADDISON. 33 
 
 regions of poetical invention, he altogether 
 failed ; but as soon as he had descended from 
 that ethereal elevation into a lower and grosser 
 element, his talents instantly raised him above 
 the mass. He became a distinguished finan- s 
 cier, debater, courtier, and party leader. He 
 still retained his fondness for the pursuits of 
 his early days ; but he showed that fondness, 
 not by wearying the public with his own feeble 
 performances, but by discovering and encour-io 
 aging literary excellence in others. A crowd 
 of wits and poets, who would easily have van- 
 quished him as a competitor, revered him as 
 a judge and a patron. In his plans for the 
 encouragement of learning, he was cordially 15 
 supported by the ablest and most virtuous of 
 his colleagues, the Lord Chancellor Somers. 
 Though both these great statesmen had a 
 sincere love of letters, it was not solely from a 
 love of letters that they were desirous to enlist 20 
 youths of high intellectual qualifications in the 
 public service. The Revolution had altered 
 the whole system of government. Before that 
 event, the press had been controlled by cen- 
 sors, and the Parliament had sat only two 25 
 months in eight years. Now the press was 
 
 17. Lord Somers, (1652-1716."! A man of great leaining and leader of 
 the Whig party. He was lord chancellor under William III. 
 
34 ADDISON. 
 
 free, and had begun to exercise unprecedented 
 influence on the pubHc mind. Parhament 
 met annually, and sat long. The chief power 
 in the State had passed to the House of 
 ^Commons. At such a conjuncture it was 
 natural t4iat literary and oratorical talents 
 should rise in value. There was danger that 
 a government which neglected such talents 
 might be subverted by them. It was, there- 
 tofore, a profound and enlightened policy which 
 led Montague and Somers to attach such talents 
 to the Whig party by the strongest ties both of 
 interest and of gratitude. 
 
 It is remarkable that in a neighboring coun- 
 
 ^^ try we have recently seen similar effects follow 
 
 from similar causes. The Revolution of July, 
 
 1830, established representative , government 
 
 in France. The men of letters instantly rose to 
 
 the highest importance in the State. At the 
 
 20 present moment, most of the persons whom 
 
 we see at the head both of the Administration 
 
 and of the Opposition have been professors, 
 
 historians, journalists, poets. The influence 
 
 of the literary class in England during the 
 
 2n generation which followed the Revolution was 
 
 great, but by no means so great as it has lately 
 
 been in France ; for in England the aristocracy 
 
ADDISON. 35 
 
 of intellect had to contend with a powerful and 
 deeply rooted aristocracy of a very different 
 kind. France had no Somersets and Shrews- 
 buries to keep down her Addisons and Priors. 
 
 It was in the year 1699, when Addison had 5 
 just completed his twenty-seventh year, that 
 the course of his life was finally determined. 
 Both the great chiefs of the ministry were 
 kindly disposed towards him. In political 
 opinions he already was, what he continued to 10 
 be through life, a firm though a moderate 
 Whig. He had addressed the most polished 
 and vigorous of his early English lines to 
 Somers, and had dedicated to Montague a 
 Latin poem, truly Virgilian both in style and 15 
 rhythm, on the peace of Ryswick. The wish 
 of the young poet's great friends was, it should 
 seem, to employ him in the service of the 
 Crown abroad. But an intimate knowledge of 
 the French* language was a qualification indis-20 
 pensable to a diplomatist ; and this qualification 
 Addison had not acquired. It was therefore 
 thought desirable that he should pass some 
 time on the Continent in preparing himself for 
 
 3. Duke of Somerset, 1661-1748.) A leading Whig statesman. 
 
 4. Shrewsbury. A lawyer of note, afterward chancellor. 
 
 16. Peace of Ryswick, (1697.) A temporary peace between England 
 and Holland on the one side, and Louis XIV. of France on the other. 
 The latter was seeking to gain the crown of Spain for his house. 
 
36 ADDISON. 
 
 official employment. His own means were 
 not such as would enable him to travel; but a 
 pension of three hundred pounds a year was 
 procured for him by the interest of the lord 
 
 5 chancellor. It seems to have been appre- 
 hended that some difficulty might be started 
 by the rulers of Magdalen College ; but the 
 chancellor of the exchequer wrote in the 
 strongest terms to Hough. The State — such 
 
 10 was the purport of Montague's letter — could 
 not at that time spare to the Church such a 
 man as Addison. Too many high civil posts 
 were already occupied by adventurers, who, 
 destitute of every liberal art and sentiment, at 
 
 15 once pillaged and disgraced the country which 
 they pretended to serve. It had become 
 necessary to recruit for the public service from 
 a very different class, — from that class of 
 which Addison was a representative. The 
 
 '20 close of the minister's letter was remarkable. 
 
 *' I am called," he said, " an enemy of the 
 
 Church ; but I will never do it any other 
 
 injury than keeping Mr. Addison out of it." 
 
 This interference was successful; and in the 
 
 26 summer of 1699 Addison, made a rich man by 
 his pension, and still retaining his fellowship, 
 quitted his beloved Oxford, and set out on his 
 
ADDISON. 37 
 
 travels. He crossed from Dover to Calais, 
 proceeded to Paris, and was received there 
 with great kindness and politeness by a kins- 
 man of his friend Montague, Charles, Earl of 
 Manchester, who had just been appointed--) 
 ambassador to the court of France. The 
 countess, a Whig and a toast, was probably as 
 gracious as her lord ; for Addison long retained 
 an agreeable recollection of the impression 
 which she at this time made on him, and, inio 
 some lively lines written on the glasses of the 
 Kit Cat Club, described the envy which her 
 cheeks, glowing with the genuine bloom of 
 England, had excited among the painted 
 beauties of Versailles. 15 
 
 Louis XIV. was at this time expiating the 
 vices of his youth by a devotion which had no 
 root in reason, and bore no fruit of charity. 
 The servile literature of France had changed 
 its character to suit the changed character of 20 
 the prince. No book appeared that had not 
 an air of sanctity. Racine, who was just dead, 
 had passed the close of his life in writing 
 
 7. A toast. That is a reigning beauty whose health was often drunk 
 among gentlemen. 
 
 12. Kit Cat Club. A club of gentlemen devoted to the House of Han- 
 over; so named from Christopher Catt, a noted pastry cook who used to 
 supply them with pies. 
 
 22. Jean Baptiste Racine, ('1639-1699.) The greatest French tragic 
 dramatist. His sacred dramas were those of " Esther " and " Athalie." 
 
38 ADDISON. 
 
 sacred dramas ; and Dacier was seeking for 
 the Athanasian mysteries in Plato. Addison 
 described this state of things in a short but 
 lively and graceful letter to Montague. An- 
 
 5 other letter, written about the same time to the 
 lord chancellor, conveyed the strongest assur- 
 ances of gratitude and attachment. "The 
 only return I can make to your lordship," said 
 Addison, '' will be to apply myself entirely to 
 
 10 my business." With this view he quitted 
 Paris, and repaired to Blois, a place where it 
 was supposed that the French l?.nguage was 
 spoken in its highest purity, and where not a 
 single Englishman could be found. Here he 
 
 15 passed some months pleasantly and profitably. 
 Of his way of life at Blois, one of his associates, 
 an abbe named Philippeaux, gave an account 
 to Joseph Spence. If this account is to be 
 trusted, Addison studied much, mused much, 
 
 20 talked little, had fits of absence, and either had 
 no love affairs or was too discreet to confide 
 them to the abbe. A man who, even when 
 surrounded by fellow countrymen and fellow 
 
 1. Andre Dacier, 1651-1722.^ The royal librarian and a famous 
 philologist 
 
 2. Athanasius, (246-273.) The great Alexandrian bishop, reputed 
 author of the creed which bears his name. 
 
 2. Plato, (429-347 B.C ) The great father of Academic philosophy. 
 
 18. Joseph Spence. A professor of poetry at Oxford whose "Anec- 
 dotes " are full of interesting information about the famous men of his day. 
 
ADDISON. 39 
 
 students, had always been remarkably shy and 
 silent, was not likely to be loquacious in a 
 foreign tongue and among foreign companions. 
 But it is clear from Addison's letters, some of 
 which were long after published in the " Guar-s 
 dian," that, while he appeared to be absorbed 
 in his own meditations, he was really observing 
 French society with that keen and sly, yet not 
 ill-natured side glance which was peculiarly his 
 own. 10 
 
 From Blois he returned to Paris, and, having 
 now mastered the French language, found 
 great pleasure in the society of French philoso- 
 phers and poets. He gave an account, in a 
 letter to Bishop Hough, of two highly inter- 15 
 esting conversations, one with Malebranche, 
 the other with Boileau. Malebranche ex- 
 pressed great partiality for the English, and 
 extolled the genius of Newton, but shook his 
 head when Hobbes was mentioned, and was 20 
 indeed so unjust as to call the author of the 
 
 6 Guardian. The second in the famous series of the three serial 
 papers conducted by Richard Steele. It followed the "Spectator" and 
 Addison was a frequent contributor. 
 
 16. Nicolas Malebranche, (1638-1715.) A French philosopher of 
 note. 
 
 17. Boileau. A poet and satirist. 
 
 19. Sir Isaac Newton, (1642-1727.) One of the greatest of English 
 philosophers. He discovered the law of gravitation. 
 
 20. Thomas Hobbes, (1588-1670.) A philosopher whose chief work, 
 the " Leviathan," declared that absolutism was the only possible basis of 
 society. 
 
40 ADDISON. 
 
 " Leviathan " a poor silly creature. Addison's 
 modesty restrained him from fully relating, in 
 his letter, the circumstances of his introduction 
 to Boileau. Boileau having survived the 
 
 •■'friends and rivals of his youth — old, deaf, and 
 melancholy — lived in retirement, seldom went 
 either to court or to the Academy, and was 
 almost inaccessible to strangers. Of the Eng- 
 lish and of English literature he knew nothing. 
 
 10 He had hardly heard the name of Dryden. 
 Some of our countrymen, in, the warmth of 
 their patriotism, have asserted that this ignor- 
 ance must have been affected. We own that 
 we see no ground for such a supposition. 
 
 15 English literature was to the French of the age 
 of Louis XIV. what German literature was to 
 our own grandfathers. Very few, we suspect, 
 of the accomplished men who, sixty or seventy 
 years ago, used to dine in Leicester Square with 
 
 20 Sir Joshua, or at Streatham wtth Mrs. Thrale, 
 had the slightest notion that Wieland was one 
 
 7. Academy. A French society of eminent scholars and writers 
 organized in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu. Its purpose is to protect the 
 purity of the language and to pronounce judgment on all literary questions. 
 
 20. Sir Joshua Reynolds, (1723-1792.) The most famous portrait 
 painter of England and intimate with all the literateurs of his time. 
 
 20. Mrs. Thrale. The wife of a wealthy brewer of London whose 
 salon attracted all the literary lights of the period. Dr. Johnson, who 
 was for long her guest, said of her: "If not the wisest woman in the 
 world, she was undoubtedly one of the wisest." 
 
 21. 'Wieland. A German poet and novelist. 
 
ADDISON. 41 
 
 of the first wits and poets, and Lessing, beyond 
 all dispute, the first critic in Europe. Boileau 
 knew just as little about the " Paradise Lost," 
 and about "Absalom and Achitophel;" but 
 he had read Addison's Latin poems, and 5 
 admired them greatly. They had given him, 
 he said, quite a new notion of the state of 
 learning and taste among the English. John- 
 son will have it that these praises were insin- 
 cere. *' Nothing," says he, 'Ms better known 10 
 of Boileau, '* than that he had an injudicious 
 and peevish contempt for modern Latin ; and 
 therefore his profession of regard was probably 
 the effect of his civility rather than appro- 
 bation." Now, nothing is better known of 15 
 Boileau than that he was singularly sparing of 
 compliments. We do not remember that 
 either friendship or fear ever induced him to 
 bestow praise on any composition which he 
 did not approve. On literary questions his 20 
 caustic, disdainful, and self-confident spirit 
 rebelled against- that authority to which every- 
 thing else in France bowed down. He had 
 the spirit to tell Louis XIV., firmly and even 
 
 I. Lessing, C1729-1781.") A Great German poet and critic. Best 
 known to English readers by his dramatic criticism, his drama, " Nathan 
 the Wise," and his " Laocoon," a study of the relative functions of paint- 
 ing and poetry. 
 
 4. " Absalom and Achitophel." A political satire by John Dryden. 
 
42 ADDISON. 
 
 rudely, that his Majesty knew nothing about 
 poetry, and admired verses which were de- 
 testable. What was there in Addison's 
 position that could induce the satirist whose 
 
 5 stern and fastidious temper had been the dread 
 of two generations to turn sycophant for the 
 first and last time? Nor was Boileau's con- 
 tempt of modern Latin either injudicious or 
 peevish. He thought, indeed, that no poem 
 
 10 of the first order would ever be written in a 
 dead language. And did he think amiss? 
 Has not the experience of centuries confirmed 
 his opinion? Boileau also thought it probable 
 that, in the best modern Latin, a writer of the 
 
 15 Augustan age would have detected ludicrous 
 improprieties. And who can think otherwise? 
 What modern scholar can honestly declare that 
 he sees the smallest impurity in the style of 
 Livy? Yet is it not certain that, in the style 
 
 20 of Livy, Pollio, whose taste had been formed 
 on the banks of the Tiber, detected the inele- 
 gant idiom of the Po? Has any modern 
 scholar understood Latin better than Fred- 
 erick the Great understood French? Yet is it 
 
 15. Augustan age. During the reign of the Emperor Augustus Latin 
 literature attained its highest degree of perfection. 
 
 20. Pollio, (76 B.C. -5 A.D.) A Roman poet, historian, critic and 
 orator. 
 
 24. Frederick the Great. King of Prussia. He laid the foundation of 
 the present German Empire. 
 
ADDISON. 43 
 
 not notorious that Frederick the Great — after 
 reading, speaking, writing French, and nothing 
 but French, during more than half a century; 
 after unlearning his mother tongue in order to 
 learn French; after living familiarly during r. 
 many years with French associates — could 
 not, to the last, compose in French without 
 imminent risk of committing some mistake 
 which would have moved a smile in the literary 
 circles of Paris? Do we believe that Erasmus lo 
 and Fracastorius wrote Latin as well as Dr. 
 Robertson and Sir Walter Scott wrote English? 
 And are there not in the " Dissertation on 
 India," the last of Dr. Robertson's works, in 
 " Waverley," in " Marmion," Scotticisms atio 
 which a London apprentice would laugh? 
 But does it follow, because we think thus, that 
 we can find nothing to admire in the noble 
 alcaics of Gray, or in the playful elegiacs 
 of Vincent Bourne? Surely not. Nor was 20 
 Boileau so ignorant or tasteless as to be in- 
 
 10. Erasmus, (1467-1536 ) A great Dutch scholar, friend of Luther, 
 and at one time professor of Greek at Cambridge. 
 
 11. Fracastorius, (1483-1533.) An Italian physician who attained 
 some fame for his poetry. 
 
 19.. Dr. Robertson, (1721-1793.) A Scotch minister whose histories 
 became noted. 
 
 19. Alcaics of Gray. The alcaic stanza is a very beautiful lyric meter 
 first used by the Greek poet Alcaeus. 
 
 19. Thomas Gray, (1716-1771,) was one of the first of the Romanticists 
 who were devoted to everything Greek. 
 
 20. Bourne, (1695-1747.) A scholar who wrote entirely in Latin. 
 
44 ADDISON. 
 
 capable of appreciating good modern Latin. 
 In the very letter to which Johnson alludes, 
 Boileau says, "AV croyez pas poiirtaiit que je 
 vetiille par la bldmer les vers Latins que voiis 
 5 in! avez envoyes iTiin de vos illustres aeademi- 
 ciens. Je les ai troiives fort beaux, et digues 
 de J^ida et de Sanuazar uiais non pas 
 d Horace et de J^irgileT Several poems in 
 modern Latin have been praised by Boileau 
 
 10 quite as liberally as it was his habit to praise 
 anything. He says, for example, of the 
 Pere Fraguier's epigrams, that Catullus seems 
 to have come to life again. But the best 
 proof that Boileau did not feel the undiscern- 
 
 i''ing contempt for modern Latin verses which 
 has been imputed to him, is, that he wrote 
 and published Latin verses in several meters. 
 Indeed it happens, curiously enough, that the 
 most sev^ere censure ever pronounced by him on 
 
 20 modern Latin is conveyed in Latin hexameter. 
 We allude to the fragment which begins: — 
 
 " Quid numeris iterum me balbutire Latinis, 
 Longe Alpes citra natum de patre Sicambro, 
 Musa jubes? " 
 
 7. Vida and Sannazar. Both writers of Latin verse. 
 
 8. Do not suppose, however, that by that I mean to criticise the Latin 
 verses of one of your illustrious acadeuiicians which you have sent me. I 
 have found them worthy of Vida and of Sannazar, but not of Horace or 
 of Vergil. 
 
 12. Pere Fraguier. A French Jesuit who wrote short, pointed Latin 
 verses. 
 
 24. " Why, Muse, do you bid me, bom far this side of the Alps, of a 
 Sicambrian father, to lisp again in Latin numbers? " 
 
ADDISON. 45 
 
 For these reasons we feel assured that 
 the praise which Boileau bestowed on the 
 Machince Gesticulaiites and the Gerano- 
 PygniQjoniacJiia was sincere. He certainly 
 opened himself to Addison with a freedoms 
 which was a sure indication of esteem. Liter- 
 ature was the chief subject of conversation. 
 The old man talked on his favorite theme 
 much and well, indeed, as his young hearer 
 thought, incomparably well. Boileau had un-io 
 doubtedly some of the qualities of a great 
 critic. He wanted imagination ; but he had 
 strong sense. His literary code w^as formed 
 on narrow principles ; but in applying it he 
 showed great judgment and penetration. Inu 
 mere style, abstracted from the ideas of which 
 style is the garb, his taste is excellent. He was 
 well acquainted with the great Greek writers ; 
 and, though unable fully to appreciate their 
 creative genius, admired the majestic simplicity 20 
 of their manner, and had learned from them 
 to despise bombast and tinsel. It is easy, we 
 think, to discover in the " Spectator" and the 
 ''Guardian" traces of the influence, in part 
 salutary and in part pernicious, which the 25 
 mind of Boileau had on the mind of Addison. 
 
 3. Machinae Gesticulantes. A puppet show; Gerano Pygmao- 
 mackia, " The Battle of the Cranes and Pygmies." Both titles of two 
 of Addison's Latin poems 
 
46 ADDISON. 
 
 While Addison was at Paris, an event took 
 place which made that capital a disagreeable 
 residence for an Englishman and a Whig. 
 Charles, second of the name. King of Spain, 
 
 5 died, and bequeathed his dominions to Philip, 
 Duke of Anjou, a younger son of the Dauphin. 
 The King of France, in direct violation of his 
 engagements both Avith Great Britain and with 
 the States General, accepted the bequest on 
 
 10 behalf of his grandson. The house of Bour- 
 bon was at the summit of human grandeur. 
 England had been outwitted, and found herself 
 in a situation at once degrading and perilous. 
 The people of France, not presaging the 
 
 15 calamities by which they were destined to 
 expiate the perfidy of their sovereign, went 
 mad with pride and delight. Every man 
 looked as if a great estate had just Oeen 
 left him. " The French conversation," said 
 
 20 Addison, ''begins to grow insupportable; that 
 w^iich was before the vainest nation in the 
 world is now worse than ever." Sick of 
 the arrogant exultation of the Parisians, and 
 
 6. Dauphin. The name given to the heir apparent of the French 
 throne. 
 
 7. King of France. That is, Louis XIV. 
 
 9. States-General. The national assembly ot Holland, composed of 
 representatives of the various provinces. 
 
 10. Bourbon. This family occupied the throne of France from Henry 
 IV., 1553, to the downfall of Louis Philippe, in 1848. 
 
ADDISON. 47 
 
 probably foreseeing that the peace between 
 France and England could not be of long 
 duration, he set off for Italy. 
 
 In December, 1700, he embarked at Mar- 
 seilles. As he glided along the Ligurians 
 coast, he was delighted by the sight of myrtles 
 and olive trees, which retained their verdure 
 under the winter solstice. Soon, however, he 
 encountered one of the black storms of the 
 Mediterranean. The captain of the ship gave 10 
 up all for lost, and confessed himself to a 
 capuchin who happened to be on board. The 
 English heretic, in the meantime, fortified him- 
 self against the terrors of death with devotions 
 of a very different kind. How strong an is 
 impression this perilous voyage made on him 
 appears from the ode, •' How are thy servants 
 blest, O Lord!" which was long after pub- 
 lished in the '' Spectator." After some days 
 of discomfort and danger, Addison was glad to 20 
 land at Savona, and to make his way, over 
 mountains where no road had yet been hewn 
 out by art, to the city of Genoa. 
 
 At Genoa, still ruled by her own doge and 
 by the nobles whose names were inscribed on 25 
 
 5. Ligurian. The coast of Genoa, formerly inhabited by the Ligures. 
 
 21. Savona. A seaport near Genoa. 
 
 24. Doge. The chief magistrate of the old Italian republics. 
 
48 ADDISON. 
 
 her Book of Gold, Addison made a short stay. 
 He admired the narrow streets overhung by 
 long lines of towering palaces, the walls rich 
 with frescoes, the gorgeous temple of the 
 
 6 Annunciation, and the tapestries whereon were 
 recorded the long glories of the house of 
 Doria. Thence he hastened to Milan, where 
 he contemplated the Gothic magnificence of 
 the cathedral with more wonder than pleasure. 
 
 10 He passed Lake Benacus while a gale was 
 blowing, and saw the weaves raging as they 
 raged when Virgil looked upon them. At 
 Venice, then the gayest city in Europe, the 
 traveler spent the Carnival, the gayest season 
 
 i^of the year, in the midst of masques, dances, 
 and serenades. Here he was at once diverted 
 and provoked by the absurd dramatic pieces 
 which then disgraced the Italian stage. To 
 one of those pieces, however, he was indebted 
 
 2. for a valuable hint. He was present when a 
 ridiculous play on the death of Cato was 
 
 I. Book of Gold. The Libra d'Oro was the state register of the 
 nobility in Genoa and Venice. 
 
 7. House of Doria. One room in the palace of this illnstrious family 
 contained tapestries wrought with the figures of all the great persons it had 
 produced. 
 
 8. The Gothic, or pointed architecture of Mediaeval times was 
 regarded as little short of barbaric in Addison's time. 
 
 ID. Lake Benacus. The largest and most beautiful lake of northern 
 Italy. Now called Lugo di Garda. 
 
 14 Carnival. A Roman Catholic festival or period of indulgence imme- 
 diately preceding the Lenten season. 
 
ADDISON. 49 
 
 performed. Cato, it seems, was in love with 
 the daughter of Scipio. The lady had given 
 her heart to Caesar. The rejected lover deter- 
 mined to destroy himself. He appeared 
 seated in his library, a dagger in his hand, as 
 Plutarch and a Tasso before him ;r and in this 
 position he pronounced a soliloquy before he 
 struck the blow. We are surprised that so 
 remarkable a circumstance as this should have 
 escaped the notice of all Addison's biographers, lo 
 There cannot, we conceive, be the smallest 
 doubt that this scene, in spite of its absurdities 
 and anachronisms, struck the traveler's imag- 
 ination, and suggested to him the thought of 
 bringing " Cato" on the English stage. It is 15 
 well known that about this time he began his 
 tragedy, and that he finished the first four acts 
 before he returned to England. 
 
 On his way from Venice to Rome, he was 
 drawn some miles out of the beaten road by a 20 
 wish to see the smallest independent state in 
 Europe. On a rock where the snow still lay, 
 though the Italian spring was now far advanced, 
 was perched the little fortress of San Marino. 
 The roads which led to the secluded town were 25 
 
 24. San Marino. The oldest and smallest republic in the world. It is 
 situated in central Italy on a high plateau and its area is only twcnty- 
 scvcn square miles, 
 
so ADDISON. 
 
 SO bad, that few travelers had ever visited it, 
 and none had ever published an account of it. 
 Addison could not suppress a good-natured 
 smile at the simple manners and institutions of 
 
 5 this singular community; but he observed, 
 with the exultation of a Whig, that the rude 
 mountain tract which formed the territory of 
 the republic swarmed with an honest, healthy, 
 and contented peasantry, while the rich plain 
 
 10 which surrounded the metropolis of civil and 
 spiritual tyranny was scarcely less desolate 
 than the uncleared wilds of America. 
 
 At Rome, Addison remained on his first 
 visit only long enough to catch a glimpse of 
 
 15 St Peter's and of the Pantheon. His haste is the 
 more extraordinary, because the Holy Week 
 was close at hand. He has given no hint 
 which can enable us to pronounce why he 
 chose to fly from a spectacle which every year 
 
 20 allures from distant regions persons of far less 
 taste and sensibility than his. Possibly, trav- 
 eling, as he did, at the charge of a government 
 distinguished by its enmity to the Church of 
 
 15 St. Peter's. The largest Christian cathedral in the world. The 
 foundations were laid in Rome in the year 1406, and the most famous 
 artists, including Michael Angelo and Raphael, took charge of its erection 
 
 15 Pantheon. An ancient and remarkably preserved Roman temple. 
 It was built by Agrippa, 27 B.C., and dedicated to all the gods. i^/>as, 
 all; theos, god.) It is now used as a church. 
 
 16. Holy Week. The last seven days of Lent. 
 
ADDISON. 51 
 
 Rome, he may have thought that it would be 
 imprudent in him to assist at the most magni- 
 ficent rite of that Church. Many eyes would 
 be upon him, and he might find it difficult to 
 behave in such a manner as to give offence s 
 neither to his patrons in England nor to those 
 among whom he resided. Whatever his 
 motives may have been, he turned his back 
 on the most august and affecting ceremony 
 which is known among men, and posted along 10 
 the Appian Way to Naples. 
 
 Naples was then destitute of what are now, 
 perhaps, its chief attractions. The lovely bay 
 and the awful mountain were indeed there ; but 
 a farmhouse stood on the theatre of Her- 15 
 culaneum, and rows of vines grew over the 
 streets of Pompeii. The temples of Paestum 
 had not, indeed, been hidden from the eye of 
 man by any great convulsion of nature ; but, 
 strange to say, their existence was a secret 20 
 even to artists and antiquaries. Though situ- 
 ated within a few hours' journey of a great 
 
 II. Appian Way. The oldest and most famous of all the roads of 
 Ancient Rome. It was lined with the tombs of many famous men. 
 
 17. Herculaneum and Pompeii The two citie.s near Naples which 
 were completely buried by the great eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. See 
 the letters of the elder Pliny and Bulwer's novel, " The Last Days of 
 Pompeii." 
 
 17. Paestum. A Roman town forty miles south of Naples, celebrated 
 for its Doric temples. 
 
52 ADDISON. 
 
 capital, where Salvator had not long before 
 painted, and where Vico was then lecturing, 
 those noble remains were as little known to 
 Europe as the ruined cities overgrown by the 
 6 forests of Yucatan. What was to be seen at 
 Naples, Addison saw. He climbed Vesuvius, 
 explored the tunnel of Posilipo, and wandered 
 among the vines and almond trees of Capreae. 
 But neither the wonders of nature, nor those of 
 10 art, could so occupy his attention as to prevent 
 him from noticing, though cursorily, the abuses 
 of the government and the misery of the people. 
 The great kingdom which had just descended 
 to Philip V. was in a state of paralytic dotage- 
 is Even Castile and Aragon were sunk in wretch- 
 edness. Yet, compared with the Italian de- 
 pendencies of the Spanish Crown, Castile and 
 Aragon might be called prosperous. It is 
 clear that all the observations which Addison 
 20 made in Italy tended to confirm him in the 
 political opinions which he had adopted at 
 home. To the last he always spoke of foreign 
 
 1. Salvator Rosa, (1615-1673.) A great Neapolitan artist whose 
 landscape painting marked a distinct stage in the history of painting. 
 
 2. Vico, (1668-1744.) An Italian philosopher and critic. 
 
 7. Posilipo. An ancient tunnel built before the Christian era through 
 a promontory in the Bay of Naples. It is 2200 feet long, and still in use. 
 
 8. Capreae. Now Capri. A very beautiful island at the entrance of 
 the Bay of Naples. It was for ten years the residence of the Emperor 
 Tiberius. 
 
 17. Castile and Aragon. The chief states of Spain. 
 
ADDISON. 53 
 
 travel as the best cure for Jacobitism. In his 
 " Freeholder," the Tory fox hunter asks what 
 traveling is good for, except to teach a man 
 to jabber French and to talk against passive 
 obedience. ,. 
 
 From Naples, Addison returned to Rome 
 by sea, along the coast which his favorite 
 Virgil had celebrated. The felucca passed 
 the headland where the oar and trumpet were 
 placed by the Trojan adventurers on the tombio 
 of Misenus, and anchored at night under the 
 shelter of the fabled promontory of Circe. 
 The voyage ended in the Tiber, still overhung 
 with dark verdure, and still turbid with yellow 
 sand, as when it met the eyes of yEneas. 1.5 
 From the ruined port of Ostia the stranger 
 hurried to Rome, and at Rome he remained 
 during those hot and sickly months, when, 
 even in the Augustan age, all who could make 
 their escape fled from mad dogs and from 20 
 streets black with funerals, to gather the first 
 
 1. Jacobitism. An English political party devoted to the exiled House 
 of Stuart, and who made many plots to restore James II to the throne. 
 
 2. Freeholder. A political paper published for a short time by Addi- 
 son. 
 
 2. Tory fox hunters. See numbers 22, 44, and 47 of the " Free- 
 holder." 
 
 8. Felucca. A kind of oared vessel used in the Mediterranean. 
 
 II. Misenus. A trumpeter said to have been buried on the promontory 
 of Capo di Miseno. See " ^neid," Book VI. 
 
 12 C rce Monte Circeio, supposed to have been the abode of the 
 famous sorceress. 
 
54 ADDISON. 
 
 figs of the season in the country. It is 
 probable that when he, long after, poured forth 
 in verse his gratitude to the Providence which 
 had enabled him to breath unhurt in tainted 
 
 5 air, he was thinking of the August and 
 September which he passed at Rome. 
 
 It was not until the latter end of October 
 that he tore himself away from the master- 
 pieces of ancient and modern art which are 
 
 10 collected in the city so long the mistress of the 
 world. He then journeyed northward, passed 
 through Sienna, and for a moment forgot his 
 prejudices in favor of classic architecture as he 
 looked on the magnificent cathedral. At 
 
 15 Florence he spent some days with the Duke of 
 Shrewsbury, who, — cloyed with the pleasures 
 of ambition, and impatient of its pains ; fearing 
 both parties, and loving neither — had deter- 
 mined to hide in an Italian retreat talents 
 
 20 and accomplishments, which, if they had been 
 united with fixed principles and civil courage, 
 might have made him the foremost man of his 
 age. These days, we are told, passed pleas- 
 antly, and we can easily believe it ; for Addi- 
 
 25 son was a delightful companion when he was 
 at his ease ; and the duke, though he seldom 
 
 i6. Duke of Shrewsbury. Active in the Revolution of 1689 and Sec- 
 retary of State under W illiam III. 
 
ADDISON. 55 
 
 forgot that he was a Talbot, had the invaluable 
 art of putting at ease all who came near him. 
 Addison gave some time to Florence, and 
 especially to the sculptures in the Museum, 
 which he preferred even to those of ther, 
 Vatican. He then pursued his journey 
 through a country in which the ravages of the 
 last war were still discernible, and in which all 
 men were looking forward with dread to a still 
 fiercer conflict. Eugene had already de-^o 
 scended from the Rhaetian Alps to dispute with 
 Catinat the rich plain of Lombardy. The 
 faithless ruler of Savoy was still reckoned 
 among the allies of Louis. England had not 
 yet actually declared war against France; but is 
 Manchester had left Paris ; and the negotia- 
 tions which produced the Grand Alliance 
 against the house of Bourbon were in progress. 
 Under such circumstances, it was desirable for 
 an English traveler to reach neutral ground 20 
 
 6. Vatican. The Papal palace at Rome- It is the largest building of 
 the kind in the world and its art treasures are untold. 
 
 10. Conflict. The War of the Spanish Succession was just beginning. 
 
 10. Prince Eugene was leader of the Austrian forces, and Catinat com- 
 manded the French army in Italy. 
 
 13. Savoy. The Duke of Savoy, although at first loyal to Louis XIV., 
 afterward joined the Allies, and was rewarded, at the end of the war, with 
 the Island of Sicily. 
 
 16. Manchester. The English ambassador to France. 
 
 17. Grand Alliance. This consisted of the states of Germany, England, 
 Holland, Austria, and Portugal. Its purpose was to prevent Spain from 
 falling into the hands of France. 
 
$6 ADDISOX. 
 
 without delay. Addison resolved to cross 
 Mont Cenis. It was December; and the road 
 was very different from that which now reminds 
 the stranger of the power and genius of Napo- 
 sleon. The winter, however, was mild; and 
 the passage was, for those times, easy. To 
 this journey Addison alluded, when, in the 
 ode which we have already quoted, he said 
 that for him the Divine Goodness had warmed 
 
 10 the hoary Alpine hills. 
 
 It was in the midst of the eternal snow that 
 he composed his " Epistle" to his friend Mon- 
 tague, now Lord Halifax. That "Epistle," 
 once widely renowned, is now known only to 
 
 15 curious readers, and will hardly be considered 
 by those to whom it is known as in any per- 
 ceptible degree heightening Addison's fame. 
 It is, however, decidedly superior to any Eng- 
 lish composition which he had previously 
 
 20 published. Nay, we think it quite as good as 
 any poem in heroic meter which appeared 
 during the interval between the death of 
 Dryden and the publication of the " Essay on 
 Criticism." It contains passages as good as 
 
 25 the second-rate passages of Pope, and would 
 
 2. Mont Cenis. The mountain pass between Italy and France. In 
 1871 it was pierced by a tunnel. 
 
 23. Essay on Criticism. A didactic poem written by Pope when he 
 was only twenty-one years old. 
 
ADDISON. 57 
 
 have added to the reputation of Parnell or 
 Prior. 
 
 But, whatever be the Hterary merits or 
 defects of the " Epistle," it undoubtedly does 
 honor to the principles and spirit of the 5 
 author. Halifax had now nothing to give. 
 He had fallen from power, had been held up 
 to obloquy, had been impeached by the House 
 of Commons, and, though his peers had dis- 
 missed the impeachment, had, as it seemed, 10 
 little chance of ever again filling high office. 
 The '* Epistle," written at such a time, is one 
 among many proofs that there was no mixture 
 of cowardness or meanness in the suavity and 
 moderation which distinguished Addison from 15 
 all the other public men of those stormy 
 times. 
 
 At Geneva the traveller learned that a par- 
 tial change of ministry had taken place in 
 England, and that the Earl of Manchester had 20 
 become secretary of state. Manchester ex- 
 erted himself to serve his young friend. It 
 was thought advisable that an English agent 
 should be near the person of Eugene in Italy ; 
 and Addison, whose diplomatic education was 25 
 now finished, was the man selected. He was 
 preparing to enter on his honorable functions 
 
58 ADDISON. 
 
 when all his prospects were for a time darkened 
 by the death of William III. 
 
 Anne had long felt a strong aversion — 
 personal, political, and religious — to the Whig 
 
 5 party. That aversion appeared in the first 
 measures of her reign, Manchester was de- 
 prived of the seals after he had held them only 
 a few weeks. Neither Somers nor Halifax was 
 sworn of the Privy Council, Addison shared 
 
 10 the fate of his three patrons. His hopes of 
 employment in the public service were at an 
 end ; his pension was stopped ; and it was 
 necessary for him to support himself by his 
 own exertions. He became tutor to a young 
 
 15 English traveler, and appears to have rambled 
 with his pupil over great part of Switzerland 
 and Germany. At this time he wrote his 
 pleasing treatise on medals. It was not pub- 
 lished till after his death ; but several distin- 
 
 2oguished scholars saw the manuscript, and gave 
 just praise to the grace of the style and to 
 the learning and ingenuity evinced by the 
 quotations. 
 
 From Germany, Addison repaired to Hol- 
 
 7. Deprived of the Seals. That is, they were asked to resign. The 
 seals are the ministers' emblem of office. 
 
 9. Privy Council. A council unlimited in number and selected by the 
 crown to act as advisors in all matters of state. Its duties are now purely 
 normal, all its powers having passed either to the Cabinet or to Commit- 
 tees of Parliament. 
 
ADDISON. 59 
 
 land, where he learned the melancholy news of 
 his father's death. After passing some months 
 in the United Provinces he returned, about the 
 close of the year 1703, to England. He was 
 there cordially received by his friends, and s 
 introduced by them into the Kit Cat Club, a 
 society in which were collected all the various 
 talents and accomplishments which then gave 
 luster to the Whig party. 
 
 Addison was, during some months after his 10 
 return from the Continent, hard pressed by 
 pecuniary difhculties ; but it was soon in the 
 power of his noble patrons to serve him effec- 
 tually. A political change — silent and grad- 
 ual, but of the highest importance — was in 15 
 daily progress. The accession of Anne had 
 been hailed by the Tories with transports of 
 joy and hope ; and for a time it seemed that 
 the Whigs had fallen never to rise again. The 
 throne was surrounded by men supposed to be 20 
 attached to the prerogative and to the Church ; 
 and among these none stood so high in the favor 
 of the sovereign as the Lord Treasurer Godol- 
 phin and the Captain General Marlborough. 
 
 3. United Provinces. The various States of Holland. 
 
 23 Earl of Godolphin, '1645-1712.) A noted minister under both 
 William and Anne, but lacking in moral principle. 
 
 24. Duke of Marlborough, (1650-1722.) John Churchill was one of 
 the most brilliant of English generals. It was he who won tlie great vic- 
 tories of Malplaquet, Oudenarde, and Blenheim. ' 
 
60 ADDISON. 
 
 The country gentlemen and country clergy- 
 men had fully expected that the policy of 
 these ministers would be directly opposed to 
 that which had been almost constantly fol- 
 
 5 lowed by William ; that the landed interest 
 would be favored at the expense of trade ; 
 that no addition would be made to the funded 
 debt; that the privileges conceded to Dis- 
 senters by the late King would be curtailed, if 
 
 •10 not withdrawn; that the war with France, 
 if there must be such a war, would, on our 
 part, be almost entirely naval ; and that the 
 government would avoid close connections 
 with foreign powers, and, above all, with 
 
 16 Holland. 
 
 But the country gentlemen and country 
 clergymen were fated to be deceived, not for 
 the last time. The prejudices and passions 
 which raged without control in vicarages, in 
 
 20 cathedral closes, and in the manor houses of 
 fox-hunting squires, were not shared by the 
 chiefs of the ministry. Those statesmen saw 
 that it was both for the public interest and for 
 their own interest to adopt a Whig policy, at 
 
 25 least as respected the alliances of the country 
 and the conduct of the war. But, if the foreign 
 
 g. Dissenters. The name given to all English protestantj who have 
 separated froin the Established Church. -' ' - 
 
ADDISON. 6l 
 
 policy of the Whigs were adopted, it was 
 impossible to abstain from adopting, also, 
 their financial policy. The natural conse- 
 quences followed. The rigid Tories were 
 alienated from the government. The votes 5 
 of the Whigs became necessary to it. The 
 votes of the Whigs could be secured only by 
 further concessions ; and further concessions 
 the Queen was induced to make. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1704, the 10 
 state of parties bore a close analogy to the 
 state of parties in 1826. In 1826, as in 1704, 
 there was a Tory ministry divided into two 
 hostile sections. The position of Mr. Can- 
 ning and his friends in 1826 corresponded to 15 
 that which Marlborough and Godolphin occu- 
 pied in 1704. Nottingham and Jersey were, 
 in 1704, what Lord Eldon and Lord West- 
 moreland were in 1826. The Whigs of 1704 
 were in a situation resembling that in which 20 
 the Whigs of 1826 stood. In 1704, Somers, 
 Halifax, Sunderland, Cowper, were not in 
 ofilice. There was no avowed coalition between 
 
 14. George Canning, (1770-1827.) An English statesman and prime 
 minister. He did much to further Catholic emancipation and free trade. 
 
 17. Nottingham and Jersey. Secretaries of state under William and 
 Anne. 
 
 18. Eldon and Westmoreland. The former was lord chancellor from 
 1801 to 1827. The latter was lord of the Privy Seal. 
 
 22. All ministers of the crown. 
 
62 ADDISON. 
 
 them and the moderate Tories. It is probable 
 that no direct communication tending to such 
 a coaHtion had yet taken place ; yet all men saw 
 that such a coalition was inevitable, nay, that 
 
 5 it was already half formed. Such, or nearly 
 such, was the state of things when tidings 
 arrived of the great battle fought at Blenheim 
 on the 13th of August, 1704. By the Whigs 
 the news was hailed with transports of joy and 
 
 10 pride. No fault, no cause of quarrel, could be 
 remembered by them against the commander 
 whose genius had in one day changed the face 
 of Europe, saved the imperial throne, humbled 
 the house of Bourbon, and secured the Act of 
 
 15 Settlement against foreign hostility. The feel- 
 ing of the Tories was very different. They 
 could not, indeed, without imprudence, openly 
 express regret at an event so glorious to their 
 country; but their congratulations were so 
 
 20 cold and sullen as to give deep disgust to the 
 victorious general and his friends. 
 
 Godolphin was not a reading man. What- 
 ever time he could spare from business he was 
 
 7. Blenheim was a small villaae in Bavaria where the French suffered 
 a great defeat at the hands of the English and Prince Eugene. 
 
 13. The Imperial Throne. That of the German empire, then occupied 
 by the Archduke of Austria. 
 
 15. Act of Settlement. An act passed in 1701 e.vcluding Catholics 
 from the English throne and fixing the succession on the House of Hanover. 
 
ADDISON. 63 
 
 in the habit of spending at Newmarket or at the 
 card table. But he was not absolutely indiffer- 
 ent to poetry, and he was too intelligent an 
 observer not to perceive that literature was a 
 formidable engine of political warfare, and that^ 
 the great Whig leaders had strengthened their 
 party, and raised their character, by extending 
 a liberal and judicious patronage to good 
 writers. He was mortified, and not without 
 reason, by the exceeding badness of the 10 
 poems which appeared in honor of the battle 
 of Blenheim. One of these poems has been 
 rescued from oblivion by the exquisite absurdity 
 of three lines : — 
 
 " Think of two thousand gentlemen at least, 15 
 
 And each man mounted on his capering beast ; 
 Into the Danube they were pushed by shoals." 
 
 Where to procure better verses the treasurer 
 did not know. He understood how to negotiate 
 a loan, or remit a subsidy; he was also well 20 
 versed in the history of running horses and 
 fighting cocks ; but his acquaintance among 
 the poets was very small. He consulted Hal- 
 ifax ; but Halifax affected to decline the office 
 of adviser. He had, he said, done his best, 25 
 when he had power, to encourage men whose 
 
 I. Newmarket. Here are the chief race courses in England. 
 
64 ADDISON. 
 
 abilities and acquirements might do honor to 
 their country. Those times were over. Other 
 maxims had prevailed. Merit was suffered to 
 pine in obscurity; and the public money 
 
 5 was squandered on the undeserving. "I do 
 know," he added, " a gentleman who would 
 celebrate the battle in a manner worthy of the 
 subject; but I will not name him." Godol- 
 phin, who was expert at the soft answer which 
 
 loturneth away wrath, and who was under the 
 necessity of paying court to the Whigs, gently 
 replied that there was too much ground for 
 Halifax's complaints, but that what was amiss 
 should in time be rectified, and that in the 
 
 15 meantime the services of a man such as Halifax 
 had described should be liberally rewarded. 
 Halifax then mentioned Addison, but mindful 
 of the dignity, as well as of the pecuniary 
 interest, of his friend, insisted that the min- 
 
 2oister should apply in the most courteous man- 
 ner to Addison himself ; and this Godolphin 
 promised to do. 
 
 Addison then occupied a garret up three 
 pair of stairs, over a small shop in the Hay- 
 
 25 market. In this humble lodging he was 
 surprised, on the morning which followed the 
 
 35. Haymarket. A street in London, so named because carts, filled 
 with hay and straw for sale, formerly stood there. 
 
ADDISON. 65 
 
 conversation between Godolphin and Halifax, 
 by a visit from no less a person than the 
 Right Hon. Henry Boyle, then chancellor of 
 the exchequer, and afterwards Lord Carlton. 
 This high-born minister had been sent by the^s 
 lord treasurer as ambassador to the needy 
 poet. Addison readily undertook the pro- 
 posed task, — a task which, to so good a Whig, 
 was probably a pleasure. When the poem 
 was little more than half finished he showed 10 
 it to Godolphin, who was delighted with it, 
 and particularly with the famous similitude of 
 the angel. Addison was instantly appointed 
 to a commissionership worth about two 
 hundred pounds a year, and was assured that is 
 this appointment was only an earnest of greater 
 favors. 
 
 The ''Campaign" came forth, and was as 
 much admired by the public as by the 
 minister. It pleases us less, on the whole, 20 
 than the ''Epistle" to Halifax; yet it 
 undoubtedly ranks high among the poems 
 which appeared during the interval between 
 
 12 Similitude of the angel. The following is the passage referred 
 to:— 
 
 " So when an angel by divine command 
 With rising tempests shakes a guihy land, 
 Such as of late, o'er pale Britannia pass'd. 
 Calm and serene he drives the furious blast; 
 And, pleased th' Almighty's orders to perform. 
 Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storn},'' 
 
66 ADDISON. 
 
 the death of Dryden and the dawn of Pope's 
 genius. The chief merit of the " Campaign," 
 we think, is that which was noticed by John- 
 son, — the manly and rational rejection of 
 
 5 fiction. The first great poet whose works 
 have come down to us sang of war long before 
 war became a science or a trade. If, in his 
 time, there was enmity between two little 
 Greek towns, each poured forth its crowd of 
 
 10 citizens, ignorant of discipline, and armed with 
 implements of labor rudely turned into 
 weapons. On each side appeared conspicuous 
 a few chiefs, whose wealth had enabled them 
 to procure good armor, horses and chariots, 
 
 15 and whose leisure had enabled them to 
 practise military exercises. One such chief 
 — if he were a man of great strength, agility, 
 and courage — would probably be more for- 
 midable than twenty common men ; and the 
 
 20 force and dexterity with which he flung his 
 spear might have no inconsiderable share in 
 deciding the event of the day. Such were 
 probably the battles with which Homer was 
 familiar. But Homer related the actions of 
 
 25 men of a former generation; of men who 
 sprang from the gods, and cornrnuned with the 
 
 S. Poet. Homer. 
 
ADDISON. 6j 
 
 gods face to face ; of men, one of whom could 
 with ease hurl rocks which two sturdy hinds 
 of a later period would be unable even to lift. 
 He therefore naturally represented their 
 martial exploits as resembling in kind, but fars 
 surpassing in magnitude, those of the stoutest 
 and most expert combatants of his own age. 
 Achilles, clad in celestial armor, drawn by 
 celestial coursers, grasping the spear which 
 none but himself could raise, driving all Troyio 
 and Lycia before him, and choking Scamander 
 with dead, was only a magnificent exaggera- 
 tion of the real hero, who, strong, fearless, 
 accustomed to the use of weapons, guarded by 
 a shield and helmet of the best Sidonian 15 
 fabric, and whirled along by horses of 
 Thessalian breed, struck down with his own 
 right arm foe after foe. In all rude societies 
 similar notions are found. There are at this 
 day countries where the Lifeguardsman Shaw 20 
 
 8. Achilles. The hero of the Iliad, and mightiest warrior of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 II. Lycia. The Lycians were a people of Asia Minor, neighbors and 
 allies of the Trojans. 
 
 II. Scamander. A river near the city of Troy. 
 
 15. Sidonian. Sidon was an ancient Phoenician city, famous for its 
 rich purple dye and its glass manufactures. 
 
 17 Thessalian Thessaly was one of the northern provinces of ancient 
 Greece, noted for its fine horses. 
 
 20. Shaw. A pugilist of some notoriety who won distinction for 
 bravery in the Battle of Waterloo. 
 
68 . ADDISON. 
 
 would be considered as a much greater 
 warrior than the Duke of Welhngton. Bona- 
 parte loved to describe the astonishment with 
 which the Mamelukes looked at his diminutive 
 
 5 figure. Mourad Bey, distinguished above all 
 his fellows by his bodily strength, and by the 
 skill with which he managed his horse and 
 his saber, could not believe that a man, who 
 was scarcely five feet high and rode like a 
 
 10 butcher, could be the greatest soldier in 
 Europe. 
 
 Homer's descriptions of war had, therefore, 
 as much truth as poetry requires. But truth 
 was altogether wanting to the performances of 
 
 15 those who, writing about battles which had 
 scarcely anything in common with the battles 
 of his times, servilely imitated his manner. 
 The folly of Silius Italicus, in particular, is 
 positively nauseous. He undertook to record 
 
 20 in verse the vicissitudes of a great struggle 
 between generals of the first order; and his 
 
 4 Mamelukes. They were originally slaves purchased by the Sultan 
 of Egypt and organized into an army. It was not long, however, before 
 they overthrew the Sultan and set up a dynasty of their own. They were 
 masters in Egypt until i8ii, when they were massacred at Cairo by 
 Mehemet Ali. Napoleon defeated them in the great battle of the Pyramids 
 in 1797. 
 
 5. Mourad Bey. Leader of the Mamelukes in the battle of the 
 Pyramids. 
 
 18. Silius Italicus Author of the epic poem on the second Punic War, 
 from which the following incidents are taken. See a Roman history of 
 thii period. 
 
ADDISON. 69 
 
 narrative is made up of the hideous wounds 
 which these generals inflicted with their own 
 hands. Asdrubal flings a spear which grazes 
 the shoulder of the consul Nero ; but Nero 
 sends his spear into Asdrubal's side. Fabius5 
 slays Thuris and Butes, and Maris and Arses, 
 and the long-haired Adherbes, and the gigantic 
 Thylis, and Sapharus and Monaesus, and the 
 trumpeter Morinus. Hannibal runs Perusinus 
 through the groin with a stake, and breaks 10 
 the backbone of Telesinus with a huge stone. 
 This detestable fashion was copied in modern 
 times, and continued to prevail down to the 
 age of Addison. Several versifiers had de- 
 scribed William as turning thousands to flight is 
 by his single prowess, and dying the Boyne 
 with Irish blood. Nay, so estimable a writer 
 as John Philips, the author of the *' Splendid 
 Shilling," represented Marlborough as having 
 won the battle of Blenheim merely by strength 20 
 of muscle and skill in fence. The following 
 lines may serve as an example: — 
 
 *' Churchill, viewing where 
 The violence of Tallard most prevailed, 
 
 16. Boyne. A river in Ireland where the final battle was fought in 
 which William III defeated James II. 
 
 18. John Philips. A minor poet of the time. The Torys induced him 
 to write a poem on Blenheim as an offset to Addison's. 
 24. Tallard. The French marshal. 
 
70 ADDISON. 
 
 Came to oppose his slaughtering arm. With speed 
 
 Precipitate he rode, urging his way 
 
 O'er hills of gasping heroes, and fallen steeds 
 
 Rolling in death. Destruction, grim with blood, 
 
 Attends his furious course. Around his head 
 
 The glowing balls play innocent, while he 
 
 With dire impetuous sway deals fatal blows 
 
 Among the flying Gauls. In Gallic blood 
 
 He dyes his reeking sword, and strews the ground 
 
 With Headless ranks. What can they do? Or how 
 
 Withstand his wide destroying sword? " 
 
 Addison, with excellent sense and taste, 
 departed from this ridiculous fashion. He 
 reserved his praise for the qualities which 
 15 made Marlborough truly great, — energy, 
 sagacity, military science ; but, above all, the 
 poet extolled the firmness of that mind, which 
 in the midst of confusion, uproar and slaughter, 
 examined and disposed everything with the 
 20 serene wisdom of a higher intelligence. 
 
 Here it was that he introduced the famous 
 comparison of Marlborough to an angel guid- 
 ing the whirlwind. We will not dispute the 
 general justice of Johnson's remarks on this 
 25 passage. But we must point out one circum- 
 stance which appears to have escaped all the 
 critics. The extraordinary effect which this 
 simile produced when it first appeared, and 
 which to the following generation seemed 
 30 inexplicable, is doubtless to be chiefly attri- 
 
ADDISON. 71 
 
 buted to a line which most readers now regard 
 as a feeble parenthesis: — 
 
 " Such as, of late, o'er pale Britannia pass'd." 
 
 Addison spoke, not of a storm, but of the 
 storm. The great tempest of November, 17035 
 — the only tempest which in our latitude has 
 equaled the rage of a tropical hurricane — had 
 left a dreadful recollection in the minds of all 
 men. No other tempest was ever, in this 
 country, the occasion of a parliamentary ad- 10 
 dress or of a public fast. Whole fleets had 
 been cast away. Large mansions had been 
 blown down. One prelate had been buried 
 beneath the ruins of his palace. London and 
 Bristol had presented the appearance of cities i5 
 just sacked. Hundreds of families were still 
 in mourning. The prostrate trunks of large 
 trees, and the ruins of houses still attested, in 
 all the southern counties, the fury of the blast. 
 The popularity which the simile of the angel 20 
 enjoyed among Addison's contemporaries has 
 always seemed to us to be a remarkable in- 
 stance of the advantage which, in rhetoric 
 and poetry, the particular has over the 
 general. '^^ 
 
 Soon after the " Campaign," was published 
 
72 ADDISON. 
 
 Addison's narrative of his travels in Italy. 
 The first effect produced by this narrative was 
 dissapointment. The crowd of readers who 
 expected politics and scandal, speculations on 
 
 5 the projects of Victor Amadeus, and anecdotes 
 about the jollities of convents and the amours 
 of cardinals and nuns, were confounded by 
 finding that the writer's mind was much more 
 occupied by the war between the Trojans and 
 
 10 Rutulians than by the war between France and 
 Austria ; and that he seemed to have heard no 
 scandal of later date than the gallantries of the 
 Empress Faustina. In time, however, the 
 judgment of the many was overruled by that 
 
 16 of the few; and before the book was reprinted 
 it was so eagerly sought that it sold for five 
 times the original price. It is still read with 
 pleasure. The style is pure and flowing; the 
 classical quotations and illusions are numerous 
 
 20 and happy ; and we are now and then charmed 
 by that singularly humane and delicate humor 
 in which Addison excelled all men. Yet this 
 agreeable work, even when considered merely 
 as the history of a literary tour, may justly be 
 
 5. Victor Amadeus. Duke of Savoy. 
 
 10. Rutulians. A tribe of ancient Italy living on the coast of Latium. 
 According to the story, they were conquered by JEneas and his followers. 
 
 13. Faustina. The wife of Marcus Aurelius. 
 
ADDISON. 73 
 
 censured on account of its faults of omission. 
 We have already said that, though rich in 
 extracts from the Latin poets, it contains 
 scarcely any references to the Latin orators 
 and historians. We must add that it contains 5 
 little, or rather no information respecting the 
 history and literature of modern Italy. To 
 the best of our remembrance, Addison does 
 not mention Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Boi- 
 ardo, Berni, Lorenzo de Medici, or Machia-io 
 velli. He coldly tells us that at Ferrara he 
 saw the tomb of Ariosto, and that at Venice 
 he heard the gondoliers sing verses of Tasso. 
 But for Tasso and Ariosto he cared far less 
 than for Valerius Flaccus and Sidonius Apol-i5 
 linaris. The gentle flow of the Ticin brings a 
 
 9. Dante Alighieri, (1265-1321.) The greatest of Italian poets. 
 Author of the " Divine Comedy," an imaginary journey through hell, 
 purgatory, and paradise. 
 
 9. Petrarch, (1304-1 374.) An Italian lyric poet. 
 
 9 Boccaccio, (1313-1375-) An early Italian novelist. His chief 
 work is the " Decameron." 
 
 9 Boiardo, (1434-1494 ) His chief poem is " Orlando Furioso." 
 
 10. Berni. A writer of graceful Latin verses. 
 
 10 Lorenzo de Medici, (1448-1492.) A great nobleman of Florence 
 who made the city the richest and most beautiful in Italy. His father was 
 Pope Leo IX. 
 
 11. Machiavelli, ^1469-1527.) A Florentine statesman whose name has 
 become a synonym for deceit. 
 
 15, Flaccus. A Roman poet of the time of the Emperor Vespasian. 
 
 15. Apollinaris. An early Christian writer of the fifth century. 
 
 16. Ticin. A river which flows from Switzerland through Lake Mag- 
 giore, into the Po. Hannibal fought a battle here. 
 
74 ADDISON. 
 
 line of Silius to his mind. The sulphurous, 
 steam of Albula suggests to him several 
 passages of Martial. But he has not a word 
 to say of the illustrious dead of Santa Croce ; 
 
 she crosses the wood of Ravenna without 
 recollecting the Specter Huntsman, and 
 wanders up and down Rimini without one 
 thought of Francesca. At Paris he had 
 eagerly sought an introduction to Boileau ; 
 
 10 but he seems not to have been at all aware 
 that at Florence he was in the vicinity of a 
 poet with whom Boileau could not sustain a 
 comparison, — of the greatest lyric poet of 
 modern times, Vincenzio Filicaja. This is the 
 
 15 more remarkable because Filicaja was the 
 favorite poet of the accomplished Somers, 
 under whose protection Addison travelled, and 
 to whom the account of the travels is dedi- 
 cated. The truth is, that Addison knew little, 
 
 20 and cared less, about the literature of modern 
 Italy. His favorite models were Latin. His 
 
 3. Martial, (40 A. D.) A famous Latin writer of epigrams. 
 
 4. Santa Croce. A church in Florence where many of the most illus- 
 trious men of Italy are buried. 
 
 5. Ravenna. An old Italian town The burial place of Dante. The 
 tale of the " Spector Huntsman " is in Boccaccio's " Decameron." 
 
 7. Rimini. A city on the Adriatic. For the story of Francesca di 
 Rimini see Dante's " Inferno," Canto V. It is one of the most tragic in 
 all literature. 
 
 14. Filicaja, (1642-1707.) His ode to Italy is used by Byron in the 
 ourth canto of " Childe Harold " 
 
ADDISON. 75 
 
 favorite critics were French. Half the Tuscan 
 poetry that he had read seemed to him 
 monstrous, and the other half tawdry. 
 
 His travels were followed by the lively 
 opera of " Rosamond." This piece was ill sets 
 to music, and therefore failed on the stage ; but 
 it completely succeeded in print, and is indeed 
 excellent in its kind. The smoothness with 
 which the verses glide, and the elasticity with 
 which they bound, is, to our ears at least, very lo 
 pleasing. We are inclined to think that if 
 Addison had left heroic couplets to Pope, and 
 blank verse to Rowe and had employed him- 
 self in writing airy and spirited songs, his 
 reputation as a poet would have stood fans 
 higher than it now does. Some years after 
 his death, ** Rosamond " was set to new music 
 by Dr. Arne, and was performed with com- 
 plete success. Several passages long retained 
 their popularity and were daily sung, during 20 
 the latter part of the reign of George II., at all 
 the harpsichords in England. 
 
 While Addison thus amused himself, his 
 prospects and the prospects of his party were 
 constantly becoming brighter and brighter. 25 
 
 5. The music for this opera was written by Dr Arne when he was only 
 eighteen. 
 
 13. Nicholas Rowe, (1674-1718.) A dramatist and poet laureate under 
 George I. He issued the first critical edition of Shakespeare. 
 
'j6 ADDISON. 
 
 In the spring of 1705, the ministers were freed 
 from the restraint imposed by a House of 
 Commons in which Tories of the most perverse 
 class had the ascendency. The elections were 
 
 5 favorable to the Whigs. The coalition which 
 had been tacitly and gradually formed was 
 now openly avowed. The Great Seal was 
 given to Cowper. Somers and Halifax were 
 sworn of the Council. Halifax was sent in the 
 
 10 following year to carry the decorations of the 
 Order of the Garter to the Electoral Prince of 
 Hanover, and was accompanied on this honor- 
 able mission by Addison, who had just been 
 made undersecretary of state. The secretary 
 
 15 of state under whom Addison first served was 
 Sir Charles Hedges, a Tory; but Hedges was 
 soon dismissed to make room for the most 
 vehement of Whigs, Charles, Earl of Sunder- 
 land. In every department of the state, 
 
 •20 indeed, the High Churchmen were compelled 
 to give place to their opponents. At the 
 close of 1707, the Tories who still remained in 
 
 7. The Great Seal is the emblem of royalty and is placed only on the 
 most important documents. 
 
 II. Order of the Garter. An order of knighthood founded by Edward 
 III. in 1344. Membership is restricted to the sovereign, Prince of Wales, 
 certain chosen princes and twenty-five regular knights. Others must be 
 admitted by special statute. 
 
 n. Prince of Hanover. George I. 
 
ADDISON. J^ 
 
 office strove to rally, with Harley at their 
 head ; but the attempt, though favored by the 
 Queen, — who had always been a Tory at 
 heart, and who had now quarreled with the 
 Duchess of Marlborough, — was unsuccessful, s 
 The time was not yet. The captain general 
 was at the height of popularity and glory. 
 The Low Church party had a majority in 
 Parliament. The country squires and rectors, 
 though occasionally uttering a savage growl, 
 were for the most part in a state of torpor 
 which lasted till they were roused into activity, 
 and indeed into madness, by the prosecution 
 of Sacheverell. Harley and his adherents were 
 compelled to retire. The victory of the Whigs is 
 was complete. At the general election of 
 1708, their strength in the House of Commons 
 became irresistible ; and before the end of that 
 year Somers was made lord president of the 
 Council, and Wharton lord lieutenant of Ireland. 20 
 Addison sat for Malmesbury in the House 
 
 I. Harley. Earl of Oxford. A favorite of Queen Anne but impeached 
 for treason by George I. 
 
 5. Duchess of Marlborough. For many years she ruled the queen 
 and dispensed favors at her own pleasure. 
 
 6. Captain general. Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 14 Sacheverell, (1672-1724.) A college mate of Addison's who gave 
 great offence by preaching sermons denouncing toleration to dissenters. 
 He was impeached by the House of Commons and suspended for three 
 years. 
 
 20. Thomas 'Wharton, (1640-1715.) A Whig statesman and one of 
 the first adherents of William of Orange. 
 
78 ADDISON. 
 
 of Commons which was elected in 1708; but 
 the House of Commons was not the field for 
 him. The bashfulness of his nature made his 
 wit and eloquence useless in debate. He once 
 
 5 rose, but could not overcome his diffidence, 
 and ever after remained silent. Nobody can 
 think it strange that a great writer can fail as 
 a speaker; but many probably will think it 
 strange that Addison's failure as a speaker 
 
 10 should have had no unfavorable effect on his 
 success as politician. In our time, a man of 
 high rank and great fortune might, though 
 speaking very little and very ill, hold a consid- 
 erable post ; but it would now be inconceivable 
 
 15 that a mere adventurer — a man who, when out 
 of qffice, must live by his pen — should in a few 
 years become successively under secretary of 
 state, chief secretary for Ireland, and secretary 
 of state, without some oratorical talent. Addi- 
 
 20 son, without high birth and with little property, 
 rose to a post which dukes, the heads of the 
 great houses of Talbot, Russell, and Bentinck, 
 have thought it an honor to fill. Without open- 
 ing his lips in debate, he rose to a post, the 
 
 26 highest that Chatham or Fox ever reached; 
 
 25 Earl of Chatham, (1708-1778 ) William Pitt, one of the greatest 
 English orators and Premier under George III. A staunch friend of the 
 American colonies 
 
 25. Charles James Fox, (1749-1806 ) A brilliant orator, the Liberal 
 leader and cival of Pitt. He advocated the abolition of the slave trade. 
 
ADDISON. 79 
 
 and this he did before he had been nine years 
 in ParHament. We must look for the explana- 
 tion of this seeming miracle to the peculiar 
 circumstances in which that generation was 
 placed. During the interval which elapsed 6 
 between the time when the censorship of the 
 press ceased, and the time when parliamentary 
 proceedings began to be freely reported, liter- 
 ary talents were, to a public man, of much 
 more importance, and oratorical talents ofio 
 much less importance, than in our time. At 
 present, the best way of giving rapid and wide 
 publicity to a fact or an argument is to intro- 
 duce that fact or argument into a speech made 
 in Parliament. If a political tract were to is 
 appear superior to " The Conduct of the 
 Allies," or to the best numbers of the '' Free- 
 holder," the circulation of such a tract would 
 be languid indeed, when compared with the 
 circulation of every remarkable word uttered 20 
 in the deliberations of the legislature. A 
 speech made in the House of Commons at 
 four in the morning is on thirty thousand 
 tables before ten. A speech made on the 
 Monday is read on the Wednesday by multi-25 
 tudes in Antrim and Aberdeenshire. The 
 
 16 Conduct of the Allies. A political pamphlet written by Dean 
 Swift advising the nation to make peace with France- 
 
 26. Antrim and Aberdeenshire. Towns, the one in Ireland, the other 
 in Scotland. 
 
8o ADDISON. 
 
 orator, by the help of the shorthand writer, 
 has to a great extent superseded the pam- 
 phleteer. It was not so in the reign of Anne. 
 The best speech could then produce no effect 
 
 5 except on those who heard it. It was only by 
 means of the press that the opinion of the 
 public without doors could be influenced ; and 
 the opinion of the public without doors could 
 not but be of the highest importance in a 
 
 10 country governed by parliaments, and indeed 
 at that time governed by triennial parliaments. 
 The pen was therefore a more formidable 
 political engine than the tongue. Mr. Pitt 
 and Mr. Fox contended only in Parliament. 
 
 i-^But Walpole and Pulteney, the Pitt and Fox 
 of an earlier period, had not done half of what 
 was necessary when they sat down among the 
 acclamations of the House of Commons. 
 They had still to plead their cause before the 
 
 20 country, and this they could do only by 
 means of the press. Their works are now 
 forgotten ; but it is certain that there were 
 in Grub Street few more assiduous scribblers 
 
 15. Sir Robert Walpole, (1676-1745.) A leading Whig and prime 
 minister to George I. 
 
 15. William Pulteney, (1682-1764 ) Leader of the opposition against 
 Walpole. 
 
 23. Grub Street. A street of cheap lodging houses in London fre 
 quented by penniless writers who were willing to do almost any kind of 
 " hack" work. 
 
ADDISON. 8 1 
 
 of Thoughts, Letters, Answers, Remarks, than 
 these two great chiefs of parties. Pulteney, 
 when leader of the Opposition, and possessed 
 of thirty thousand a year, edited the " Crafts- 
 man." Walpole, though not a man of hterarys 
 habits, was the author of at least ten pam- 
 phlets, and retouched and corrected many 
 more. These facts sufficiently show of how 
 great importance literary assistance then was 
 to the contending parties. St. John was cer-io 
 tainly, in Anne's reign, the best Tory speaker; 
 Cowper was probably the best Whig speaker : 
 but it may well be doubted whether St. John 
 did so much for the Tories as Swift, and 
 whether Cowper did so much for the Whigs i5 
 as Addison. When these things are duly 
 considered, it will not be thought strange that 
 Addison should have climbed higher in the 
 State than any other Englishman has ever, by^^ 
 means merely of literary talents, been able to 
 climb. Swift would in all probability have 
 climbed as high if he had not been encumbered 
 by his cassock and his pudding sleeves. As 
 far as the homage of the great went, Swift 25 
 
 10. St. John. Earl of Bolingbroke. A leading Tory statesman and 
 associate of Pulteney in his opposition to Walpole. 
 
 24. Pudding sleeves. An allusion to the dress of an Anglican or 
 Catholic clergyman. 
 
82 ADDISON. 
 
 had as much of it as if he had been lord 
 treasurer. 
 
 To the influence which Addison derived 
 from his literary talents was added all the 
 
 5 influence which arises from character. The 
 world, always ready to think the worst of 
 needy political adventurers, was forced to 
 make one exception. Restlessness, violence, 
 audacity, laxity of principle, are the vices 
 
 10 ordinarily attributed to that class of men. 
 But faction itself could not deny that Addison 
 had, through all changes of fortune, been 
 strictly faithful to his early opinions and to his 
 early friends ; that his integrity was without 
 
 15 stain; that his whole deportment indicated a 
 fine sense of the becoming ; that, in the 
 utmost heat of controversy, his zeal was 
 tempered by a regard for truth, humanity, and 
 social decorum ; that no outrage could ever pro- 
 
 2ovoke him to retaliation unworthy of a Christian 
 and a gentleman ; and that his only faults were 
 a too sensitive delicacy and a modesty which 
 amounted to bashfulness. 
 
 He was undoubtedly one of the most 
 
 25 popular men of his time; and much of his 
 popularity he owed, we believe, to that very 
 timidity which his friends lamented. That 
 
ADDISON. 83 
 
 timidity often prevented him from exhibiting 
 his talents to the best advantage ; but it 
 propitiated Nemesis. It averted that envy 
 which would otherwise have been excited by 
 fame so splendid, and by so rapid an elevation. 5 
 No man is so great a favorite with the public 
 as he who is at once an object of admiration, 
 of respect, and of pity ; and such were the 
 feelings which Addison inspired. Those who 
 enjoyed the privilege of hearing his familiar 10 
 conversation declared with one voice that it 
 was superior even to his writings. The 
 brilliant Mary Montagu said that she had 
 known all the wits, and that Addison was the 
 best company in the world. The malignant 15 
 Pope was forced to own that there was a 
 charm in Addison's talk which could be found 
 nowhere else. Swift, when burning with 
 animosity against the Whigs, could not but 
 confess to Stella that, after all, he had never 20 
 known any associate so agreeable as Addison. 
 Steele, an excellent judge of lively conversa- 
 tion, said that the conversation of Addison 
 
 3. Nemesis. The Greek goddess of vengeance. 
 
 13. Mary Montagu, (1690-1762 ) A beautiful and brilliant woman, 
 author of a series of letters to eminent men. She first introduced into 
 England inoculation for smallpox. 
 
 20. Stella. Miss Mary Johnson to whom Swift addressed his "Journal 
 to Stella." 
 
 22 Richard Steele, '1671-1724.) A writerof note, editor of the Tatler 
 and a friend of Addison. 
 
84 ADDISON. 
 
 was at once the most polite and the most 
 mirthful that could be imagined ; that it was 
 Terence and Catullus in one, heightened by 
 an exquisite something which was neither 
 
 5 Terence nor Catullus, but Addison alone. 
 Young, an excellent judge of serious conversa- 
 tion, said that, when Addison was at his ease, 
 he went on in a noble strain of thought and 
 language, so as to chain the attention of every 
 
 10 hearer. Nor were Addison's great colloquial 
 powers more admirable than the courtesy and 
 softness of heart which appeared in his con- 
 \^ersation. At the same time, it would be too 
 much to say that he was wholly devoid of the 
 
 15 malice which is, perhaps, inseparable from a 
 keen sense of the ludicrous. He had one habit 
 which both Swift and Stella applauded, and 
 which we hardly know how to blame. If his 
 first attempts to set a presuming dunce right 
 
 20 were ill received, he changed his tone, 
 '' assented with civil leer," and lured the 
 flattered coxcomb deeper and deeper into 
 absurdity. That such was his practice we 
 
 3. Terence, (185-159 B C ) One of the greatest writers of comedies. 
 He was originally a Roman slave. 
 
 6. Edward Young. A poet, best known as the author of " Night 
 Thoughts " 
 
 21 This quotation is from Pope who said that Addison was one to 
 " Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 
 And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer." 
 
ADDISON. 85 
 
 should, we think, have guessed from his works. 
 The *' Tatler's " criticisms on Mr. Softly's 
 sonnet, and the " Spectator's " dialogue with 
 the politician who is so zealous for the honor 
 of Lady O — p — t — s, are excellent specimens 5 
 of this innocent mischief. 
 
 Such were Addison's talents for conversa- 
 tion. But his rare gifts were not exhibited to 
 crowds or to strangers. As soon as he entered 
 a large company, as soon as he saw an 10 
 unknown face, his lips were sealed, and his 
 manners became constrained. None who met 
 him only in great assemblies would have been 
 able to believe that he was the same man who 
 had often kept a few friends listening and 15 
 laughing round a table from the time when 
 the play ended till the clock of St. Paul's in 
 Covent Garden struck four. Yet, even at such 
 a table, he was not seen to the best advantage. 
 To enjoy his conversation in the highest per- 20 
 fection, it was necessary to be alone with him, 
 and to hear him, in his own phrase, think aloud. 
 '' There is no such thing," he used to say, '* as 
 real conversation but between two persons." 
 
 This timidity — a timidity surely neither 25 
 
 2. Mr. Softly. A character in t^e Tatler. 
 
 5 Lady Q-p-t-s. Spectator, Nos 567, 568. 
 
 18. Covent Garden. Covtiit is a corruption of convent. The garden 
 once belonged to Westminster Abbey, but is now a square in London well- 
 known for Its fruit and flower markets. 
 
86 ADDISON. 
 
 ungraceful nor unamiable — led Addison into 
 the two most serious faults which can with 
 justice be imputed to him. He found that 
 wine broke the spell which lay on his fine 
 
 5 intellect, and was therefore too easily seduced 
 into convivial excess. Such excess was in 
 that age regarded, even by grave men, as the 
 most venial of all peccadillos, and was so far 
 from being a mark of ill breeding that it was 
 
 10 almost essential to the character of a fine 
 gentleman. But the smallest speck is seen on 
 a white ground ; and almost all the biograph- 
 ers of Addison have said something about this 
 failing. Of any other statesman or writer of 
 
 15 Queen Anne's reign, we should no more think 
 
 of saying that he sometimes took too much 
 
 wine than that he wore a long wig and a sword. 
 
 To the excessive modesty of Addison's 
 
 nature we must ascribe another fault, which 
 
 20 generally arises from a very different cause. 
 He became a little too fond of seeing himself 
 surrounded by a small circle of admirers to 
 whom he was as a king or rather as a god. 
 All these men were far inferior to him in 
 
 25 ability, and some of them had very serious 
 faults. Nor did those faults escape his obser- 
 vation ; for, if ever there was an eye which saw 
 
ADDISON. 87 
 
 through and through men, it was the eye of 
 Addison. But, with the keenest observation 
 and the finest sense of the ridiculous, he had 
 a large charity. The feeling with which he 
 looked on most of his humble companions was 5 
 one of benevolence, slightly tinctured with 
 contempt. He was at perfect ease in their 
 company; he was grateful for their devoted 
 attachment ; and he loaded them with benefits. 
 Their veneration for him appears to have 10 
 exceeded that with which Johnson was 
 regarded by Boswell, or Warburton by Hurd. 
 It was not in the power of adulation to turn 
 such a head, or deprave such a heart, as 
 Addison's; but it must in candor be admitted, 15 
 that he contracted some of the faults which 
 can scarcely be avoided by any person who is 
 so unfortunate as to be the oracle of a small 
 literary coterie. 
 
 One member of this little society was>o 
 Eustace Budgell, a young templar of some 
 literature, and a distant relation of Addison. 
 There was at this time no stain on the 
 
 12. James Boswell, (1740-1795.) The famous biographer of Dr 
 Johnson. He was a Scotch lawyer who left his home only to get a sight 
 of the great doctor, and afterward spent his Hfe in studying Johnson's 
 character and treasuring all his sayings. Hence his biography is a mas- 
 terpiece of its kind 
 
 12. William Warburton, (1698-1779.) A celebrated English divine. 
 His writings were edited with a highly eulogistic introduction by his friend, 
 Richard Hurd, Bishop of Worcester. 
 
88 ADDISON.- 
 
 character of Budgell ; and it is not improb- 
 able that his career would have been prosper- 
 ous and honorable, if the life of his cousin had 
 been prolonged. But when the master was 
 
 5 laid in the grave, the disciple broke loose from 
 all restraint, descended rapidly from one 
 degree of vice and misery to another, ruined 
 his fortune by follies, attempted to repair it by 
 crimes, and at length closed a wicked and 
 
 10 unhappy life by self-murder. Yet, to the last, 
 the wretched man — gambler, lampooner, cheat, 
 forger, as he was — retained his affection and 
 veneration for Addison, and recorded those feel- 
 ings in the last lines which he traced before he 
 
 15 hid himself from infamy under London Bridge. 
 
 Another of Addison's favorite companions 
 
 was Ambrose Philips, a good Whig and a 
 
 middling poet, who had the honor of bringing 
 
 into fashion a species of composition which 
 
 20 has been called, after his name, Namby Pamby. 
 But the most remarkable members of the little 
 senate, as Pope long afterwards called it, were 
 Richard Steele and Thomas Tickell. 
 
 14 Last lines. On his desk were found the words, "What Cato did, 
 and Addison approved, cannot be wrong " 
 
 17 Ambrose Philips, 1671-1749.) He wrote a play, " The Distressed 
 Mother," to which Addison takes Sir Roger de Coverley in No. 335 of the 
 Spectator 
 
 23. Tickell, (1686-1740.) Known chiefly for his " Elegy to Addison," 
 of which Johnson said, " There is not a njore sublime or more eloquent 
 funeral poem to be found in the whole compass of English literature." 
 
ADDISON. 89 
 
 Steele had known Addison from childhood. 
 They had been together at the Charter House 
 and at Oxford ; but circumstances had then, 
 for a time, separated them widely. Steele had 
 left college without taking a degree, had been 5 
 disinherited by a rich relation, had led a 
 vagrant life, had served in the army, had tried 
 to find the philosopher's stone, and had 
 written a religious treatise and several come- 
 dies. He was one of those people whom it is 10 
 impossible either to hate or to respect. His 
 temper was sweet, his affections warm, his 
 spirits lively, his passions strong, and his 
 principles weak. His life was spent in sinning 
 and repenting; in inculcating what was right, ^5 
 and doing what was wrong. In speculation 
 he was a man of piety and honor ; in practice 
 he was much of the rake and a little of the 
 swindler. He was, however, so good-natured 
 that it was not easy to be seriously angry with 20 
 him, and that even rigid moralists felt more 
 inclined to pity than to blame him when he 
 diced himself into a sponging house, or drank 
 himself into a fever. Addison regarded Steele 
 with kindness not unmingled with scorn, tried, 25 
 
 23. Sponging house. The name given to the house where persons 
 arrested for debc were allowed to remain twenty-four hours before going 
 to prison, in order that they might have an opportunity of settling the 
 debt through their friends. 
 
90 ADDISON. 
 
 with little success, to keep him out of scrapes, 
 introduced him to the great, procured a good 
 place for him, corrected his plays, and, though 
 by no means rich, lent him large sums of 
 
 5 money. One of these loans appears, from a 
 letter dated August, 1708, to have amounted 
 to a thousand pounds. These pecuniary 
 transactions probably led to frequent bicker- 
 ings. It is said that, on one occasion, Steele's 
 
 10 negligence or dishonesty provoked Addison 
 to repay himself by the help of a bailiff. We 
 cannot join with Miss Aiken in rejecting this 
 story. Johnson heard it from Savage, who 
 heard it from Steele. Few private transactions 
 
 15 which took place a hundred and twenty years 
 ago are proved by stronger evidence than this. 
 But we can by no means agree with those who 
 condemn Addison's severity. The most 
 amiable of mankmd may well be moved to 
 
 20 indignation when what he has earned hardly, 
 and lent with great inconvenience to himself, 
 for the purpose of relieving a friend in distress, 
 is squandered with insane profusion. We will 
 illustrate our meaning by an example which 
 
 26 is not the less striking because it is taken from 
 fiction. Dr. Harrison, in Fielding's '* Amelia," 
 
 13. Richard Savage. A minor poet of the time. 
 
 26. Henry Fielding, (1714-1754.) One of the earliest and greatest of 
 English novelists. His best works are " Tom Jones and Amelia." 
 
ADDISON. 91 
 
 is represented as the most benevolent of 
 human beings; yet he takes in execution, not 
 only the goods, but the person, of his friend 
 Booth. Dr. Harrison resorts to this strong 
 measure because he has been informed that^ 
 Booth, while pleading poverty as an excuse 
 for not paying just debts, has been buying fine 
 jewelry and setting up a coach. No person 
 who is well acquainted with Steele's life and 
 correspondence can doubt that he behaved 10 
 quite as ill to Addison as Booth was accused 
 of behaving to Dr. Harrison. The real history, 
 we have little doubt, was something like this: 
 a letter comes to Addison, imploring help in 
 pathetic terms, and promising reformation andi5 
 speedy repayment. Poor Dick declares that he 
 has not an inch of candle, or a bushel of coals, 
 or credit with the butcher for a shoulder of 
 mutton. Addison is moved. He determines 
 to deny himself some medals which are want- 20 
 ing to his series of the Twelve Caesars, to put 
 off buying the new edition of Bayle's Diction- 
 ary, and to wear his old sword and buckles 
 another year : in this way he manages to send 
 a hundred pounds to his friend. The next 25 
 day he calls on Steele, and finds scores of 
 
 2G. Pierre Bayle. A learned French philosopher. The work referred 
 to is his " Historical and Critical Dictionary." 
 
92 ADDISON. 
 
 gentlemen and ladies assembled. The fiddles 
 are playing. The table is groaning under 
 Champagne, Burgundy, and pyramids of 
 sweetmeats. Is it strange that a man whose 
 
 5 kindness is thus abused should send sheriff's 
 officers to reclaim w^hat is due to him ? 
 
 Tickell was a young man, fresh from 
 Oxford, who had introduced himself to public 
 notice by writing a most ingenious and grace- 
 
 loful little poem in praise of the opera of 
 '* Rosamond." He deserved, and at length 
 attained, the first place in Addison's friendship. 
 For a time Steele and Tickell were on good 
 terms ; but they loved Addison too much to 
 
 15 love each other, and at length became as 
 bitter enemies as the rival bulls in Virgil. 
 
 At the close of 1708 Wharton became lord 
 lieutenant of Ireland, and appointed Addison 
 chief secretary. Addison was consequently 
 
 20 under the necessity of quitting London for 
 Dublin. Besides the chief secretaryship, 
 which was then worth about two thousand 
 pounds a year, he obtained a patent appoint- 
 ing him keeper of the Irish Records for life, 
 
 25 with a salary of three or four hundred a year. 
 Budgell accompanied his cousin in the 
 capacity of private secretary. 
 
 16. Rival bulls. Georgics, III., 220-225. 
 
ADDISON. 93 
 
 Wharton and Addison had nothing in 
 common but Whiggism. The lord Heutenant 
 was not only licentious and corrupt, but was 
 distinguished from other libertines and jobbers 
 by a callous impudence which presented the 5 
 strongest contrast to the secretary's gentleness 
 and delicacy. Many parts of the Irish 
 administration at this time appear to have 
 deserved serious blame ; but against Addison 
 there was not a murmur. He long afterwards 10 
 asserted, what all the evidence which we have 
 ever seen tends to prove, that his diligence and 
 integrity gained the friendship of all the most 
 considerable persons in Ireland. 
 
 The parliamentary career of Addison in 15 
 Ireland has, we think, wholly escaped the 
 notice of all his biographers. He was elected 
 member for the borough of Cavan in the 
 summer of 1709; and in the journals of two 
 sessions his name frequently occurs. Some 20 
 of the entries appear to indicate that he so 
 far overcame his timidity as to make speeches. 
 Nor is this by any means improbable, for the 
 Irish House of Commons was a far less for- 
 midable audience than the English House, and 25 
 many tongues which were tied by fear in the 
 greater assembly became fluent in the smaller. 
 
94 ADDISON. 
 
 Gerard Hamilton, for example, who, from fear 
 of losing the fame gained by his single speech, 
 sat mute at Westminster during forty years, 
 spoke with great effect at Dublin when he was 
 
 5 secretary to Lord Halifax. 
 
 While Addison was in Ireland, an event 
 occurred to which he owes his high and 
 permanent rank among British writers. As 
 yet his fame rested on performances, which, 
 
 10 though highly respectable, were not built for 
 duration, and which would, if he had produced 
 nothing else, have now been almost forgotten, 
 — on some excellent Latin verses, on some 
 English verses which occasionally rose above 
 
 15 mediocrity, and on a book of travels, agree- 
 ably written, but not indicating any extraordi- 
 nary powers of mind. These works showed 
 him to be a man of taste, sense, and learning. 
 The time had come when he was to prove 
 
 20 himself a man of genius, and to enrich our 
 literature with compositions which will live as 
 long as the English language. 
 
 In the spring of 1709, Steele formed a 
 literary project, of which he was far indeed 
 
 25 from foreseeing the consequences. Periodical 
 papers had during many years been published 
 in London. Most of these were political ; but 
 
ADDISON. 95 
 
 in some of them questions of morality, taste, 
 and love casuistry had been discussed. The 
 literary merit of these works was small indeed, 
 and even their names are now known only to 
 the curious. «> 
 
 Steele had been appointed gazetteer by 
 Sunderland, at the request, it is said, of Addi- 
 son, and thus had access to foreign intelligence 
 earlier and more authentic than was in those 
 times within the reach of an ordinary news-io 
 writer. This circumstance seems to have 
 suggested to him the scheme of publishing a 
 periodical paper on a new plan. It was to 
 appear on the days on which the po-st left 
 London for the country, which were, in that 15 
 generation, the Tuesdays, Thursdays, and 
 Saturdays. It was to contain the foreign 
 news, accounts of theatrical representations, 
 and the literary gossip of Will's and of the 
 Grecian. It was also to contain remarks on 20 
 the fashionable topics of the day, compliments 
 to beauties, pasquinades on noted sharpers, 
 and criticisms on popular preachers. The 
 aim of Steele does not appear to have been at 
 
 6. Gazetteer. One appointed by the state to edit the official organ 
 known as the Gazette. It is still issued twice a week and contains all 
 proclamations, orders, and legal notices. 
 
 19. Will's and the Grecian. Well-known coffee-houses. 
 
 2a. Pasquinades. Lampoons, named from their employment by a 
 noted Italian wit, Pasquinado. 
 
96 ■ ADDISON. 
 
 first higher than this. He was not ill qualified 
 to conduct the work which he had planned. 
 His public intelligence he drew from the best 
 sources. He knew the town, and had paid 
 
 5 dear for his knowledge. He had read much 
 more than the dissipated men of that time 
 were in the habit of reading. He was a rake 
 among scholars, and a scholar among rakes. 
 His style was easy and not incorrect, and, 
 
 10 though his wit and humor were of no high 
 order, his gay animal spirits imparted to his 
 compositions an air of vivacity which ordinary 
 readers could hardly distinguish from comic 
 genius. His writings have been well compared 
 
 16 to those light wines, which, though deficient 
 
 in body and flavor, are yet a pleasant small 
 
 drink, if not kept too long, or carried too far. 
 
 Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., astrologer, was an 
 
 imaginary person, almost as well known in 
 
 20 that age, as Mr. Paul Pry or Mr. Samuel 
 Pickwick, in ours. Swift had assumed the 
 name of Bickerstaff in a satirical pamphlet 
 against Partridge, the maker of almanacs. 
 
 2o. Paul Pry. A comedy of John Pool. 
 
 23. John Partridge had for a number of years issued vague prophecies. 
 These Swift lidiculed by publishing a pamphlet, called Predictions for 
 the year 1708, which among other things, declaied that Partridge would 
 die on the night of March 29. Shortly after that date he issued another 
 pamphlet giving a very pathetic account of Partridge s death. The victim 
 of this joke was foolish enough to write a reply declaring that he was still 
 alive, and was overwhelmed with ridicule. 
 
ADDISON. 97 
 
 Partridge had been fool enough to pubHsh a 
 furious reply. Bickerstaff had rejoined in a 
 second pamphlet still more diverting than the 
 first. All the wits had combined to keep up 
 the joke; and the town was long in convul-5 
 sions of laughter. Steele determined to 
 employ the name which this controversy had 
 made popular; and in 1709 it was announced 
 that Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., astrologer, was 
 about to publish a paper called the " Tatler." 10 
 
 Addison had not been consulted about this 
 scheme ; but, as soon as he heard of it, he 
 determined to give his assistance. The effect 
 of that assistance cannot be better described 
 than in Steele's own words. *' I fared," he 15 
 said, " like a distressed prince who calls in a 
 powerful neighbor to his aid. I was undone 
 by my auxiliary. When I had once called him 
 in, I could not subsist without dependence on 
 him." "The paper," he says elsewhere, '*was20 
 advanced indeed. It was raised to a greater 
 thing than I intended it." 
 
 It is probable that Addison, when he sent 
 across St. George's Channel his first contribu- 
 tions to the " Tatler," had no notion of the25 
 extent and variety of his own powers. He 
 was the possessor of a vast mine, rich with a 
 
98 ADDISON, 
 
 hundred ores ; but he had been acquainted 
 only with the least precious part of his 
 treasures, and had hitherto contented himself 
 with producing sometimes copper, and some- 
 
 5 times lead, intermingled with a little silver. 
 All at once, and by mere accident, he has 
 lighted on an inexhaustible vein of the finest 
 gold. 
 
 The mere choice and arrangement of his 
 
 10 words woiild have sufficed to make his essays 
 classical; for never — not even by Dryden, 
 not even by Temple — had the English lan- 
 guage been written with such sweetness, grace, 
 and facility. But this was the smallest part 
 
 15 of Addison's praise. Had he clothed his 
 thoughts in the half French style of Horace 
 Walpole, or in the half Latin style of Dr. 
 Johnson, or in the half German jargon of the 
 present day, his genius would have triumphed 
 
 20 over all faults of manner. As a moral satirist 
 he stands unrivaled. If ever the best '*Tat- 
 lers " and " Spectators " were equa-led in their 
 own kind, we should be inclined to guess that 
 
 12. Sir William Temple, (1628-1609 ) A statesman whose essays are 
 models of elegant English. 
 
 17. Horace 'Walpole. Youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, famous 
 for his Letters. 
 
 18. German jargon. No doubt a reference to Carlyle whose style was 
 influenced by his fondness for German literature. 
 
ADDISON. 99 
 
 it must have been by the lost comedies of 
 Menander. 
 
 In wit, properly so called, Addison was 
 not inferior to Cowley or Butler. No single 
 ode of Cowley contains so many happy 5 
 analogies as are crowded into the lines to Sir 
 Godfrey Kneller ; and we would undertake to 
 collect from the " Spectators " as great a 
 number of ingenious illustrations as can be 
 found in *' Hudibras." The still higher faculty lo 
 of invention Addison possessed in still larger 
 measure. The numerous fictions, generally 
 original, often wild and grotesque, but always 
 singularly graceful and happy, which are found 
 in his essays, fully entitle him to the rank of a 15 
 great poet, — a rank to which his metrical 
 compositions give him no claim. As an 
 observer of life, of manners, of all the shades 
 of human character, he stands in the first 
 class; and what he observed he had the art 20 
 of communicating in two widely different ways. 
 He could describe virtues, vices, habits, whims, 
 
 2. Menander. A noted Greek writer of comedy. Not one of his hun- 
 dred works has come down to us. 
 
 4. Cowley, 1618-1667.) A poet of the so-called " conceited " school 
 of the seventeenth century. 
 
 4. Samuel Butler, 1612-1680."* A satirist of the Puritans. His 
 mock-heroic poem, " Hudibras," afforded great amusement to Charles H. 
 and his court. 
 
 7. Kneller. A German artist, court painter to Charles II. 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
lOO ADDISON. 
 
 as well as Clarendon. But he could do some- 
 thing better : he could call human beings into 
 existence, and make them exhibit themselves. 
 If we wish to find anything more vivid than 
 
 5 Addison's best portraits, we must go either to 
 Shakespeare or to Cervantes. 
 
 But what shall we say of Addison's humor, 
 of his sense of the ludicrous, of his power of 
 awakening that sense in others, and of drawing 
 
 10 mirth from incidents which occur every day, 
 and from little peculiarities of temper and 
 manner such as may be found in every man? 
 We feel the charm ; we give ourselves up to 
 it ; but we strive in vain to analyze it. 
 
 15 Perhaps the best way of describing Addi- 
 son's peculiar pleasantry is to compare it 
 with the pleasantry of some other great 
 satirists. The three most eminent masters of 
 the art of ridicule during the eighteenth 
 
 20 century were, we conceive, Addison, Swift, 
 and Voltaire. Which of the three had the 
 greatest power of moving laughter may be 
 questioned; but each of them, within his own 
 domain, was supreme. 
 
 I. Earl of Clarendon, (1618-1674." Lor J Chancellor of James I , and 
 author of a history of the war between Charles I. and Parliament. 
 
 6. Cervantes, ('1547-1616.) A great Spanish writer. His " Don 
 Quixote," a romance ridiculing the practices of chivalry, is one of the 
 greatest works in any literature. 
 
 21. Voltaire, (1694-1778;. A noted French poet and philosopher. 
 
ADDISON. lOI 
 
 Voltaire is the prince of buffoons. His 
 merriment is without disguise or restraint. 
 He gambols ; he grins ; he shakes the sides ; 
 he points the finger; he turns up the nose ; he 
 shoots out the tongue. The manner of Swifts 
 is the very opposite to this. He moves 
 laughter, but never joins in it. He appears 
 in his works such as he appeared in society. 
 All the company are convulsed with merri- 
 ment; while the Dean, the author of all the lo 
 mirth, preserves an invincible gravity and even 
 sourness of aspect, and gives utterance to the 
 most eccentric and ludicrous fancies with the 
 air of a man reading the commination service. 
 
 The manner of Addison is as remote from is 
 that of Swift as from that of Voltaire. He 
 neither laughs out like the French wit, nor, 
 like the Irish wit, throws a double portion of 
 severity into his countenance while laughing 
 inwardly, but preserves a look peculiarly his 20 
 own, — a look of demure serenity, disturbed 
 only by an arch sparkle of the eye, an almost 
 imperceptible elevation of the brow, an almost 
 imperceptible curl of the lip. His tone is 
 never that either of a Jack Pudciing or of a 25 
 
 14. Commination service. A service of the Church of England read 
 on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. 
 
 25. Jack Pudding. A juggler, a coarse a:.d vulgar person 
 
I02 ADDISON. 
 
 Cynic. It is that of a gentleman in whom the 
 
 quickest sense of the ridiculous is constantly 
 
 tempered by good nature and good breeding. 
 
 We own that the humor of Addison is, in 
 
 5 our opinion, of more delicious flavor than the 
 humor of either Swift or Voltaire. Thus much, 
 at least, is certain, that both Swift and Voltaire 
 have been successfully mimicked, and that no 
 man has yet been able to mimic Addison. The 
 
 10 letter of the Abbe Coyer to Pansophe is Voltaire 
 all over, and imposed, during a long time, on the 
 Academicians of Paris. There are passages in 
 Arbuthnot's satirical works which we, at least, 
 cannot distinguish from Swift's best writing. 
 
 15 But of the many eminent men who have made 
 Addison their model, though several have 
 copied his mere diction with happy effect, 
 none has been able to catch the tone of his 
 pleasantry. In the ''World," in the " Conno- 
 
 2oisseur," in the "Mirror," in the "Lounger," 
 there are numerous papers written in obvious 
 imitation of his " Tatlers " and " Spectators." 
 Most of these papers have some merit; many 
 
 I. Cynics. A sect of Greek philosophers who disregarded the cust' ms 
 of society. 
 
 lo. Abbe Coyer. A well-known French Jesuit. 
 
 13. John Arbuthnot, '1667-1735.) A physician of great learning and 
 wit. He was a friend of Swift and Pope, and his "Memoirs of Martinus 
 Scriberlius " is a brilliant piece of sarcastic humor. 
 
 20. All contemporary periodicals of low grade. 
 
ADDISON. 103 
 
 are very lively and amusing; but there is not 
 a single one which could be passed off as 
 Addison's on a critic of the smallest perspi- 
 cacity. 
 
 But that which chiefly distinguishes Addi-.^ 
 son from Swift, from Voltaire, from almost all 
 the other great masters of ridicule, is the 
 grace, the nobleness, the moral purity, which 
 we find even in his merriment. Severity, 
 gradually hardening and darkening into mis- 10 
 anthropy, characterizes the work of Swift. 
 The nature of Voltaire was, indeed, not 
 inhuman ; but he venerated nothing. Neither 
 in the masterpieces of art nor in the purest 
 examples of virtue, neither in the Great First 15 
 Cause nor in the awful enigma of the grave, 
 could he see anything but subjects for drollery. 
 The more solemn and august the theme, the 
 more monkey-like was his grimacing and 
 chattering. The mirth of Swift is the mirth 20 
 of Mephistopheles ; the mirth of Voltaire is 
 the mirth of Puck. If, as Soame Jenyns oddly 
 imagined, a portion of the happiness of 
 seraphim and just men made perfect be derived 
 
 21. Mephistopheles. One of the names given to the personification of 
 the principle of evil. 
 
 22. Puck. An elf in Shakespeare's " Midsummer Night's Dream." 
 
 22. Soame Jenyns, (1704-1787.) Author of a work on the Inter al 
 Evidence of the Christian Religion. 
 
I04 ADDISON. 
 
 from an exquisite perception of the ludicrous, 
 their mirth must surely be none other than 
 the mirth of Addison, — a mirth consistent 
 with tender compassion for all that is frail, 
 
 sand with profound reverence for all that is 
 sublime. Nothing great, nothing amiable, no 
 moral duty, no doctrine of natural or revealed 
 religion, has ever been associated by Addison 
 with any degrading idea. His humanity is 
 
 10 without a parallel in literary history. The 
 highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless 
 power without abusing it. No kind of power 
 is more formidable than the power of making 
 men ridiculous ; and that power Addison 
 
 16 possessed in boundless measure. How grossly 
 that power was abused by Swift and by 
 Voltaire is well known. But of Addison it 
 may be confidently affirmed that he has 
 blackened no man's character, nay, that it 
 
 20 would be difficult, if not impossible, to find in 
 all the volumes which he has left us a single 
 taunt which can be called ungenerous or 
 unkind. Yet he had detractors, whose malig- 
 nity might have seemed to justify as terrible a 
 
 25 revenge as that which men not superior to 
 him in genius wreaked on Bettesvvorth and on 
 
 26. Bettesvvorth. An Irish barrister, a victim of Swift's satire. 
 
ADDISON. 105 
 
 Franc de Pompignan. He was a politician ; 
 he was the best writer of his party ; he Hved 
 in times of fierce excitement, in times when 
 persons of high character and station stooped 
 to scurriHty such as is now practiced only by 5 
 the basest of mankind : yet no provocation 
 and no example could induce him to return 
 railing for railing. 
 
 Of the service which his essays rendered to 
 morality it is dif^cult to speak too highly. It 10 
 is true that, when the " Tatler " appeared, 
 that age of outrageous profaneness and licen- 
 tiousness which followed the Restoration had 
 passed away. Jeremy Collier had shamed the 
 theaters into something which, compared with 15 
 the excesses of Etherege and Wycherley, 
 might be called decency ; yet there still 
 lingered in the public mind a pernicious 
 notion that there was some connection between 
 genius and profligacy, between the domestic 20 
 virtues and the sullen formality of the Puritans. 
 That error it is the glory of Addison to have 
 dispelled. He taught the nation that the faith 
 
 I. Franc de Pompignan. A conceited French poet ridiculed by 
 Voltaire. 
 
 14. Collier. An English clergyman who helped by his writings to bring 
 about a reform in the stage. 
 
 16. Etherege. A dramatist of the Restoration. 
 
 16. Wycherley. A writer of licentious comedies. 
 
I06 ADDISON. 
 
 and the morality of Hale and Tillotson might 
 be found in company with wit more sparkling 
 than the wit of Ccngreve, and with humor 
 richer than the humor of Vanbrugh. So effec- 
 
 stually, indeed, did he retort on vice the 
 mockery which had recently been directed 
 against virtue, that since his time the open 
 violation of decency has always been consid- 
 ered among us as the mark of a fool. And 
 
 10 this revolution, the greatest and most salutary 
 ever affected by any satirist, he accomplished, 
 be it remembered, without writing one per- 
 sonal lampoon. 
 
 In the early contributions of Addison to the 
 
 i5"Tatler" his peculiar powers w^ere not fully 
 exhibited ; yet from the first his superiority to 
 all his coadjutors w^as evident. Some of his 
 later " Tatlers" are fully equal to anything that 
 he ever wrote. Among the portraits, w^e most 
 
 20 admire Tom Folio, Ned Softly, and the Poli- 
 tical Upholsterer. The proceedings of the 
 " Court of Honor," the ** Thermometer of Zeal," 
 
 I. Sir Matthew Hale, (1609-1676 . A celebrated lawyer. 
 
 I. Tillotson, (1630-1694.) Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 4. Vanbrugh. A dramatist of great grossness. 
 
 20. Tom Folio. Toiler, No. 158. 
 
 20. Ned Softly. Tailer, No. 163. 
 
 21. Political Upholsterer. Tatler, Nos. 155 and 160. 
 
 22. Court of Honor. Tatler, Nos. 250, 253, 256, 259, 262. 265. 
 22. Thermometer of Zeal. Tatler, "Ho. 220. 
 
ADDISON. 107 
 
 the story of the ** Frozen Words," the *' Mem- 
 oirs of the Shilling," are excellent specimens 
 of that ingenious and lively species of fiction 
 in which Addison excelled all men. There is 
 one still better paper of the same class; but 5 
 though that paper, a hundred and thirty-three 
 years ago, was probably thought as edifying 
 as one of Smalridge's sermons, we dare not 
 indicate it to the squeamish readers of the 
 nineteenth century. 10 
 
 During the session of Parliament which com- 
 menced in November, 1709, and which the 
 impeachment of Sacheverell has made memo- 
 rable, Addison appears to have resided in Lon- 
 don. The ** Tatler " was now more popular is 
 than any periodical paper had ever been, and 
 his connection with it was generally known : it 
 was not known, however, that almost every- 
 thing good in the " Tatler " was his. The truth 
 is, that the fifty or sixty numbers which we 20 
 owe to him were not merely the best, but so 
 decidedly the best, that any five of them are 
 more valuable than all the two hundred num- 
 bers in which he had no share. 
 
 He required at this time all the solace which 25 
 he could derive from literary success. The 
 
 1. Frozen Words. Tatler, No. 254. 
 
 2. Memoirs of a Shilling. Tatler, No 249. 
 
I08 ADDISON. 
 
 Queen had always disliked the Whigs. She 
 had during some years disliked the Marlbor- 
 ough famil}' ; but, reigning by a disputed title, 
 she could not venture directly to oppose her- 
 5 self to a majority of both houses of Parliament ; 
 and, engaged as she was in a war on the event 
 of which her own crown was staked, she could 
 not venture to disgrace a great and successful 
 general. But at length, in the year 1710, the 
 
 10 causes which had restrained her from showing 
 her aversion to the Low^ Church party ceased 
 to operate. The trial of Sacheverell produced 
 an outbreak of public feeling scarcely less vio- 
 lent than the outbreaks which we can ourselves 
 
 15 remember in 1820 and in 1831. The country 
 gentlemen, the country clergymen, the rabble 
 of the towns, were all, for once, on the same 
 side. It was clear that, if a general election 
 took place before the excitement abated, the 
 
 •20 Tories would have a majority. The services 
 of Marlborough had been so splendid that 
 they were no longer necessary. The Queen's 
 throne was secure from all attack on the part 
 of Louis : indeed, it seemed much more likely 
 
 25 that the English and German armies would 
 divide the spoils of Versailles and Marli than 
 
 26. Marli. The seat of a beautiful chateau of Louis XIV. 
 
ADDISON. 109 
 
 that a marshal of France would bring back the 
 Pretender to St. James's. The Queen, acting 
 by the advice of Harley, determined to dismiss 
 her servants. In June the change commenced. 
 Sunderland was the first who fell. The Tories 5 
 exulted over his fall. The Whigs tried, during 
 a few weeks, to persuade themselves that her 
 Majesty had acted only from personal dislike 
 to the secretary, and that she meditated no 
 further alteration ; but early in August, Godol-io 
 phin received a letter from Anne, which 
 directed him to break his white staff. Even 
 after this event, the irresolution or dissimula- 
 tion of Harley kept up the hopes of the Whigs 
 during another month, and then the ruin 15 
 became rapid and violent. The Parliament 
 was dissolved. The ministers were turned out. 
 The Tories were called to ofhce. The tide of 
 popularity ran violently in favor of the High 
 Church party. The party, feeble in the late 20 
 House of Commons, was now irresistible. 
 The power which the Tories had thus sud- 
 denly acquired, they used with blind and 
 stupid ferocity. The howl which the whole 
 pack set up for prey and for blood appalled ^5 
 
 2. Pretender. The son of James II who made several attempts to 
 gain the throne from William III. 
 
 2. St James's. The London residence of the English sovereign. 
 
no ADDISON. 
 
 even him who had roused and unchained them. 
 When, at this distance of time, we calmly 
 review the conduct of the discarded ministers, 
 we cannot but feel a movement of indignation 
 sat the injustice with which they were treated. 
 No body of men had ever administered the 
 government with more energy, ability, and 
 moderation ; and their success has been pro- 
 portioned to their wisdom. They had saved 
 
 10 Holland and Germany. They had humbled 
 France. They had, as it seemed, all but torn 
 Spain from the house of Bourbon. They had 
 made England the first power in Europe. At 
 home they had united England and Scotland. 
 
 15 They had respected the rights of conscience 
 and the liberty of the subject. They retired, 
 leaving their country at the height of pros- 
 perity and glory. And yet they were pursued 
 to their retreat by such a roar of obloquy as 
 
 20 never was raised against the government 
 which threw^ away thirteen colonies, or against 
 the government which sent a gallant army to 
 perish in the ditches of Walcheren. 
 
 None of the Whigs suffered more in the 
 
 25 general wreck than Addison. He had just 
 
 14. The union of England and Scotland uiider one sovereign was 
 accomplished July 22, 1706. 
 
 23. Walcheren. A Dutch province. Seven thousand men died here 
 of malaria in the expedition against Napoleon in 1806. 
 
ADDISON. I I I 
 
 sustained some heavy pecuniary losses, of the 
 nature of which we are imperfectly informed, 
 when his secretaryship was taken from him. 
 He had reason to believe that he should also 
 be deprived of the small Irish office which he 5 
 held by patent. He had just resigned his 
 fellowship. It seems probable he had already 
 ventured to raise his eyes to a great lady, and 
 that while his political friends were in power, 
 and while his own fortunes were rising, he had 10 
 been, in the phrase of the romances which were 
 then fashionable, ** permitted to hope." But 
 Mr. Addison, the ingenious writer, and Mr. 
 Addison, the chief secretary, were, in her lady- 
 ship's opinion, two very different persons. All 15 
 these calamities united, however, could not 
 disturb the serene cheerfulness of a mind con- 
 scious of ninocence, and rich in its own 
 wealth. He told his friends, with smiling 
 resignation, that they ought to admire his 20 
 philosophy; that he had lost at once his for- 
 tune, his place, his fellowship, and his mis- 
 tress ; that he must think of turning tutor 
 again : and yet that his spirits were as good as 
 ever. 26 
 
 He had one consolation. Of the unpopu- 
 larity which his friends had incurred, he had 
 
112 ADDISON. 
 
 no share. Such was the esteem with which 
 he was regarded, that, while the most violent 
 measures were taken for the purpose of forcing 
 Tory members on Whig corporations, he was 
 
 5 returned to Parliament without even a contest. 
 Swift, who was now in London, and who had 
 already determined on quitting the Whigs, 
 wrote to Stella in these remarkable words : 
 " The Tories carry it among the new members 
 
 10 six to one. Mr. Addison's election has passed 
 easy and undisputed, and I believe, if he had 
 a mind to be king, he would hardly be 
 refused." 
 
 The good will with which the Tories 
 
 15 regarded Addison is the more honorable to 
 him, because it had not been purchased by 
 any concession on his part. During the 
 general election, he published a political 
 journal entitled the *' Whig Examiner." Of 
 
 20 that journal it may be sufficient to say, that 
 Johnson, in spite of his strong political 
 prejudices, pronounced it to be superior in wit 
 to any of Swift's writings on the other side. 
 When it ceased to appear. Swift, in a letter to 
 
 25 Stella, expressed his exultation at the death 
 of so formidable an antagonist. " He might 
 well rejoice," says Johnson, " at the death of 
 
ADDISON. 113 
 
 that which he could not have killed." ** On 
 no occasion," he adds, " was the genius of 
 Addison more vigorously exerted, and on 
 none did the superiority of his powers more 
 evidently appear." 5 
 
 The only use which Addison appears to 
 have made of the favor with which he was 
 regarded by the Tories was to save some of 
 his friends from the general ruin of the Whig 
 party. He felt himself to be in a situation 10 
 which made it his duty to take a decided part 
 in politics. But the case of Steele and 
 of Ambrose Philips was different. For Philips, 
 Addison even condescended to solicit, with 
 what success w^e have not ascertained. Steele is 
 held two places : he was gazetteer, and he was 
 also a commissioner of stamps. The gazette 
 was taken from him ; but he was suffered to 
 retain his place in the Stamp Office on an 
 implied understanding that he should not be 20 
 active against the new government ; and he 
 was, during more than two years, induced by 
 Addisgn to observe this armistice with 
 tolerable fidelity. 
 
 Isaac Bickerstaff accordingly became silent 25 
 upon politics, and the article of news which 
 had once formed about one third of his paper 
 
114 ADDISON. 
 
 altogether disappeared. The " Tatler " had 
 completely changed its character : it was now 
 nothing but a series of essays on books, 
 morals, and manners. Steele, therefore, 
 
 5 resolved to bring it to a close, and to com- 
 mence a new work on an improved plan. It 
 was announced that this new work would be 
 published daily. The undertaking was gener- 
 ally regarded as bold, or rather rash ; but the 
 
 10 event amply justified the confidence with 
 which Steele relied on the fertility of Addi- 
 son's genius. On the 2d of January, i/ii, 
 appeared the last *' Tatler." At the beginning 
 of March following, appeared the first of an 
 
 15 incomparable series of papers, containing 
 observations on life and literature by an 
 imaginary Spectator. 
 
 The Spectator himself was conceived and 
 drawn by Addison ; and it is not easy to 
 
 20 doubt that the portrait was meant to be in 
 some features a likeness of the painter. The 
 Spectator is a gentleman who, after passing a 
 studious youth at the university, has travelled 
 on classic ground, and has bestowed much 
 
 26 attention on curious points of antiquity. He 
 has, on his return, fixed his residence in 
 London, and has observed all the forms of life 
 
ADDISON. I I 5 
 
 which are to be found in that great city, has 
 daily Hstened to the wits of Will's, has 
 smoked with the philosophers of the Grecian, 
 and has mingled with the parsons at Child's 
 and with the politicians at the St. James's. In 5 
 the morning he often listens to the hum of the 
 Exchange ; in the ev^ening his face is con- 
 stantly to be seen in the pit of the Drury 
 Lane Theater. But an insurmountable bash- 
 fulness prevents him from opening his mouth, 10 
 except in a small circle of intimate friends. 
 
 These friends were first sketched by Steele. 
 Four of the club — the templar, the clergy- 
 man, the soldier, and the merchant — were 
 uninteresting figures, fit only for a back- 15 
 ground ; but the other two — an old country 
 baronet and an old town rake — though not 
 delineated with a very delicate pencil, had 
 some good strokes. Addison took the rude 
 outlines into his own hands, retouched them, 20 
 colored them, and is in truth the creator of the 
 Sir Roger de Coverley and the Will Honey- 
 comb with whom we are all familiar. 
 
 The plan of the Spectator must be allowed 
 to be both original and eminently happy. 25 
 Every valuable essay in the series may be 
 
 5. Child's and St. James's Well-known clubs of that time. 
 
Il6 ADDISON, 
 
 read with pleasure separately ; yet the five or 
 six hundred essays form a whole, and a w^hole 
 which has the interest of a novel. It must be 
 remembered, too, that at that time no novel 
 
 5 giving a lively and powerful picture of the 
 common life and manners of England had 
 appeared. Richardson was working as a 
 compositor. Fielding w^as robbing bird's 
 nests. Smollett was not yet born. The nar- 
 
 lorative, therefore, which connects together the 
 Spectator's essays gave to our ancestors their 
 first taste of an exquisite and untried pleasure. 
 That narrative was indeed constructed with no 
 art or labor. The events were such events as 
 
 15 occur every day. Sir Roger comes up to 
 town to see Eugenio, as the worthy baronet 
 always calls Prince Eugene, goes with the 
 Spectator on the water to Spring Gardens, 
 walks among the tombs in the Abbey, and is 
 
 20 frightened by the Mohawks, but conquers his 
 apprehension so far as to go the theater when 
 the *' Distressed Mother " is acted. The Spec- 
 tator pays a visit in the summer to Coverley 
 
 7. Samuel Richardson, (1689-1761.) The first novelist in the mod- 
 ern sense. His most celebrated stories are " Pamela, " Clarissa Har- 
 lowe " and "Sir Charles Grandison." 
 
 9. Smollett, (1721-1771.) Another novelist of the period. 
 
 18. Spring Gardens. A London place of amusement. 
 
 20. Mohawks. A club of ruffians who infested the streets of London 
 at night. 
 
ADDISON. 117 
 
 Hall, is charmed with the old house, the old 
 butler, and the old chaplain, eats a jack caught 
 by Will Wimble, rides to the assizes, and hears 
 a point of law discussed by Tom Touchy. At 
 last a letter from the honest butler brings to ,■> 
 the club the news that Sir Roger is dead. 
 Will Honeycomb marries and reforms at sixty. 
 The club breaks up, and the Spectator resigns 
 his functions. Such events can hardly be said 
 to form a plot; yet they are related with such 10 
 truth, such grace, such wit, such humor, such 
 pathos, such knowledge of the human heart, 
 such knowledge of the ways of the world, that 
 they charm us on the hundredth perusal. We 
 have not the least doubt, that, if Addison had 15 
 written a novel on an extensive plan, it would 
 have been superior to any that we possess. 
 ♦As it is, he is entitled to be considered not 
 only as the greatest of the English essayists, 
 but as the forerunner of the great English 20 
 novelists. 
 
 We say this of Addison alone ; for Addison 
 is the Spectator. About three sevenths of the 
 work are his ; and it is no exaggeration to say 
 that his worst essay is as good as the best 25 
 essay of any of his coadjutors. His best 
 essays approach near to absolute perfection ; 
 
Il8 ADDISON. 
 
 nor is their excellence more wonderful than 
 their variety. His invention never seems to 
 flag; nor is he ever under the necessity o^ 
 repeating himself, or of wearing out a subject. 
 
 5 There are no dregs in his wine. He regales 
 us after the fashion of that prodigal nabob 
 who held that there was only one good glass 
 in a bottle. As soon as we have tasted the 
 first sparkling foam of a jest, it is withdrawn, 
 
 10 and a fresh draught of nectar is at our lips. 
 On the Monday we have an allegory as lively 
 and ingenious as Lucian's " Au'ction of 
 Lives" ; on the Tuesday, an Eastern apologue 
 as richly colored as the tales of Scheherezade ; 
 
 15 on the Wednesday, a character described with 
 the skill of La Bruyere ; on the Thursday, a 
 scene from common life equal to the best 
 chapters in the " Vicar of Wakefield " ; on the 
 Friday, some sly Horatian pleasantry on fash- 
 
 2oionable follies, on hoops, patches, or puppet 
 shows ; and on the Saturday, a religious medi- 
 tation which will bear a comparison with the 
 finest passages in Massillon, 
 
 12. Lucian. A Greek satirist of the time of the Emperor Trajan. 
 
 14. Scheherezade. The Arabian queen who postponed her death by 
 telling the king a story every night which she broke off at such an inter- 
 esting point that she was spared each day that she might finish the tale. 
 
 16. La Bruyere, (1644-1696.) A distinguished French moralist. 
 
 18. Vicar of W^akefield. A novel by Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 22. Massillon, (1663-1742.) A French preacher of great eloquence. 
 
ADDISON. 119 
 
 It is dangerous to select where there is so 
 much that deserves the highest praise. We 
 will venture, however, to say that any person 
 who wishes to form a just notion of the extent 
 and variety of Addison's powers will do well^ 
 to read at one sitting the following papers, — 
 the two ''Visits to the Abbey," the " Visit to 
 the Exchange," the " Journal of the Retired 
 Citizen," the "Vision of Mirza," the "Trans- 
 migrations of Pug the Monkey," and the 10 
 " Death of Sir Roger de Coverley." 
 
 The least valuable of Addison's contribu- 
 tions to the " Spectator" are, in the judgment 
 of our age, his critical papers ; yet his critical 
 papers are always luminous, and often ingen-i^ 
 ious. The very worst of them must be 
 regarded as creditable to him, when the char- 
 acter of the school in which he had been 
 trained is fairly considered. The best of them 
 were much too good for his readers. In truth, 20 
 he was not so far behind our generation as he 
 was before his own. No essays in the " Spec- 
 tator " were more censured and derided than 
 those in which he raised his voice against the 
 contempt with which our fine old ballads were 25 
 regarded, and showed the scoffers that the 
 same gold which, burnished and polished, 
 
I20 ADDISON. 
 
 gives lustre to the " vEneid " and the " Odes 
 of Horace" is mingled with the rude dross of 
 " Chevy Chace." 
 
 It is not strange that the success of the 
 •^"Spectator" should have been such as no 
 similar work has ever obtained. The number 
 of copies daily distributed was at first three 
 thousand. It subsequently increased, and had 
 risen to near four thousand when the stamp 
 
 10 tax was imposed. That tax was fatal to a 
 crowd of journals. The '' Spectator," how- 
 ever, stood its ground, doubled its price, and, 
 though its circulation fell off, still yielded a 
 large revenue both to the state and to the 
 
 15 authors. For particular papers, the demand 
 was immense; of some, it is said, twenty 
 thousand copies were required. But this was 
 not all. To have the " Spectator " served up 
 every morning with the bohea and rolls was a 
 
 20 luxury for the few. The majority were con- 
 tent to wait till essays enough had appeared 
 to form a volume. Ten thousand copies of 
 each volume were immediately taken off, and 
 new editions were called for. It must be 
 
 3. Chevy Chace. An old English ballad describing the frays between 
 Lord Percy and the Douglas on the Scottish border. 
 
 10 Stamp tax. A duty requiring a half-penny stamp on each half 
 sheet of printed matter. Its object was to reduce the number of journals 
 attacking the government, 
 
ADDISON. 121 
 
 remembered that the population of England 
 was then hardly a third of what it now is. 
 The number of Englishmen who were in the 
 habit of reading was probably not a sixth of 
 what it now is. A shopkeeper or a farmers 
 who found any pleasure in literature was a 
 rarity. Nay, there was doubtless more than 
 one knight of the shire whose country seat did 
 not contain ten books, receipt books and books 
 on farriery included. In these circumstances, lo 
 the sale of the " Spectator" must be consid- 
 ered as indicating a popularity quite as great 
 as that of the most successful works of Sir 
 Walter Scott and Mr. Dickens in our own time. 
 
 At the close of 17 12 the '* Spectator " 15 
 ceased to appear. It was probably felt that 
 the short-faced gentleman and his club had 
 been long enough before the tow^n and that it 
 was time to withdraw them, and to replace 
 them by a new set of characters. In a few 20 
 weeks the first number of the " Guardian " was 
 published ; but the " Guardian " was unfortu- 
 nate both in its birth and in its death. It 
 began in dullness, and disappeared in a tem- 
 pest of faction. The original plan was bad. 25 
 Addison contributed nothing till sixty-six 
 numbers had appeared ; and it was then 
 
122 ADDISON. 
 
 impossible to make the " Guardian " what the 
 " Spectator " had been. Nestor Ironside and 
 the Miss Lizards were people to whom even 
 he could impart no interest. He could onU- 
 
 5 furnish some excellent little essays, both 
 serious and comic ; and this he did. 
 
 Why Addison gave no assistance to the 
 " Guardian " during the first two months of. its 
 existence is a question which has puzzled the 
 
 10 editors and biographers, but which seems to 
 us to admit of a very easy solution. He was 
 then engaged in bringing his " Cato " on the 
 stage. 
 
 The first four acts of this drama had been 
 
 15 lying in his desk since his return from Italy. 
 His modest and sensitive nature shrank from 
 the risk of a public and shameful failure ; and, 
 though all who saw the manuscript were loud 
 in praise, some thought it possible that an 
 
 20 audience might become impatient even of ver\' 
 good rhetoric, and advised Addison to print 
 the play without hazarding a representation. 
 At length, after many fits of apprehension, the 
 poet yielded to the urgency of his political 
 
 25 friends, who hoped that the public would dis- 
 cover some analogy between the followers of 
 
 12. Cato. A drama describing the career of Cato ihe younger who, 
 after Pompey's defeat, went to Africa and finally took his own life. 
 
ADDISON. 123 
 
 Caesar and the Tories, between Sempronius 
 and the apostate Whigs, between Cato strug- 
 gHng to the last for the Hberties of Rome, 
 and the band of patriots who still stood firm 
 round Halifax and Wharton. s 
 
 Addison gave the play to the managers of 
 Drury Lane Theatre, without stipulating for 
 any advantage to himself. They therefore 
 thought themselves bound to spare no cost in 
 scenery and dresses. The decorations, it is 10 
 true, w^ould not have pleased the skillful eye of 
 Mr. Macready. Juba's waistcoat blazed with 
 gold lace ; Marcia's hoop was worthy of a 
 duchess on the birthday; and Cato wore a 
 wig worth fifty guineas. The prologue was 15 
 written by Pope, and is undoubtedly a digni- 
 fied and spirited composition. The part of 
 the hero was excellently played by Booth. 
 Steele undertook to pack a house. The 
 boxes were in a blaze with the stars of the 20 
 peers in opposition. The pit was crowded 
 with attentive and friendly listeners from the 
 Inns of Court and the literary coffee-houses. 
 Sir Gilbert Heathcote, governor of the Bank of 
 
 I. Sempronius. A Roman senator and a character in the play. 
 
 12. Macready, (1793-1873.) One of the greatest of Sljalcespearian 
 actors. 
 
 18. Booth. The favorite actor of the day. 
 
124 ADDISON. 
 
 England, was at the head of a powerful body 
 of auxiliaries from the city, warm men and 
 true Whigs, but better known at Jonathan's 
 and Garraway's than in the haunts of wits and 
 
 •''critics. 
 
 These precautions were quite superfluous. 
 The Tories, as a body, regarded Addison with 
 no unkind feelings. Nor was it for their 
 interest — professing, as they did, profound 
 
 10 reverence for law and prescription, and abhor- 
 rence both of popular insurrections and of 
 standing armies — to appropriate to them- 
 selves reflections thrown on the great military 
 chief and demagogue who, with the support of 
 
 15 the legions and of the common people, sub- 
 verted all the ancient institutions of his coun- 
 try. Accordingly, every shout that was raised 
 by the members of the Kit Cat was echoed by 
 the High Churchmen of the October ; and the 
 
 20 curtain at length fell amidst thunders of 
 unanimous applause. 
 
 The delight and admiration of the town were 
 described by the " Guardian " in terms which 
 we might attribute to partiality, were it not 
 
 25 that the " Examiner," the organ of the minis- 
 
 4. Jonathan's and Garraway's. Merchants' clubs. 
 
 19. October, A Tory club where the members' favorite drink was 
 October ale. ' 
 
ADDISON. 125 
 
 try, held similar language. The Tories, indeed, 
 found much to sneer at in the conduct of their 
 opponents. Steele had on this, as on other 
 occasions, shown more zeal than taste or 
 judgment. The honest citizens who marched 5 
 under the orders of Sir Gibby, as he was 
 facetiously called, probably knew better when 
 to buy and when to sell stock than when to 
 clap and when to hiss at a play, and incurred 
 some ridicule by making the hypocritical 10 
 Sempronius their favorite, and by giving to 
 his insincere rants louder plaudits than they 
 bestowed on the temperate eloquence of 
 Cato. Wharton, too, who had the incredible 
 effrontery to applaud the lines about flying is 
 from prosperous vice and from the power 
 of impious- men to a private station, did not 
 escape the sarcasms of those who justly 
 thought that he could fly from nothing more 
 vicious or impious than himself. The epi-20 
 logue, which was written by Garth, a zealous 
 Whig, was severely and not unreasonably 
 censured as ignoble and out of place. But 
 Addison was described, even by the bitterest 
 Tory writers, as a gentleman of wit and virtue, 25 
 
 6. Sir Gibby. Sir Gilbert Heathcote, a wealthy merchant. 
 
 21. Sir Samuel Garth. Court physician of George I. He wrote a 
 poem called the " Dispensary." 
 
126 ADDISON. 
 
 in whose friendship many persons of both 
 parties were happy, and whose name ought not 
 to be mixed up with factious squabbles. 
 
 Of the jests by which the triumph of the 
 
 6 Whig party was disturbed, the most severe 
 and happy was Bolingbroke's. Between two 
 acts he sent for Booth to his box, and pre- 
 sented him, before the whole theatre, with a 
 purse of fifty guineas f©r defending the cause 
 
 10 of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator. 
 This was a pungent allusion to the attempt 
 which Marlborough had made, not long before 
 his fall, to obtain, a patent creating him captain 
 general for life. 
 
 15 It was April, and in April a hundred and 
 thirty years ago the London season was 
 thought to be far advanced. During a whole 
 month, however, " Cato " was performed to 
 overflowing houses, and brought into the 
 
 20 treasury of the theatre twice the gains of an 
 ordinary spring. In the summer the Drury 
 Lane company went down to act at Oxford, 
 and there, before an audience which retained 
 an affectionate remembrance of Addison's 
 
 25 accomplishments and \'irtues, his tragedy was 
 acted during several days. The gownsmen 
 
 26. Gownsmen. The students, all of whom wear gowns in the Eng- 
 lish colleges- 
 
ADDISON. 127 
 
 began to besiege the theatre in the fore- 
 noon, and by one in the afternoon all the seats 
 were filled. 
 
 About the merits of the piece which had so 
 extraordinary an effect, the public, we sup-s 
 pose, has made up its mind. To compare it 
 with the masterpieces of the Attic stage, with 
 the great English dramas of the time of Eliz- 
 abeth, or even with the productions of Schiller's 
 manhood, would be absurd indeed. Yet it 10 
 contains excellent dialogue and declamation, 
 and, among plays fashioned on the French 
 model, must be allowed to rank high ; not, 
 indeed, with ** Athalie " or "Saul," but, we 
 think, not below " Cinna," and certainly above 15 
 any other English tragedy of the same school, 
 above many of the plays of Corneille, above 
 many of the plays of Voltaire and Alfieri, and 
 above some plays of Racine. Be this as it 
 may, we have little doubt that '' Cato " did as 2c 
 much as the '' Tatlers," "Spectators," and 
 " Freeholders " united to raise Addison's fame 
 among his contemporaries. 
 
 The modesty and good nature of the suc- 
 
 7. Attic stage. That is, the Greek dramas. 
 
 9. Schiller, 1759-1805.") A great German dramatist. He shares 
 with GcEthe the distinction of being the greatest poet of his country. 
 
 14. Saul. A drama by Alfieri. 
 
 15. Cinna. A drama by Corneille, (1606-1684.) 
 
128 ADDISON. 
 
 cessful dramatist had tamed even the maHgnity 
 of faction. But Hterary envy, it should seem, 
 is a fiercer passion than party spirit. It was 
 by a zealous Whig that the fiercest attack on 
 
 5 the Whig tragedy was made. John Dennis 
 published " Remarks on Cato," which were 
 written with some acuteness and with much 
 coarseness and asperity. Addison neither 
 defended himself nor retaliated. On many 
 
 10 points he had an excellent defense, and 
 nothing would have been easier than to retal- 
 iate, for Dennis had written bad odes, bad 
 tragedies, bad comedies ; he had, moreover, a 
 larger share than most men of those infirmities 
 
 15 and eccentricities which excite laughter; and 
 Addison's power of turning either an absurd 
 book or an absurd man into ridicule was 
 unrivaled. Addison, however, serenely con- 
 scious of his superiority, looked with pity on 
 
 20 his assailant, whose temper, naturally irritable 
 and gloomy, had been soured by want, by 
 controversy, and by literary failures. 
 
 But among the young candidates for Addi- 
 son's favor there was one distinguished by 
 
 26 talents from the rest, and distinguished, we 
 fear, not less by malignity and insincerity. 
 
 5. John Dennis, (1670-1734.) A dramatic critic. He was constantly 
 in controversy with the writers of his day. 
 
ADDISON. 129 
 
 Pope was only twenty-five. But his powers 
 had expanded to their full maturity; and his 
 best poem, the " Rape of the Lock," had 
 recently been published. Of his genius, Addi- 
 son had always expressed high admiration ; 5 
 but Addison had early discerned, what might, 
 indeed, have been discerned by an eye less 
 penetrating than his, that the diminutive, 
 crooked, sickly boy was eager to revenge him- 
 self on society for the unkindness of nature. 10 
 In the " Spectator," the ** Essay on Criticism " 
 had been praised with' cordial warmth; but a 
 gentle hint had been added, that the writer of 
 so excellent a poem would have done well to 
 avoid ill-natured personalities. Pope, though 15 
 e\idently more galled by the censure than 
 gratified by the praise, returned thanks for 
 the admonition, and promised to profit by it. 
 The two writers continued to exchange civil- 
 ities, counsel, and small good offices. Addi-20 
 son publicly extolled Pope's miscellaneous 
 pieces ; and Pope furnished Addison with a 
 prologue. This did not last long. Pope 
 hated Dennis, whom he had injured without 
 provocation. The appearance of the *' Re-25 
 marks on Cato " gave the irritable poet an 
 opportunity of venting his malice under the 
 
I30 ADDISON. 
 
 show of friendship ; and such an opportunity 
 could not but be welcome to a nature which 
 was implacable in enmity, and which always 
 preferred the tortuous to the straight path. 
 
 5 He published, accordingly, the '* Narrative of 
 the Frenzy of John Dennis." But Pope had 
 mistaken his powers. He was a great master 
 of invective and sarcasm ; he could dissect a 
 character in terse and sonorous couplets, 
 
 10 brilliant with antithesis; but of dramatic talent 
 he was altogether destitute. If he had written 
 a lampoon on Dennis, such as that on Atticus 
 or that on Sporus, the old grumbler would 
 have been crushed. But Pope writing dialogue 
 
 15 resembled — to borrow Horace's imagery and 
 his own — a wolf, which, instead of biting, 
 should take to kicking, or a monkey which 
 should try to sting. The Narrative is utterly 
 contemptible. Of argument there is not even 
 
 20 a show; and the jests are such as, if they were 
 introduced into a farce, would call forth the 
 hisses of the shilling gallery. Dennis raves 
 about the drama ; and the nurse thinks he is 
 calling for a dram. " There is," he cries, '* no 
 
 25 peripetia in the tragedy, no change of fortune, 
 
 12. Atticus is the name under which Pope attacked Addison in the 
 " Epistle to Arbuthnot." Sporus was that under which he attacked Lord 
 Hervey. 
 25. Peripetia, That part of the drama in which the plot is disclose^l. 
 
ADDISON. 131 
 
 no change at all." " Pray, good sir, be not 
 angry," says the old woman; ** I'll fetch 
 change." This is not exactly the pleasantry 
 of Addison. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Addison saws 
 through this of^cious zeal and felt himself 
 deeply aggrieved by it. So foolish and spite- 
 ful a pamphlet could do him no good, and, if 
 he were thought to have any hand in it, must 
 do him harm. Gifted with incomparable 10 
 powers of ridicule, he had never, even in self- 
 defense, used those powers inhumanly or 
 uncourteously ; and he was not disposed to let 
 others make his fame and his interests a 
 pretext under which they might commit out- is 
 rages from which he had himself constantly 
 abstained. He accordingly declared that he 
 had no concern in the Narrative, that he dis- 
 approved of it, and that if he answered the 
 remarks, he would answer them like a gentle- 20 
 man ; and he took care to communicate this 
 to Dennis. Pope was bitterly mortified ; and 
 to this transaction we are inclined to ascribe 
 the hatred with which he ever after regarded 
 Addison. 25 
 
 In September, 171 3, the " Guardian " 
 ceased to appear. Steele had gone mad 
 
132 ADDISON. 
 
 about politics. A general election had just 
 taken place. He had been chosen member 
 for Stockbridge, and he fully expected to play 
 a first part in Parliament. The immense 
 
 5 success of the " Tatler " and " Spectator" had 
 turned his head. He had been the editor of 
 both those papers, and was not aware how 
 entirely they owed their influence and popu- 
 larity to the genius of his friend. His spirits, 
 
 10 always violent, were now excited by vanity, 
 ambition, and faction, to such a pitch that he 
 every day committed some offence against 
 good sense and good taste. All the discreet 
 and moderate members of his own party re- 
 
 isgretted and condemned his folly. " I am in a 
 thousand troubles," Addison wrote, " about 
 poor Dick, and wish that his zeal for the 
 public may not be ruinous to himself. But he 
 has sent me word that he is determined to go 
 
 20 on, and that any advice I may give him in 
 
 that particular will have no weight with him." 
 
 Steele set up a political paper called the 
 
 ** Englishman," which, as it was not supported 
 
 by contributions from Addison, completely 
 
 25 failed. By this work, by some other writings 
 of the same kind, and by the airs which he 
 gave himself at the first meeting of the new 
 
ADDISON. 133 
 
 Parliament, he made the Tories so angry that 
 they determined to expel him. The Whigs 
 stood by him gallantly, but were unable to 
 save him. The vote of expulsion was regarded 
 by all dispassionate men as a tyrannical exer-5 
 cise of the power of the majority. But Steele's 
 violence and folly, though they by no means 
 justified the steps which his enemies took, had 
 completely disgusted his friends ; nor did he 
 ^ver again regain the place which he had held 10 
 in the public estimation. 
 
 Addison about this time conceived the 
 design of adding an eighth volume to the 
 "Spectator." In June, 1714, the first num- 
 ber of the new series appeared, and during 15 
 about six months three papers were published 
 weekly. Nothing can be more striking than 
 the contrast between the " Englishman " and 
 the eighth volume of the *' Spectator," between 
 Steele without Addison and Addison without 20 
 Steele. The ''Englishman" is forgotten: the 
 eighth volame of the " Spectator " contains, 
 perhaps, the finest essays, both serious and 
 playful, in the English language. 
 
 Before this volume was completed, the death 25 
 of Anne produced an entire change in the 
 administration of pubHc affairs. The blow fell 
 
134 ADDISON. 
 
 suddenly. It found the Tory party distracted 
 by internal feuds, and unprepared for any 
 great effort. Harley had just been disgraced. 
 Bolingbroke, it was supposed, would be the 
 
 5 chief minister. But the Queen was on her 
 deathbed before the white staff had been 
 given ; and her last public act was to deliver 
 it with a feeble hand to the Duke of Shrews- 
 bury. The emergency produced a coalition 
 
 10 between all sections of public men who were 
 attached to the Protestant succession. George 
 I. was proclaimed without opposition. A 
 council, in which the leading Whigs had seats, 
 took the direction of affairs till the new King 
 
 15 should arrive. The first act of the lords 
 justices was to appoint Addi.son their 
 secretary. 
 
 There is an idle tradition that he was 
 directed to prepare a letter to the King, that 
 
 20 he could not satisfy himself as to the style of 
 this composition, and that the lords justices 
 called in a clerk, who at once did what was 
 wanted. It is not strange that a story so flat- 
 tering to mediocrity should be popular, and 
 
 25 we are sorry to deprive dunces of their conso- 
 lation. But the truth must be told. It was 
 
 II. Protestant succession. The securing ot the English throne to 
 the House of Hanover. 
 
ADDISON. 135 
 
 well observed by Sir James Mackintosh, whose 
 knowledge of these times was unequaled, that 
 Addison never, in any official document, 
 affected wit or eloquence, and that his dis- 
 patches are, without exception, remarkable 5 
 for unpretending simplicity. Everybody who 
 knows with what ease Addison's finest essays 
 were produced must be convinced, that, if 
 well-turned phrases had been wanted, he 
 would have had no difficulty in finding them. 10 
 We are, however, inclined to believe that the 
 story is not absolutely without a foundation. 
 It may well be that Addison did not know, till 
 he had consulted experienced clerks who re- 
 membered the time when Willliam III. was 15 
 absent on the Continent, in what form a letter 
 from the Council of Regency to the King 
 ought to be drawn. We think it very likely 
 that the ablest statesmen of our time — Lord 
 John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Palmer- 20 
 ston, for example — would, in similar circum- 
 stances, be found quite as ignorant. Every 
 office has some little mysteries which the 
 
 I. Sir James Mackintosh, (1765-1832.) A distinguished philosopher 
 and historian. 
 
 20. Lord John Russell, (1792-1878.) A prime minister and author of 
 the Reform Bill of 1834. 
 
 20. Sir Robert Peel, ( 1 788-1850 ) One of the greatest statesmen of the 
 present century. Noted for his repeal of the Common Laws. 
 
 20. Lord Palmerston, (1784-1865.) A distinguished pi ime minister. 
 
136 ADDISON. 
 
 dullest man may learn with a little attention, 
 and which the greatest man cannot possibly 
 know by intuition. One paper must be signed 
 by the chief of the department ; another by his 
 
 5 deputy; to a third the royal sign manual is 
 necessary. One communication is to be regis 
 tered, and another is not. One sentence must 
 be in black ink, and another in red ink. If 
 the ablest secretary for Ireland were moved to 
 
 10 the India Board, if the ablest president of the 
 India Board were moved to the War Office, he 
 would require instruction on points like these ; 
 and we do not doubt that Addison required 
 such instruction when he became, for the first 
 
 15 time, secretary to the lords justices. 
 
 George I. took possession of his kingdom 
 without opposition. A new ministry was 
 formed, and a new Parliament favorable to the 
 Whigs chosen. Sunderland was appointed 
 
 20 lord lieutenant of Ireland, and Addison again 
 went to Dublin as chief secretary. 
 
 At Dublin Swift resided ; and there was 
 much speculation about the way in which the 
 Dean and the Secretary would behave towards 
 
 26 each other. The relations which existed be- 
 tween these remarkable men form an interest- 
 ing and pleasing portion of literary history. 
 
ADDISON. 137 
 
 They had early attached themselves to the 
 same political party and to the same patrons. 
 While Anne's Whig ministry was in power, the 
 visits of Swift to London, and the official resi- 
 dence of Addison in Ireland, had given them 5 
 opportunities of knowing each other. They 
 were the two shrewdest observers of their age ; 
 but their observations on each other had led 
 them to favorable conclusions. Swift did full 
 justice to the rare powers of conversation 10 
 which were latent under the bashful deport- 
 ment of Addison. Addison, on the other 
 hand, discerned much good nature under the 
 severe look and manner of Swift; and, indeed, 
 the Swift of 1708 and the Swift of 1738 were is 
 two very different men. 
 
 But the paths of the two friends diverged 
 widely. The Whig statesmen loaded Addison 
 with solid benefits. They praised Swift, asked 
 him to dinner, and did nothing more for him. 20 
 His profession laid them under a dif^culty. 
 In the State they could not promote him ; and 
 they had reason to fear, that, by bestowing 
 preferment in the Church on the author of the 
 ** Tale of a Tub," they might give scandal to 25 
 the public, which had no high opinion of their 
 
 25. Tale of a Tub. A keen satire on the abuses in the church. 
 
138 ADDISON. 
 
 orthodoxy. He did not make fair allowance 
 for the dif^culties which prevented Halifax 
 and Somers from serving him, thought himself 
 an ill-used man, sacrificed honor and consis- 
 
 stency to revenge, joined the Tories, and be- 
 came their most formidable champion. He 
 soon found, however, that his old friends were 
 less to blame than he had supposed. The 
 dislike with which the Queen and the heads of 
 
 10 the Church regarded him was insurmountable ; 
 and it was with the greatest difficulty that he 
 obtained an ecclesiastical dignity of no great 
 value, on condition of fixing his residence in a 
 country which he detested. 
 
 15 Difference of political opinion had produced, 
 not, indeed, a quarrel, but a coolness between 
 Swift and Addison. They at length ceased 
 altogether to see each other. Yet there was 
 between them a tacit compact like that between 
 
 20 the hereditary guests in the ** Iliad " : — 
 
 ''Eyx^'^ ^' ciXat/acjv aXeujieda koI 61* o/xiTiov 
 HolTiol jiEV yap e/noi TpcJcf kXeitoi r' eTcimvpoi, 
 KteIveiv, bv KE -^Eog yE TTopy Koi rcocol klxeiu)^ 
 lioTCkol J' av col ^Axo-Lol^ tvalpEjUEv, bv ke dvvT/ai. 
 
 Iliad, Lib, VI, 226-229. 
 21. Bryant's translation : — 
 
 " And let us in the tumult of the fray, 
 
 Avoid each other's spears, for there will be 
 Of Trojans and of their renewed allies 
 Enough for me to slay, whene'er a god 
 Shall bring them in my way. In turn for thee 
 Are many Greeks to smite, whomever thou 
 Canst overcome." 
 
ADDISON. 139 
 
 It is not strange that Addison, who calum- 
 niated and insulted nobody, should not have 
 calumniated or insulted Swift; but it is re- 
 markable that Swift, to whom neither genius 
 nor virtue was sacred, and who generally 5 
 seemed to find, like most other renegades, a 
 peculiar pleasure in attacking old friends, 
 should have shown so much respect and ten- 
 derness to Addison. 
 
 Fortune had now changed. The accession lo 
 of the House of Hanover had secured in 
 England the liberties of the people, and in 
 Ireland the dominion of the Protestant caste. 
 To that caste Swift was more odious than 
 any other man. He was hooted and even 15 
 pelted in the streets of Dublin, and could not 
 venture to ride along the strand for his health 
 without the attendance of armed servants. 
 Many whom he had formerly served now 
 libeled and insulted him. At this time Addi-20 
 son arrived. He had been advised not to 
 show the smallest civility to the Dean of 
 St. Patrick's. He had answered, with admira- 
 ble spirit, that it might be necessary for men 
 whose fidelity to their party was suspected, to 25 
 hold no intercourse with political opponents ; 
 
 15. Because he was suspected of being implicated in a plot to restore 
 the Stuarts. 
 
140 ADDISON. 
 
 but that one who had been a steady Whig in 
 the worst times might venture, when the good 
 cause was triumphant, to shake hands with an 
 old friend who was one of the vanquished 
 
 6 Tories. His kindness was soothing to the 
 proud and cruelly wounded spirit of Swift ; 
 and the two great satirists resumed their 
 habits of friendly intercourse. 
 
 Those associates of Addison whose political 
 
 10 opinions agreed with his shared his good for- 
 tune. He took Tickell with him to Ireland. 
 He procured for Budgell a lucrative place in 
 the same kingdom. Ambrose Philips was 
 provided for in England. Steele had injured 
 
 15 himself so much by his eccentricity and per- 
 verseness that he obtained but a very small 
 part of what he thought his due. He was, 
 however, knighted ; he had a place in the 
 household ; and he subsequently received 
 
 soother marks of favor from the court. 
 
 Addison did not remain long in Ireland. 
 In 1 71 5 he quitted his secretaryship for a seat 
 at the Board of Trade. In the same year his 
 comedy of the *' Drummer " was brought on 
 
 25 the stage. The name of the author was not 
 announced. The piece was coldly received ; 
 
 23. Board of Trade. The branch of the government thdt deals with 
 commerce and statistics. 
 
ADDISON. 141 
 
 and some critics have expressed a doubt 
 whether it were really Addison's. To us the 
 evidence, both external and internal, seems 
 decisive. It is not in Addison's best manner; 
 but it contains numerous passages which no 5 
 other writer known to us could have produced. 
 It was again performed after Addison's death, 
 and, being known to be his, was loudly 
 applauded. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1 71 5, while 10 
 the Rebellion was still raging in Scotland, 
 Addison published the first number of a paper 
 called the " Freeholder." Among his political 
 works the " Freeholder " is entitled to the first 
 place. Even in the ''Spectator" there are 15 
 few serious papers nobler than the character 
 of his friend. Lord Somers, and certainly no 
 satirical papers superior to those in which the 
 Tory fox hunter is introduced. This character 
 is the original of Squire Western, and is drawn 20 
 with all Fielding's force and with a delicacy 
 of which Fielding was altogether destitute. 
 As none of Addison's works exhibits stronger 
 marks of his genius than the ** Freeholder," 
 so none does more honor to his moral charac-25 
 
 II. Rebellion of 1715. A rising of the Jacobites, whose object was tq 
 restore the Stuarts. 
 
 20. Squire Western. A character in Fielding's " Tom Jones." 
 
142 ADDISON. 
 
 ter. It is difficult to extol too highly the 
 candor and humanity of a political writer 
 whom even the excitement of civil war cannot 
 hurry into unseemly violence. Oxford, it is 
 
 swell known, was then the stronghold of Tory- 
 ism. The High Street had been repeatedly 
 lined with bayonets in order to keep down the 
 disaffected gownsmen ; and traitors pursued 
 by the messengers of the government had 
 
 10 been concealed in the garrets of several col- 
 leges. Yet the admonition which, even under 
 such circumstances, Addison addressed to the 
 university, is singularly gentle, respectful, and 
 even affectionate: indeed, he could not find it 
 
 15 in his heart to deal harshly even with imagin- 
 ary persons. His fox hunter, though ignorant, 
 stupid, and violent, is at heart a good fellow, 
 and is at last reclaimed by the clemency of the 
 King. Steele was dissatisfied with his friend's 
 
 20 moderation, and, though he acknowledged that 
 the '* Freeholder " was excellently written, 
 complained that the ministry played on a lute 
 when it was necessary to blow the trumpet. 
 He accordingly determined to execute a flour- 
 
 25ish after his own fashion, and tried to rouse 
 the public spirit of the nation by means of a 
 paper called the "Town Talk," which is now 
 
ADDISON. 143 
 
 as utterly forgotten as his '' Englishman," as 
 his '* Crisis," as his *' Letter to the Bailiff of 
 Stockbridge," as his " Reader " : in short, as 
 everything that he wrote without the help 
 of Addison. 5 
 
 In the same year in which the " Drummer " 
 was acted, and in which the first numbers of 
 the " Freeholder " appeared, the estrangement 
 of Pope and Addison became complete. 
 Addison had from the first seen that Pope 10 
 was false and malevolent. Pope had dis- 
 covered that Addison was jealous. The 
 discovery was made in a strange manner. 
 Pope had written the " Rape of the Lock," 
 in two cantos, without supernatural machinery. 15 
 These two cantos had been loudly applauded, 
 and by none more loudly than by Addison. 
 Then Pope thought of the sylphs and gnomes. 
 Ariel, Momentilla, Crispissa, and Umbriel, 
 and resolved to interweave the Rosicrucian20 
 mythology with the original fabric. He asked 
 Addison's advice. Addison said that the 
 poem as it stood was a delicious little thing, 
 and entreated Pope not to run the risk of 
 marring what was so excellent in trying to 25 
 
 20 Rosicrucian. A German sect supposed to have been founded in 
 the fourteenth century. They pretended to effect strange and magical 
 deeds and to have strange spirits at their command. 
 
144 ADDISON. 
 
 mend it. Pope afterwards declared that this 
 insidious council first opened his eyes to the 
 baseness of him who gave it. 
 
 Now there can be no doubt that Pope's 
 
 5 plan was most ingenious, and that he afterwards 
 executed it with great skill and success ; but 
 does it necessarily follow that Addison's 
 advice was bad? And, if Addison's advice 
 was bad, does it necessarily follow that it was 
 
 10 given from bad motives? If a friend were to 
 ask us whether we would advise him to risk 
 his all in a lottery of which the chances were 
 ten to one against him, we should do our best 
 to dissuade him from running such a risk. 
 
 15 Even if he were so lucky as to get the thirty 
 thousand pound prize, we should not admit 
 that we had counseled him ill, and we should 
 certainly think it the height of injustice in him 
 to accuse us of having been actuated by malice. 
 
 20 We think Addison's advice good advice. It 
 rested on a sound principle, the result of long 
 and wide experience. The general rule un- 
 doubtedly is, that, when a successful work of 
 imagination has been produced, it should not 
 
 25 be recast. We cannot at this moment call to 
 mind a single instance in which this rule has 
 been transgressed with happy effect, except 
 
ADDISON. 145 
 
 the instance of the " Rape of the Lock." 
 Tasso recast his ** Jerusalem." Akenside re- 
 cast his " Pleasures of the Imagination," and his 
 " Epistle to Curio." Pope himself, embold- 
 ened, no doubt, by the success with which he 5 
 had expanded and remodeled the " Rape of 
 the Lock," made the same experiment on the 
 ** Duniciad." All these attempts failed. Who 
 was to foresee that Pope would, once in his 
 life, be able to do what he could not himself do 10 
 twice, and what nobody else has ever done? 
 
 Addison's advice was good; but, had it 
 been bad, why should we pronounce it dis- 
 honest? Scott tells us that one of his best 
 friends predicted the failure of *' Waverly."i5 
 Herder adjured Goethe not to take so un- 
 promising a subject as Faust. Hume tried to 
 dissuade Robertson from writing the " History 
 of Charles the Fifth." Nay, Pope himself was 
 one of those who prophesied that *'Cato"2o 
 would never succeed on the stage, and advised 
 Addison to print it without risking a repre- 
 
 2. Mark Akenside, (1721-1770.) A physician who won much success 
 as a poet. 
 
 8 Dunciad. A satire which attacked a large number of the writers 
 of that day. 
 
 16. Herder, '1744-1803.) A philosopher who did much to establish 
 modern German literature. 
 
 17. David Hume, (1711-1776.) A great English historian and philoso- 
 pher. 
 
146 ADDISON. 
 
 sentation. But Scott, Goethe, Robertson, 
 Addison had the good sense and generosity 
 to give their advisers credit for the best inten- 
 tions. Pope's heart was not of the same kind 
 
 5 with theirs. 
 
 In 171 5, while he was engaged in translating 
 the ** Iliad," he met Addison at a coffee-house. 
 Philips and Budgell were there ; but their 
 sovereign got rid of them, and asked Pope 
 
 10 to dine with him alone. After dinner, 
 Addison said that he lay under a difficulty 
 which he wished to explain. '* Tickell," he 
 said, *' translated some time ago the first book 
 of the ' Iliad.' I have promised to look it 
 
 15 over and correct it. I cannot therefore ask to 
 see yours ; for that would be double dealing." 
 Pope made a civil reply, and begged that his 
 second book might have Addison's revision. 
 Addison readily agreed, looked over the 
 
 20 second book, and sent it back with warm 
 commendations. 
 
 Tickell's version of the first book appeared 
 soon after this conversation. In the preface 
 all rivalry was earnestly disclaimed. Tickell 
 
 25 declared that he should not go on with the 
 " Iliad." That enterprise he should leave to 
 powers which he admitted to be superior to 
 
ADDISON. 147 
 
 his own. His only view, he said, in pubHshing 
 this specimen was to bespeak the favor of the 
 pubHc to a translation of the " Odyssey," in 
 which he had made some progress. 
 
 Addison and Addison's devoted followers 5 
 pronounced both the versions good, but main- 
 tained that Tickell's had more of the original. 
 The town gave a decided preference to Pope's. 
 We do not think it worth while to settle such 
 a question of precedence. Neither of the 10 
 rivals can be said to have translated the 
 ** Iliad," unless, indeed, the word " translation " 
 be used in the sense which it bears in the 
 " Midsummer Night's Dream." When Bottom 
 makes his appearance with an ass's head instead 15 
 of his own, Peter Quince exclaims, "Bless 
 thee, Bottom ! bless thee ! thou art translated." 
 In this sense, undoubtedly, the readers of 
 either Pope or Tickell may very properly 
 exclaim, "Bless thee, Homer! thou art 20 
 translated indeed." 
 
 Our readers will, we hope, agree with us in 
 thinking that no man in Addison's situation 
 could have acted more fairly and kindly, both 
 towards Pope and towards Tickell, than he 25 
 appears to have done. But an odious sus- 
 
 14. Midsummer Night's Dream. Act III., Scene i, line 121. 
 
148 ADDISON. 
 
 picion had sprung up in the mind of Pope. 
 He fancied, and he soon firmly beheved, that 
 there was a deep conspiracy against his fame 
 and his fortunes. The work on which he had 
 5 staked his reputation was to be depreciated. 
 The subscription, on which rested his hopes of 
 a competence, was to be defeated. With this 
 view, Addison had made a rival translation ; 
 Tickell had consented to father it; and the 
 
 10 wits of Button's had united to puff it. 
 
 Is there any external evidence to support 
 this grave accusation? The answer is short. 
 There is absolutely none. 
 
 Was there any internal evidence which 
 
 15 proved Addison to be the author of this ver- 
 sion? Was it a work which Tickell was 
 incapable of producing? Surely not. Tickell 
 was a fellow of a college at Oxford, and must 
 be supposed to have been able to construe the 
 
 20" Iliad;" and he was a better versifier than 
 his friend. We are not aware that Pope 
 pretended to have discovered any turns of 
 expression peculiar to Addison. Had such 
 terms of expression been discovered, they 
 
 25 would be suf^ciently accounted for by sup- 
 posing Addison to have corrected his friend's 
 lines, as he owned that he had done. 
 
ADDISON. 149 
 
 Is there anything in the character of the 
 accused persons which makes the accusation 
 probable? We answer confidently, Nothing. 
 Tickell was long after this time described by 
 Pope himself as a very fair and worthy man. 5 
 Addison had been, during many years, before 
 the public. Literary rivals, political oppo- 
 nents, had kept their eyes on him. But 
 neither envy nor faction, in their utmost rage, 
 had ever imputed to him a single deviation 10 
 from the laws of honor and of social morality. 
 Had he been, indeed, a man meanly jealous of 
 fame, and capable of stooping to base and 
 wicked arts for the purpose of injuring his 
 competitors, would his vices have remained 15 
 latent so long? He was a writer of tragedy: 
 had he ever injured Rowe? He was a writer 
 of comedy: had he not done ample justice to 
 Congreve, and given valuable help to Steele? 
 He was a pamphleteer: have not his good 20 
 nature and generosity been acknowledged by 
 Swift, his rival in fame, and his adversary in 
 politics? 
 
 That Tickell should have been guilty of a 
 villainy seems to us highly improbable. That 25 
 Addison should have been guilty of a villainy 
 seems to us highly improbable. But that 
 
ISO ADDISON. 
 
 these two men should have conspired together 
 to commit a villainy seems to us improbable 
 in a tenfold degree. All that is known to us 
 of their intercourse tends to prove that it was 
 snot the intercourse of two accomplices in 
 crime. These are some of the lines in which 
 Tickell poured forth his sorrow over the cofifin 
 of Addison : — 
 
 " Or dost thou warn poor mortals left behind, 
 
 10 A task well suited to thy gentle mind? 
 
 Oh, if sometimes thy spotless form descend, 
 To me thine aid, thou guardian genius, lend. 
 When rage misguides me, or when fear alarms, 
 When pain distresses, or when pleasure charms, 
 
 15 In silent whisperings purer thoughts impart, 
 
 And turn from ill a frail and feeble heart; 
 Lead through the paths thy virtue trod before. 
 Till bliss shall join, nor death can part us more." 
 
 In W'hat words, we should like to know, did 
 
 20 this guardian genius invite his pupil to join in 
 
 a plan such as the editor of the "Satirist" 
 
 would hardly dare to propose to the editor of 
 
 the **Age" ? 
 
 We do not accuse Pope of bringing an accu- 
 25 sation which he knew to be false. We have not 
 the smallest doubt that he believed it to be 
 true ; and the evidence on which he believed 
 it he found in his own bad heart. His own 
 life was one long series of tricks, as 
 30 mean and as malicious as that of which he 
 
ADDISON. 151 
 
 suspected Addison and Tickell. He was all 
 stiletto and mask. To injure, to insult, and to 
 save himself from the consequences of injury 
 and insult by lying and equivocating, was the 
 habit of his life. He published a lampoon on 5 
 the Duke of Chandos : he was taxed with it, 
 and he lied and equivocated. He published a 
 lampoon on Aaron Hill : he was taxed with it, 
 and he lied and equivocated. He published a 
 still fouler lampoon on Lady Mary Wortleyio 
 Montagu : he was taxed with it, and he lied 
 with more than usual effrontery and ve- 
 hemence. He puffed himself and abused his 
 enemies under feigned names. He robbed 
 himself of his own letters, and then raised the 15 
 hue and cry after them. Besides his frauds of 
 malignity, of fear, of interest and of vanity, 
 there were frauds which he seemed to have 
 committed from love of fraud alone. He had 
 a habit of strategem, a pleasure in outwitting 20 
 all who came near him. Whatever his object 
 might be, the indirect road to it was that 
 which he preferred. For Bolingbroke, Pope 
 undoubtedly felt as much love and veneration 
 as it was in his nature to feel for any human 25 
 being; yet Pope was scarcely dead when it 
 
 8. Aaron Hill. A dramatic writer of some merit. 
 
 II. Lady Wortley Montagu. " Dunciad," Book II , i, 135. 
 
152 ADDISON. / 
 
 was discovered, that, from no motive except 
 the mere love of artifice, he had been guilty of 
 an act of gross perfidy to Bolingbroke. 
 
 Nothing was more natural than that such a 
 
 5 man as this should attribute to others that 
 which he felt within himself. A plain, prob- 
 able, coherent explanation is frankly given to 
 him ; he is certain that it is all a romance. A 
 line of conduct scrupulously fair, and even 
 
 10 friendly, is pursued towards him: he is con- 
 vinced that it is merely a cover for a vile 
 intrigue by which he is to be disgraced and 
 ruined. It is vain to ask him for proofs. He 
 has none, and wants none, except those which 
 
 15 he carries in his own bosom. 
 
 Whether Pope's malignity at length pro- 
 voked Addison to retaliate for the first and 
 last time, cannot now be known with certainty. 
 We have only Pope's story, which runs 
 
 20 thus: a pamphlet appeared containing some 
 reflections which stung Pope to the quick. 
 What those reflections were, and whether they 
 were reflections of which he had a right 
 to complain, we have now no means of decid- 
 
 25ing. The Earl of Warwick, a foolish and 
 vicious lad, who regarded Addison with the 
 
 3. Perfidy. He was accused of committing a breech of trust in pub- 
 lishing certain letters of Bolingbroke. 
 
ADDISON. 153 
 
 feelings with which such lads generally regard 
 their best friends, told Pope, truly or falsely, 
 that this pamphlet had been written by Addi- 
 son's direction. When we consider what a 
 tendency stories have to grow in passing even 5 
 from one honest man to another honest man, 
 and when we consider that to the name of 
 honest men neither Pope nor the Earl of War- 
 wick had a claim, we are not disposed to 
 attach much importance to this anecdote. 10 
 
 It is certain, however, that Pope was furious. 
 He had already sketched the character of Atti- 
 cus in prose. In his anger he turned this 
 prose into the brilliant and energetic lines 
 which everybody knows by heart, or ought to 15 
 know by heart, and sent them to Addison. 
 One charge which Pope has enforced with 
 great skill is probably not without foundation. 
 Addison was, we are inclined to believe, too 
 fond of presiding over a circle of humble 20 
 friends. Of the other imputations which these 
 famous lines are intended to convey, scarcely 
 one has ever been proved to be just, and some 
 are certainly false. That Addison was not in 
 the habit of *' damning with faint praise " 26 
 appears from innumerable passages in his 
 writings, and from none more than from those 
 
154 ADDISON. 
 
 in which he mentions Pope. And it is not 
 merely unjust, but ridiculous, to describe a 
 man who made the fortune of almost every 
 one of his intimate friends, as *' so obliging 
 
 6 that he ne'er obliged." 
 
 That Addison felt the sting of Pope's satire 
 keenly we cannot doubt ; that he was con- 
 scious of one of the weaknesses with which he 
 was reproached, is highly probable: but his 
 
 10 heart, we firmly believe, acquitted him of the 
 gravest part of the accusation. He acted like 
 himself. As a satirist, he was at his own 
 weapons more than Pope's match, and he 
 would have been at no loss for topics. A dis- 
 
 istorted and diseased body, tenanted by a yet 
 more distorted and diseased mind ; spite and 
 envy thinly disguised by sentiments as benevo- 
 lent and noble as those which Sir Peter Teazle 
 admired in Mr. Joseph Surface; a feeble, 
 
 20 sickly licentiousness ; an odious love of filthy 
 and noisome images, — these were things which 
 a genius less powerful than that to which we 
 owe the "Spectator" could easily have held 
 up to the mirth and hatred of mankind. 
 
 25 Addison had, moreover, at his command 
 other means of vengeance, which a bad man 
 
 19. Sir Peter Teazle and Joseph Surface are both characters in the 
 " School for Scandal," a famous comedy by Sheridan. 
 
ADDISON. 155 
 
 would not have scrupled to use. He was 
 powerful in the State. Pope was a Catholic ; 
 and in those times a minister would have 
 found it easy to harass the most innocent 
 Catholic by innumerable petty vexations, s 
 Pope, nearly twenty years later, said that 
 "through the lenity of the government alone 
 he could live with comfort." Consider," he 
 exclaimed, '* the injury that a man of high 
 rank and credit may do to a private person, 10 
 under penal laws and many other disadvan- 
 tages." It is pleasing to reflect that the only 
 revenge which Addison took was to insert in 
 the " Freeholder " a warm enconium on the 
 translation of the " Iliad," and to exhort all 15 
 lovers of learning to put down their names as 
 subscribers. There could be no doubt, he 
 said, from the specimens already published, 
 that the masterly hand of Pope would do as 
 much for Homer as Dryden had done for 20 
 Virgil. From that time to the end of his life 
 he always treated Pope, by Pope's own ac- 
 knowledgment, with justice. Friendship was, 
 of course, at an end. 
 
 One reason which induced the Earl of 25 
 Warwick to play the ignominious part of tale- 
 bearer on this occasion may have been his 
 
156 ADDISON. 
 
 dislike of the marriage which was about to 
 take place between his mother and Addison. 
 The countess dowager, a daughter of the old 
 and honorable family of the Middletons of 
 5 Chirk, a family which, in any country but 
 ours, would be called noble, resided at Hol- 
 land House. Addison had, during some 
 years, occupied at Chelsea a small dwelling, 
 once the abode of Nell Gwynn. Chelsea is 
 
 10 now a district of London, and Holland House 
 may be called a town residence ; but, in the 
 da}'s of Anne and George I., milkmaids and 
 sportsmen wandered between green hedges, 
 and over fields bright with daisies, from 
 
 18 Kensington almost to the shore of the Thames. 
 Addison and Lady Warwick were country 
 neighbors, and became intimate friends. The 
 great wit and scholar tried to allure the young 
 lord from the fashionable amusements of 
 
 30 beating watchmen, breaking windows, and 
 rolling women in hogsheads down Holborn 
 Hill, to the study of letters and the practice of 
 virtue. These well-meant exertions did little 
 good, however, either to the disciple or to the 
 
 7. Holland House A beautiful mansion near London, built in the 
 time of Elizabeth. It was long celebrated as the resort of the mosi bril- 
 liant and witty society of the time. 
 
 9. Nell Gwynn. A notorious actress and favorite of Charles II. 
 
ADDISON. 157 
 
 master. Lord Warwick grew up a rake, and 
 Addison fell in love. The mature beauty of 
 the countess has been celebrated by poets in 
 language which, after a very large allowance 
 has been made for flattery, would lead us tos 
 believe that she was a fine woman ; and her 
 rank doubtless heightened her attractions. 
 The courtship was long. The hopes of the 
 lover appear to have risen and fallen with the 
 fortunes of his party. His attachment was at 10 
 length matter of such notoriety, that, when he 
 visited Ireland for the last time, Rowe 
 addressed some consolatory verses to the Chloe 
 of Holland House. It strikes us as a little 
 strange that in these verses Addison should 15 
 be called Lycidas, a name of singularly evil 
 omen for a swain just about to cross St. 
 George's Channel. 
 
 At length Chloe capitulated. Addison was 
 indeed able to treat with her on equal terms. 20 
 He had reason to expect preferment even 
 higher than that which he had attained. He 
 had inherited the fortune of a brother who died 
 governor of Madras. He had purchased an 
 
 13. Chloe. One of the favorite names for a shepherdess in classic 
 pastorals. 
 
 16 Lycidas. An unfortunate name because Milton in his famous 
 elegy uses it for his friend, Edward King, who was drowned while crossing 
 St. George's channel. 
 
158 ADDISOy. 
 
 estate in Warwickshire, and had been wel- 
 comed to his domain in very tolerable verse 
 by one of the neighboring squires, the poetical 
 fox hunter, William Somerville. In August, 
 
 5 1 716, the newspapers announced that Joseph 
 Addison, Esq., famous for many excellent 
 works both in verse and prose, had espoused 
 the Countess Dowager of Warwick. 
 
 He now fixed his abode at Holland House, 
 
 10 a house which can boast of a greater number 
 of inmates distinguished in political and literary 
 history than any other private dwelling in 
 England. His portrait still hangs, there. The 
 features are pleasing; the complexion is 
 
 15 remarkably fair; but in the expression we 
 trace rather the gentleness of his disposition 
 than the force and keenness of his intellect. 
 
 Not long after his marriage, he reached the 
 height of civil greatness. The Whig govern- 
 
 2oment had, during some time, been torn by 
 internal dissensions. Lord Townshend led 
 one section of the cabinet. Lord Sunderland 
 the other. At length, in the spring of 1717, 
 Sunderland triumphed. Townshend retired 
 
 25 from ofhce, and was accompanied by Walpole 
 and Cowper. Sunderland proceeded to recon- 
 
 21. Lord Townshend Negotiator of the treaty which bound the 
 Netherlands to support the Hanoverian succession. 
 
ADDISON. 159 
 
 struct the ministry, and Addison was appointed 
 secretary of state. It is certain that the seals 
 were pressed upon him, and were at first 
 decHned by him. Men equally versed in 
 official business might easily have been found ; 5 
 and his colleagues knew that they could not 
 expect assistance from him in debate. He 
 owed his elevation to his popularity, to his 
 stainless probity, and to his literary fame. 
 
 But scarcely had Addison entered the cabi- 10 
 net when his health began to fail. From one 
 serious attack he recovered in the autumn ; 
 and his recovery was celebrated in Latin 
 verses, worthy of his own pen, by Vincent 
 Bourne, who was then at Trinity College, 15 
 Cambridge. A relapse soon took place, and 
 in the following spring Addison was prevented 
 by a severe asthma from discharging the 
 duties of his post. He resigned it, and was 
 succeeded by his friend Craggs, a young man 20 
 whose natural parts, though little improved by 
 cultivation, were quick and showy, whose 
 graceful person and winning manners had 
 made him generally acceptable in society, and 
 who, if he had lived, would probably have 25 
 been the most formidable of all the rivals of 
 Walpole. 
 
l6o ADDISON. 
 
 As yet there was no Joseph Hume. The 
 ministers, therefore, were able to bestow on 
 Addison a retiring pension of fifteen hundred 
 pounds a year. In what form this pension 
 
 5 was given, we are not told by the biographers, 
 and have not time to inquire; but it is certain 
 that Addison did not vacate his seat in the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 Rest of mind and body seemed to have 
 
 10 re-established his health, and he thanked God, 
 with cheerful piety, for having set him free 
 both from his office and from his asthma. 
 Many years seemed to be before him ; and he 
 meditated many works, — a tragedy on the 
 
 15 death of Socrates, a translation of the Psalms, 
 a treatise on the evidences of Christianity. 
 Of this last performance, a part, which we 
 could well spare, has come down to us. 
 
 But the fatal complaint soon returned, and 
 
 20 gradually prevailed against all the resources 
 of medicine. It is melancholy to think that 
 the last months of such a life should have 
 been overclouded both by domestic and by 
 political vexations. A tradition which began 
 
 25 early, which has been generally received, and 
 
 I. Joseph Hume. An economist, who introduced many reforms in 
 Parliament. 
 
 15. Socrates, (469-399 B.C.; A great Athenian philosopher, the 
 teacher of Plato. 
 
ADDISON. l6l 
 
 to which we have nothing to oppose, has 
 represented his wife as an arrogant and 
 imperious woman. It is said that, till his 
 health failed him, he was glad to escape from 
 the countess dowager and her magnificent 5 
 dining room, blazing with the gilded devices 
 of the house of Rich, to some tavern where he 
 could enjoy a laugh, a talk about Virgil and 
 Boileau, and a bottle of claret with the friends 
 of his happier days. All those friends, how- 10 
 ever, were not left to him. Sir Richard Steele 
 had been gradually estranged by various 
 causes. He considered himself as one who, 
 in evil times, had braved martyrdom for his 
 political principles, and demanded, when the 15 
 Whig party was triumphant, a large compen- 
 sation for what he had suffered when it was 
 militant. The Whig leaders took a very 
 different view of his claims. They thought 
 that he had, by his own petulance and folly, 20 
 brought them as well as himself into trouble, 
 and though they did not absolutely neglect 
 him, doled out favors to him with a sparing 
 hand. It was natural that he should be angry 
 with them, and especially angry with Addison. 25 
 But what, above all, seems to have disturbed 
 
 7. House of Rich. Another name for Holland House, whose founder 
 was named Rich. 
 
1 62 ADDISON. 
 
 Sir Richard was the elevation of Tickell, who 
 at thirty was made by Addison undersecretary 
 of state ; while the editor of the *' Tatler " and 
 " Spectator," the author of the " Crisis," the 
 
 5 member for Stockbridge, who had been perse- 
 cuted for firm adherence to the House of 
 Hanover, was, at near fifty, forced, after many 
 solicitations and complaints, to content him- 
 self with a share in the patent of Drury Lane 
 
 10 Theater. Steele himself says, in his celebrated 
 letter to Congreve, that Addison, by his 
 preference of Tickell, " incurred the warmest 
 resentment of other gentlemen;" and every- 
 thing seems to indicate that, of those resentful 
 
 15 gentlemen, Steele was himself one. 
 
 While poor Sir Richard was brooding over 
 what he considered as Addison's unkindness, 
 a new cause of quarrel arose. The Whig 
 party, already divided against itself, was rent 
 
 20 by a new schism. The celebrated bill for 
 limiting the number of peers had been brought 
 in. The proud Duke of Somerset, first in 
 rank of all the nobles whose religion permitted 
 them to sit in Parliament, was the ostensible 
 
 25 author of the measure; but it was supported, 
 and in truth devised, by the prime minister. 
 
 26. Prime minister. Lord Sunderland. 
 
ADDISON. 163 
 
 We are satisfied that the bill was most 
 perniidous, and we fear that the motives which 
 induced Sunderland to frame it were not 
 honorable to him ; but we cannot deny that it 
 was supported by many of the best and wisest 5 
 men of that age. Nor was this strange. The 
 royal prerogative had, within the memory of 
 the generation then in the vigor of life, been 
 so grossly abused, that it was still regarded 
 with a jealousy, which, when the peculiar 10 
 situation of the house of Brunswick is consid- 
 ered, may perhaps be called immoderate. 
 The particular prerogative of creating peers 
 had, in the opinion of the Whigs, been grossly 
 abused by Queen Anne's last ministry ; and 15 
 even the Tories admitted that her Majesty, in 
 swamping, as it has since been called, the 
 Upper House, had done what only an extreme 
 case could justify. The theory of the English 
 Constitution, according to many high author- 20 
 ities, was that three independent powers — the 
 sovereign, the nobility, and the commons — 
 ought constantly to act as checks on each 
 other. If this theory was sound, it seemed to 
 follow that to put one of these powers under 25 
 
 II. Brunswick. Another name for the House of Hanover. 
 
 15 Queen Anne had created twelve new Tory peers to break the Whig 
 opposition in the House of Lords. 
 
1 64 ADDISON. 
 
 the absolute control of the other two, was 
 absurd. But if the number of peers were 
 unlimited, it could not well be denied that the 
 Upper House was under the absolute control 
 5 of the Crown and the Commons, and was 
 indebted only to their moderation for any 
 power which it might be suffered to retain. 
 
 Steele took part with the Opposition, Addi- 
 son with the ministers. Steele, in a paper 
 
 10 called the ''Plebeian," vehemently attacked the 
 bill. Sunderland called for help on Addison, 
 and Addison obeyed the call. In a paper 
 called the ''Old Whig" he answered and, 
 indeed, refuted Steele's arguments. It seems 
 
 15 to us that the premises of both the controver- 
 sialists were unsound ; that on those premises 
 Addison reasoned well, and Steele ill; and 
 consequently Addison brought out a false 
 conclusion, while Steele blundered upon the 
 
 20 truth. In style, in wit, and in politeness, 
 Addison maintained his superiority, though the 
 " Old Whig " is by no means one of his 
 happiest performances. 
 
 At first both the anonymous opponents 
 
 25 observed the laws of propriety. But at length 
 Steele so far forgot himself as to throw an 
 odious imputation on the morals of the chiefs 
 
ADDISON. 165 
 
 of the administration. Addison replied with 
 severity, but, in our opinion, with less severity 
 than was due to so grave an offense against 
 morality and decorum ; nor did he, in his just 
 anger, forget for a moment the laws of goods 
 taste and good breeding. One calumny which 
 has been often repeated, and never yet con- 
 tradicted, it is our duty to expose. It is 
 asserted in the '* Biographia Britannica," that 
 Addison designated Steele as *' little Dicky." 10 
 This assertion was repeated by Johnson, who 
 had never seen the " Old Whig," and was 
 therefore excusable. It has also been repeated 
 by Miss Aikin, who has seen the ''Old Whig," 
 and for whom, therefore, there is less excuse, is 
 Now, it is true that the words " little Dicky" 
 occur in the " Old Whig," and that Steele's 
 name was Richard. It is equally true that the 
 words " little Isaac " occur in the " Duenna," 
 and that Newton's name was Isaac. But we 20 
 confidently affirm that Addison's little Dicky 
 had no more to do with Steele than Sheridan's 
 little Isaac with Newton. If we apply the 
 words ''little Dicky" to Steele, we deprive a 
 very lively and ingenious passage, not only ofgs 
 all its wit, but of all its meaning. Little Dicky 
 
 19. Duenna. A celebrated comic opera by Richard Sheridan. 
 
1 66 ADDISON. 
 
 was the nickname of Henry Norris, an actor 
 of remarkably small stature, but of great humor, 
 who played the usurer Gomez, then a most 
 popular part, in Dryden's " Spanish Friar." 
 
 5 The merited reproof which Steele had 
 received, though softened by some kind and 
 courteous expressions, galled him bitterly. 
 He replied with little force and great acri- 
 mony ; but no rejoinder appeared. Addison 
 
 10 was fast hastening to his grave, and had, we 
 may well suppose, little disposition to pro- 
 secute a quarrel with an old friend. His 
 complaint had terminated in dropsy. He 
 bore up long and manfully ; but at length he 
 
 15 abandoned all hope, dismissed his physicians, 
 and calmly prepared himself to die. 
 
 His works he intrusted to the care of 
 Tickell, and dedicated them a very few days 
 before his death to Craggs, in a letter written 
 
 20 with the sweet and graceful eloquence of a 
 Saturday's ** Spectator." In this, his last com- 
 position, he alluded to his approaching end in 
 words so manly, so cheerful, and so ten- 
 der, that it is difficult to read them without 
 
 25 tears At the same time, he earnestly recom- 
 mended the interests of Tickell to the care of 
 Craggs. 
 
ADDISON. 167 
 
 Within a few hours of the time at which this 
 dedication was written, Addison sent to beg 
 Gay, who was then Hving by his wits about 
 town, to come to Holland House. Gay went, 
 and was received with great kindness. To his 5 
 amazement, his forgiveness was implored by 
 the dying man. Poor Gay, the most good- 
 natured and simple of mankind, could not 
 imagine what he had to forgive. There was, 
 however, some wrong, the remembrance of 10 
 which weighed on Addison's mind, and which 
 he declared himself anxious to repair. He 
 was in a state of extreme exhaustion, and the 
 parting was doubtless a friendly one on both 
 sides. Gay supposed that some plan to serve 15 
 him had been in agitation at court, and had 
 been frustrated by Addison's influence. Nor 
 was this improbable. Gay had paid assiduous 
 court to the royal family. But in the Queen's 
 days he had been the eulogist of Bolingbroke20 
 and was still connected with many Tories. It 
 is not strange that Addison, while heated by 
 conflict, should have thought himself justified 
 in obstructing the preferment of one whom he 
 might regard as a political enemy. Neither is 25 
 it strange, that when reviewing his whole life, 
 
 3. John Gay, (1688-1732 ) A poet of some note. His best known 
 works are the " Shepherd's Week " and the " Beggar's Opera." 
 
1 68 ADDISON. 
 
 and earnestly scrutinizing all his motives, he 
 should think that he had acted an unkind and 
 ungenerous part in using his power against a 
 
 . distressed man of letters, who was as harmless 
 sand as helpless as a child. 
 
 One inference may be drawn from this 
 anecdote. It appears that Addison on his 
 deathbed called himself to a strict account, 
 and was not at ease till he had asked pardon 
 
 10 for an injury which it was not even suspected 
 that he had committed, for an injury which 
 would have caused disquiet only to a very 
 tender conscience. It is not, then, reasonable 
 to infer, that, if he had really been guilty of 
 
 15 forming a base conspiracy against the fame 
 and fortunes of a rival, he would have expres- 
 sed some remorse for so serious a crime? 
 But it is unnecessary to multiply arguments 
 and evidence for the defense, when there is 
 
 20 neither argument nor evidence for the accusa- 
 tion. 
 
 The last moments of Addison were per- 
 fectly serene. His interview with his son-in- 
 law is universally known. " See," he said, 
 
 25" how a Christian can die." The piety of 
 Addison was, in truth, of a singularly cheerful 
 character. The feeling which predominates in 
 
ADDISON. 169 
 
 all his devotional writings is gratitude. God 
 was to him the all-wise and all-powerful friend 
 who had watched over his cradle with more 
 than maternal tenderness ; who had listened 
 to his cries before they could form themselves s 
 in prayer ; who had preserved his youth from 
 the snares of vice ; who had made his cup run 
 over with worldly blessings ; who had doubled 
 the value of those blessings by bestowing a 
 thankful heart to enjoy them, and dear friends 10 
 to partake them ; who had rebuked the waves 
 of the Lingurian gulf, had purified the autum- 
 nal air of the Campagna, and had restrained 
 the avalanches of Mount Cenis. Of the 
 Psalms, his favorite was that which represents 15 
 the Ruler of all things under the endearing 
 image of a shepherd, whose crook guides the 
 flock safe, through gloomy and desolate 
 glens, to meadows well watered and rich with 
 herbage. On that goodness to which he 20 
 ascribed all the happiness of his life, he relied 
 in the hour of death with the love which cast- 
 eth out fear. He died on the 17th of June, 
 1 7 19. He had just entered on his forty- 
 eighth year. 25 
 
 13. Campagna. A malarial tract of land in southern Italy. 
 
 15. Addison's version of the twenty-third Psalm was published in No. 
 144 of the Spectator. 
 
1 70 ADDISON. 
 
 His body lay in state in the Jerusalem 
 Chamber, and was borne thence to the 
 Abbey at dead of night. The choir sang a 
 funeral hymn. Bishop Atterbury, one of 
 
 6 those Tories who had loved and honored the 
 most accomplished of the Whigs, met the 
 corpse, and led the procession by torchlight, 
 round the shrine of St. Edward and the graves 
 of the Plantagenets, to the chapel of Henry 
 
 10 VII. On the north side of that chapel, in the 
 vault of the house of Albemarle, the coffin of 
 Addison lies next to the coffin of Montague. 
 Yet a few months, and the same mourners 
 passed again along the same aisle. The same 
 
 15 sad anthem was again chanted. The same 
 vault was again opened, and the coffin of 
 Craggs was placed close to the coffin of 
 Addison. 
 
 Many tributes were paid to the memory of 
 
 20 Addison; but one alone is now remembered. 
 Tickell bewailed his friend in an elegy which 
 would do honor to the greatest name in our 
 literature, and which unites the energy and 
 magnificence of Dryden to the tenderness and 
 
 I. Jerusalem Chamber. A hall in Westminster Abbey hung with 
 tapestries depicting the history of Jerusalem. 
 
 8. St. Edward. King of England, 1041-1066. 
 
 9. Plantagenets. The English ruling House from Henry IT. to 
 Richard n I 
 
ADDISON. 171 
 
 purity of Cowper. This fine poem was pre- 
 fixed to a superb edition of Addison's works, 
 which was published in 1721 by subscription. 
 The names of the subscribers proved how 
 widely his fame had been spread. That his 5 
 countrymen should be eager to possess his 
 writings, even in a "costly form, is not wonder- 
 ful ; but it is wonderful, that, though English 
 literature was then little studied on the contin- 
 ent, Spanish grandees, Italian prelates, mar- 10 
 shals of France should be found in the list. 
 Among the most remarkable names are those 
 of the Queen of Sweden, of Prince Eugene, of 
 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Dukes of 
 Parma, Modena, and Guastalla, of the Doge of 15 
 Genoa, of the Regent Orleans, and of Cardinal 
 Dubois, We ought to add that this edition, 
 though eminently beautiful, is in some import- 
 ant points defective; nor, indeed, do we yet 
 possess a complete collection of Addison's 20 
 writings. 
 
 It is strange that neither his opulent and 
 noble widow, nor any of his powerful and 
 attached friends should have thought of plac- 
 ing even a simple tablet, inscribed with his 25 
 name, on the walls of the Abbey. It was not • 
 
 I. William Cowper, (1731-1800.) A distinguished poet, the first of 
 the Romanticists . 
 
172 ADDISON. 
 
 till three generations had laughed and wept 
 over his pages that the omission was supplied 
 by the public veneration. At length, in our 
 own time, his image, skillfully graven, appeared 
 
 sin Poets' Corner. It represents him, as we can 
 conceive him, — clad in his dressing gown, and 
 freed from his wig, — stepping from his parlor 
 at Chelsea into his trim little garden, with the 
 account of the "Everlasting Club," or the 
 
 10'* Loves of Hilpa and Shalum," just finished 
 for the next day's "Spectator," in his hand. 
 Such a mark of national respect was due to 
 the unsullied statesman, to the accomplished 
 scholar, to the master of pure English elo- 
 
 isquence, to the consummate painter of life and 
 manners, lit was due, above all, to the great 
 satirist, who alone knew how to use ridicule 
 without abusing it, who, without inflicting a 
 wound, effected a great social reform, and who 
 
 20 reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and 
 disastrous separation, during which wit had 
 been led astray by profligacy, and virtue by 
 fanaticism. 
 
I 
 
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