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 JOSEPH ADDISON
 
 MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON 
 
 J 
 
 ADDISON 
 
 EDITED AND ANNOTATED 
 
 BY 
 
 CHAELES WALLACE FRENCH 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE HYDE PARK HIGH SCHOOL, CHICAGO 
 
 Kcto gork 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
 
 1905 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 Copyright, 1899, 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped November, 1898. Reprinted July, 
 1899; October, 1900; February, 190a: April. 1903; January, 1905.
 
 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 The essay contained in this volume forms a part of 
 the course prescribed by the Joint Committee on Eng- 
 lish Eequirements for admission to college. AVhile it 
 can hardly be rated as the greatest of Macaulay's 
 essays, there are few, if any, Avhich present a richer 
 field for investigation and study. The student will 
 need to have encyclopaedia and dictionaries constantly 
 at hand, and even then he will probably find some 
 allusions ahd references which will bafile his most 
 patient effort. 
 
 In the preparation of the notes the fact has been 
 recognized that many students must take up this 
 work without the necessary reference books; there- 
 fore the allusions have been explained much more 
 fully than would otherwise be necessary. 
 
 Where it is possible, the student should not depend 
 on the notes for his information, but should look up 
 the references for himself. Much interesting infor- 
 mation will be secured, and valuable habits of inves- 
 tigation will be formed by a careful, independentj and 
 exhaustive study of this masterpiece. 
 
 2049710
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 In the preparation of the following introductory 
 matter an effort has been made to present only that 
 which will be available and useful to the average 
 student. Critical analyses and discussions have been 
 studiously avoided- 
 
 Generally the introduction to a work of this class 
 is carefully skipped by students, and sometimes, no 
 doubt, wisely. Yet there is a certain kind and amount 
 of introductory work which needs to be done in order 
 to prepare the way for the proper study of any author, 
 and it is hoped that the following pages will not 
 altogether fail to meet this necessity. 
 
 '■'■ His heart was pure and simple as a child's 
 Unbreathed on by the world : in friendship warm. 
 Confiding, generous, constant ; and now 
 He ranks among the great ones of the earth, 
 And hath achieved such glory as will last 
 To future generations." — Moultrie. 
 vli
 
 Till INTRODUCTION 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 Thomas Babingtox Macaulay, the son of Zachary 
 and Selina Mills Macaulay, was born at Botliley 
 Temple, October 25, 1800. His father, a man of strict 
 principles and stern and unyielding integrity, was 
 associated with Wilberforce in his anti-slavery agita- 
 tion, and spent the larger part of his life in works of 
 charity and philanthropy. 
 
 Young Macaulay was a child of such marked matu- 
 rity of thought and expression that he became noted 
 among the friends of the family for his quaintness and 
 precocity, yet his nature was so frank and wholesome 
 that he escaped the slightest taint of priggishness. 
 Those qualities of person and mind which were marked 
 in his later years appeared very early in life and 
 developed rapidly. 
 
 " Madame, the agony has already begun to abate,^' 
 was the answer of the four-year-old boy to the solici- 
 tous inquiry of a lady, when a careless servant spilled 
 some hot coffee on his legs. Not long afterwards he 
 edified a group of visitors in the drawing-room by 
 walking into the room and exclaiming : 
 
 "Cursed be Sallie; for it is written, ^Cursed be he 
 that removeth his neighbor's landmark.' " This 
 scriptural malediction was directed against a serving-
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH IX 
 
 maid who had removed a row of oyster shells with 
 which he had marked out tht limits of his playground. 
 
 He early formed the habit of holding a jjiece of 
 bread and butter in his hand, from which he would 
 occasionally take a bite, when he was engaged in 
 study. His mother one day told him he must break 
 up the habit. " Yes, mamma," he replied, " industry 
 shall be my bread and attention my butter." 
 
 At the age of eight he had covered a wide range of 
 reading, and had accumulated a large store of know- 
 ledge, which his wonderfully retentive memory enabled 
 him to use with considerable facility and force. He 
 soon became accustomed to express his thoughts in 
 both prose and poetry. His marvellously fertile mind 
 began to pour forth its treasures at an age when the 
 average child has not yet learned even to read; and 
 though his earlier productions have not been deemed 
 worthy of preservation, they gave abundant promise 
 of the maturer work with which he was destined to 
 enrich literature for all time. 
 
 One of his productions was a paper which was 
 intended to persuade the people of Travancore to 
 embrace the Christian religion, of which his mother 
 says : " On reading it, I found it to contain a very 
 clear idea of the leading facts and doctrines of that 
 religion, with some strong arguments for its adoption. 
 Heroic poems, epics, odes, and histories flowed from his
 
 X INTRODUCTION 
 
 pen like waters from a mountain spring; and while 
 they were often crude and boyish, they were the 
 spontaneous expressions of a mind which was rapidly 
 growing into a consciousness of its own productive 
 power." 
 
 His elementary education was secured at a small 
 private school near Cambridge, where his individual 
 peculiarities were allowed much freedom in their de- 
 velopment, yet with sufficient guidance to coordinate 
 them wisely. At the age of 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, Fene- 
 lon's Dialogues of the Dead. I shall send you back 
 the volumes of Madame de Genlis's x>^tit romans as 
 soon as possible, and should be very much obliged for 
 one or two more of them." 
 
 He also formed a taste for fiction, which he read 
 with such eagerness that very few novels in the 
 English language escaped his eye. 
 
 Notwithstanding his literary tastes and his absorption 
 in his reading and studies, he never allowed school 
 duties to encroach upon his love of home and friends, or 
 to reconcile him to his '^ exile." At the beginning of his 
 second half-year at school he writes to his mother : 
 
 " My spirits are far more depressed by leaving home 
 than they were last half-year. Everything brings
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH XI 
 
 home to my recollection. You told me I should be 
 happy when I once came here, but not an hour passes 
 in which I do not shed tears at thinking of home." 
 
 His biographer gives an illustration of his wonder- 
 ful memory, which is referred to this period. AVhile 
 sitting in a Cambridge coffee-house he picked up a 
 paper and read two poetical effusions which were 
 printed in it, one called "Reflections of an Exile," 
 and the other a parody on a Welsh ballad. He looked 
 them once through, and his mind did not recur to 
 them again for forty years, at the end of which period 
 he was able to repeat them without changing a word. 
 Joined with these retentive powers was the ability to 
 assimilate the contents of a printed page almost at a 
 glance. He would read a whole book while the aver- 
 age reader would be covering a chapter. Xor was 
 this merely "skimming," as he could always repeat 
 the substance of the book from memory afterwards. 
 
 He entered upon all branches of study with equal 
 avidity, excepting only mathematics, which he always 
 regarded with intense aversion and pursued only 
 under protest. In regard to this subject he writes 
 home from the University: 
 
 ••I can scarcely bear to write on mathematics or 
 mathematicians. Oh for words to express my abomi- 
 nation for that science, if a name sacred to the useful 
 and embellishing arts may be applied to the percep-
 
 XU INTRODUCTION 
 
 tion and recollection of certain properties of numbers 
 and figures. Oh that I had to learn astrology, or 
 demonology, or school divinity; oh that I were to 
 pore over Thomas Aquinas, and to adjust the relation 
 of Entity with the two Predicaments, so that I were 
 exempt from this miserable study! 'Discipline' of 
 the mind! Say rather starvation, confinement, tort- 
 ure, annihilation! But it must be. I feel myself 
 becoming a personification of algebra, a living trig- 
 onometrical canon, a walking table of logarithms. All 
 my perceptions of elegance and beauty are gone, or at 
 least going. . . . But such is my destiny; and since 
 it is so, be the pursuit contemptible, below contempt, 
 or disgusting beyond abhorrence, I shall aim at no 
 second place." 
 
 At Cambridge, as at the preparatory school, he 
 excelled in literary and classical studies and was 
 noted for his ready and somewhat boisterous conver- 
 sational powers. He early became interested in polit- 
 ical questions, and began to participate in political 
 discussions. While at Cambridge he renounced the 
 principles of the Tory party to which his father 
 was attached, and became an ardent Whig, and after- 
 wards became one of the trusted leaders of the party. 
 
 In 1819 he won the Chancellor's medal for a poem 
 on "Pompeii," and again in 1820 for a poem entitled 
 " Evening." In 1822 he received his Bachelor's degree,
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xill 
 
 and in 1824 was elected to a fellowship, which was 
 the more pleasing to him because it brought such 
 deep gratification to his parents. 
 
 His first literary efforts were contributed to Knighfs 
 Quarterly Magazine, for which he wrote several arti- 
 cles between June, 1823, and November, 1824. In 
 this latter year he made his debut as a public speaker 
 at an anti-slavery meeting, where he seems to have 
 made a considerable impression by his eloquence and 
 exhaustive treatment of the subject. 
 
 In 1825 he contributed his essay on "^Sfilton" to the 
 Edinburgh Review, and for twenty years after he was 
 a constant writer for this celebrated magazine. His 
 "Milton" brought him wide renown, and made his 
 name familiar to a wide circle of readers. AVhile his 
 work was scholarly, it was also popular and intensely 
 interesting. Probably no other writer of the present 
 century has so taken the world by storm as did 
 Macaulay. The circulation of the Review increased 
 with unexampled rapidity. In America his essays 
 were reprinted in editions both cheap and expensive, 
 and were not only sold in large quantities here but 
 even found a large sale in the mother country. 
 
 Macaulay imparted to his writings a peculiar charm 
 from which even the casual reader cannot escape. His 
 wide reading and wonderful memory enabled him to 
 range the whole field of literature and history for his
 
 XIV INTRODUCTION 
 
 illustrations and allusions, and also to impart a large 
 amount of information, which, if not always strictly 
 accurate, was invested in such picturesque and beauti- 
 ful language that it appealed directly to the higher 
 tastes of his readers and did much to quicken their 
 intellectual life. 
 
 In 1825 he received his Master's degree, and in 
 1826 was called to the bar, but he very soOn aban- 
 doned his attempt to practise law and gave himself 
 up to his literary work and to the pursuit of politics. 
 
 His articles in the Edinburgh Review brought him 
 a wide popularity, which, added to his powerful ad- 
 vocacy of Whig principles, made it possible for him 
 to enter Parliament, and in 1830 he was returned from 
 the borough of Colne. 
 
 His first speech was in favor of a bill to remove the 
 civil disabilities of the Jews, and his second was di- 
 rected against slavery in the West Indies. He also 
 took a prominent part in the great debate on the 
 Eeform Bill, and contributed materially to its final 
 adoption. 
 
 ' From this time his position, both in politics and 
 society, was assured. He was probably the most prom- 
 inent and influential member of his party in the House 
 and was always listened to with interest and respect. 
 He won renown not only for the eloquence and power 
 of his speeches, but also for his readiness in debate.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH XV 
 
 His great stores of information and his exhanstless 
 memory both combined to make him invincible in the 
 hot battles that were then waged in Parliament. 
 
 On July 10, 1833, he made an effective speech in 
 favor of an important measure then under considera- 
 tion, at the close of which one of the administration 
 leaders gave utterance to his admiration in the follow- 
 ing words : 
 
 " I must embrace the opportunity of expressing, not 
 what I felt (for language could not express it), but of 
 making an attempt to convey to the House my sym- 
 pathy with it in its- admiration of the speech of my 
 honorable and learned friend : a speech which, I will 
 venture to assert, has never been exceeded ^vithin 
 these walls for the development of statesman-like 
 policy and practical good sense. It exhibited all that 
 is noble in oratory ; all that is sublime, I had almost 
 said, in poetry; all that is truly great, exalted, and 
 virtuous in human nature. If the House at large felt 
 a deep interest in this magnificent display, it may 
 judge of what were my emotions when I perceived in 
 the hands of my honorable friend the great principles 
 which he expounded glowing with fresh colors and 
 arrayed in all the beauty of truth." 
 
 This generous tribute expressed no more than the 
 common estimate of Macaulay's eloquence and logical 
 power.
 
 xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 In 1834 he was made president of a new Law Com- 
 mission for India and member of the Supreme Council 
 of Calcutta. The salary attached to these positions was 
 large, and during his three years' residence in India he 
 was enabled to acquire a competency which made him 
 independent for the rest of his life. 
 
 While in India he found time to continue his studies, 
 and also to write several of his brilliant essays. It 
 was at this time that he acquired the knowledge of 
 Oriental life and history, which he afterwards used so 
 effectively in his essays on Warren Hastings and 
 Lord Clive. 
 
 In 1838 he returned to England, and was at once 
 elected to Parliament from Edinburgh. From 1839 to 
 1841 he was Secretary of War and occupied a seat in 
 the Cabinet. In 1842 he surprised the public by 
 turning aside from his usual style of composition and 
 publishing the "Lays of Ancient Rome," which at 
 once became immensely popular, and have remained 
 so to the present day, despite the fact that they have 
 been condemned by critics as neither poetry nor his- 
 tory. In 1844 he wrote his last essay for the Review 
 and then gave himself up to the preparation of his 
 History of England from the Time of James II,, the 
 first two volumes of which appeared in 1849. The 
 event of their publication had been eagerly antici- 
 pated by the public, and they sold so rapidly that the
 
 THE ESSAYS xvil 
 
 publishers could hardly keep pace with the demand. 
 The third and fourth volumes were not ready until 
 1855. 
 
 In 1847 he was defeated for reelection to Parlia- 
 ment, but in 1852 was returned by his Edinburgh con- 
 stituency without any effort on his part ; but he took 
 little part in the struggles and deliberations of that 
 body. 
 
 During the latter part of Macaulay's life many dis- 
 tinguished honors were conferred upon him. In 1849 
 he was elected Lord Eector of the University of Glas- 
 gow and Fellow of the Koyal Society. In 1857 he 
 was made a peer of the realm, under the title of Baron 
 Macaulay of Kothley. In this same year he was 
 elected Foreign Member of the French Academy, was 
 given the Prussian Order of Merit, and was made 
 High Steward of Cambridge. But his hard and un- 
 remitting labor had undermined his naturally strong 
 constitution, and he died, December 2^, 1859, when 
 hardly past the prime of life. 
 
 THE ESSAYS 
 
 As a form of literature the essay is a relatively 
 short disquisition upon some particular point or topic. 
 It is not as formal and methodical as the more digni-
 
 xvili INTRODUCTION 
 
 fied treatise, anci instead of giving a thorough and 
 complete treatment of its subject, is comparatively 
 superficial, and is designed, as a rule, to appeal to the 
 popular taste rather than to the more limited circle 
 of scholarly and profound thinkers for whom the 
 treatise is primarily designed. 
 
 The essay offers an opportunity for the bright and 
 witty thinker to discourse confidentially upon subjects 
 in which he is interested without being required to 
 give to them an orderly and exhaustive treatment, or 
 to make his work conform rigidly to all the canons 
 of literary criticism. 
 
 In the essay, more than in any other impersonal 
 form of literary effort, the author is able to impress 
 his own personality upon his work, so that oftentimes 
 it assumes the freedom and variety and is often char- 
 acterized by the individuality of the conversational 
 monologue. It needs no profouna student of litera- 
 ture to recognize at once the author in such essays 
 as those of Bacon, Addison, Macaulay, or Matthew 
 Arnold. 
 
 This species of composition has been a favorite one 
 from the time of Bacon, the great English philosopher, 
 and Montaigne, the greatest French writer of the six- 
 teenth century, who were the first of modern writers 
 to use it distinctively. It is especially adapted to 
 periodical literature, and if it has not risen to its
 
 THE ESSAYS XlX 
 
 highest level, it has, at any rate, appeared in its most 
 agreeable and attractive form in such publications as 
 the Tatler, Spectator, and Edinburgh Review. It has 
 been used as the vehicle for historical and biographi- 
 cal sketches, literary and critical discussions, political 
 arguments, and ethical and religious expositions. It 
 has generally been written in prose, although Pope, 
 in his essays on " Man " and " Criticism," has shown 
 that it may appear in poetic form, without loss of 
 freshness or vigor. 
 
 Some authors, like Addison and Steele, have pro- 
 duced the most of their literary work in this form, 
 while others, like Cowley, have used it as a diversion, 
 and have gained their reputation in other fields of 
 literature. 
 
 To the scholar essay-writing may seem to be a form 
 of literary dissipation, which, persisted in, will make 
 the writer incapable of close and sustained work along 
 any single line. Whether this be true or not, it is 
 certain that the essay has influenced beneficially a 
 wider class of readers than any other form of compo- 
 sition outside of fiction, and even fiction has done 
 much less to disseminate useful information and to 
 inspire thoughtful consideration of great questions. 
 
 Unlike poetry and fiction, the modern essay has not 
 undergone a process of evolution. In its essential 
 characteristics it has not changed materially since its
 
 XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 first appearance in the sixteenth century. A compari- 
 son between the essays of Bacon and ^[ontaigne and 
 those of almost any modern writer will show differ- 
 ences in the personal standpoint and style of treat- 
 ment, but the essential elements of composition remain 
 the same. The essay, like Athena, sprang full-grown 
 and fully armed into the world of literature, and took 
 its place at once as a finished and perfected product. 
 
 The essays of Macaulay, which are probably the 
 most brilliant in the whole range of literature, were 
 contributed mainly to the Edinburgh Review, a journal 
 which had risen to an unequalled height of political, 
 social, and literary power. To have the entry of its 
 columns was to command the most direct channel for 
 the spread of opinions and the shortest road to influ- 
 ence and celebrity. 
 
 Many of these essays were nominally book reviews, 
 and were generally suggested by some book, whose 
 unfortunate author found himself completely over- 
 shadowed by his sometimes friendly, but frequently 
 hostile, critic. In reality these productions are brill- 
 iant essays, biographical, historical, and literary, and 
 sometimes, though not often, really critical. Macau- 
 lay's sympathy was too easily aroused, and his parti- 
 sanship was too intense to permit him to employ 
 either the cool temper of the critic or the calm im- 
 partiality of the historian.
 
 THE ESSAYS XXl 
 
 In the course of his reading ^Macaulay had acciunu- 
 lated an immense quantity and variety of facts, which 
 his great retentive powers placed at his service when- 
 ever he wanted to use them. Thus his essa3"s be- 
 came exhaustless storehouses of information gathered 
 from all fields of human learning and compacted with 
 great ingenuity and skill into literary masterpieces. 
 Although he composed with great rapidity, he never 
 wrote carelessly or hastily. He gives an insight into 
 his literary methods in a letter written to the editor 
 of the Edinburgh Bevieiv from Calcutta, November 
 26, 1836, from which the following passage is taken : ^ 
 
 " At last I send you an article of interminable length 
 on Lord Bacon. I hardly know whether it is not too 
 long for an article in the Be view, but the subject is 
 of such vast extent that I could easily have made the 
 paper twice as long as it is. About the historical and 
 political part there is no great probability that we 
 shall differ in opinion ; but what I have said about 
 Bacon's philosophy is widely at variance with what 
 Dugald Stewart and ^lackintosh have said on the 
 same subject. . . . My opinion is formed not at sec- 
 ond hand, like those of nine-tenths of the people who 
 talk about Bacon ; but after several very attentive 
 perusals of his greatest works and after a great deal 
 of thought. ... I never bestowed so much care on 
 
 - See Trevelyau's Life and Letters of Macaulay, Vol. I., p. 47.
 
 xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 an3'thing I have written. There is not a sentence 
 in the latter half of the article which has not been 
 repeatedly recast." 
 
 Macaiilay never intended to put his essays into 
 permanent form, and several times refused the re- 
 quest of his publishers to collect and edit them. But 
 finally the popular demand became so great that 
 American publishers issued unauthorized editions, 
 which found a ready sale in England as well as 
 in America. Influenced by this fact, he finally con- 
 sented to edit and publish an authorized edition, to 
 which he attached the following preface : 
 
 "The author of these essays is so sensible of their 
 defects that he has repeatedly refused to let them 
 appear in a form which might seem to indicate that 
 he thought them worthy of a permanent place in 
 English literature ; nor would he now give his con- 
 sent to the re-publication of pieces so imperfect, if, 
 by withholding his consent, he could make re-publica- 
 tion impossible. But as they have been reprinted 
 more than once in the United States, as many Ameri- 
 can copies have been imported into this country, and 
 as a still larger importation is expected, he conceives 
 that he cannot, in justice to the publishers of the 
 Edinburgh Revieiv, longer object to a measure which 
 they consider as necessary to the protection of their 
 rights, and that he cannot be accused of presumption
 
 THE ESSAYS XXlll 
 
 for wishing that his writings, if they are read, may be 
 read in an edition freed at least from errors of the 
 press and from slips of the pen. . . . 
 
 '^'^0 attempt has been made to remodel any of the 
 pieces which are contained in these volumes. Even 
 the criticism on ]\Iilton, which was written when the 
 author was fresh from college, and which contains 
 scarcely a paragraph such as his matured judgment 
 approves, still remains overloaded with gaudy and 
 ungraceful ornament. The blemishes which have 
 been removed were, for the most part, blemishes 
 caused by unavoidable haste. The author has some- 
 times, like other contributors to periodical works, 
 been under the necessity of writing at a distance 
 from all books and from all advisers, often trusting 
 to his memory for facts, dates, and quotations, and 
 of often sending manuscripts to the post without 
 reading them over. What he has composed thus rap- 
 idly has often been as rapidly printed. His object 
 has been that every essay should now appear as it 
 probably would have appeared when it was first pub- 
 lished, if he had been allowed an additional day or 
 two to revise the proof-sheets with the assistance of a 
 good library.'^
 
 xxiv i:S^TRODUCTION' 
 
 THE LITERAEY HISTORY OF MACAULAY'S 
 AGEi 
 
 A CONSIDERABLE iiumber of England's most noted 
 writers flourished during the life of Macaulay. At 
 his birth the greatest poets of the preceding century 
 were still in the fulness of their powers, while at his 
 death the authors who have been so intimately con- 
 nected with the glory of Victorian literature had 
 already begun that brilliant work which has made 
 this the most noteworthy period in the whole range 
 of English literature. 
 
 With few exceptions, the greatest English poets be- 
 long to the nineteenth century. During its first quarter 
 the world Avas dazzled by the genius of Wordsworth, 
 Coleridge, Byron, Southey, Keats, and Shelley; and 
 they had hardly passed from the stage when the first 
 works of Browning and Tennyson were produced. 
 
 1 The Joint Committee on English Requirements, at its session in 
 New York in 1897, recommended the study of the literary history of 
 the various periods, to which the prescribed books belong, in connec- 
 tion with their study. No attempt is made here even to sketch the 
 literary history of this period further than is necessary to furnish 
 a background or, what may be so called, a literary setting for 
 Macaulay's works. A more extended study of the general features 
 of the period may be carried on with profit ; yet it should not be 
 forgotten that the great purpose of all literary study should be 
 found in the thought of the author, and not in the details of his 
 life history.
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF MACAULAY S AGE XXV 
 
 The history of this centur}^ contains the names of 
 nearly all uf the great masters of English fiction, of 
 whom Scott, Thackeray, Dickens, Buhver-Lytton, ]\Iiss 
 Edgeworth, Charlotte Bronte, and ]\riss Austen were 
 contemporary with Macaulay. 
 
 Two writers of his period may be fairly classed with 
 our author, although they differed widely from him in 
 many essential characteristics. These were De Quincey 
 and Carlyle, who, with Macaulay, will easily rank among 
 the greatest of English essayists. 
 
 Like Macaulay, De Quincey began his literarj^ career 
 by contributing to periodical literature, but, unlike him, 
 he also ended it there : and he has the distinction of 
 being the only great English prose writer who never 
 wrote a book. Eew writers since the time of Aristotle 
 have covered so broad a field, and fewer still have 
 proved themselves so thoroughly at home in every 
 department of human thought and investigation, yet 
 he never sustained any line of thought or investigation 
 long enough to produce a work which may be called a 
 real contribution to the intellectual life of the world. 
 The literary value of his works is great, and in beauty 
 and grace, as well as dignity, his style is hardl}^ ex- 
 celled; yet he cannot be ranked among the great 
 masters of English thought. 
 
 In this respect De Quincey was distinctly inferior 
 to Macaulay and Carlyle, each of whom engaged in
 
 XX vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 exhaustive research, and produced works that have 
 enriched literature for all time. 
 
 Many points of resemblance will be discovered be- 
 tween De Quincey and Macaulay from a comparative 
 study of their works. They were both indefatigable 
 readers, and possessed of wonderful retentive powers. 
 Both wrote for magazines on a wide range of topics. 
 Each was gifted with peculiar beauties of style and 
 with a remarkable exuberance of thought ; but in their 
 personal characteristics they were at the antipodes. 
 The one was retiring, introspective, and morbid; the 
 other was a man of affairs, and gifted with the power 
 of leadership. Both were masters of the now almost 
 forgotten art of conversation. 
 
 Between Macaulay and Carlyle there were few 
 resemblances and fewer elements of sympathy. They 
 were both great prose writers, and interested in the 
 same general class of subjects. Each was attracted to 
 the study of history, and particularly to questions 
 relating to political and social conditions ; but their 
 view points were essentially antagonistic. The one 
 was an interested participator in the political activi- 
 ties of his times, and conducted his historical studies 
 and investigations from the standpoint of a partisan, 
 while the other was a philosopher, and almost a 
 recluse. 
 
 Yet while ]Macaulay is more attractive and, by the
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF MACAVLAY'S AGE XXVil 
 
 ordinary reader, mucli more easily understood and 
 sympathized with, Carlyle is much the stronger char- 
 acter, and his work has influenced English thought 
 more profoundly. 
 
 ]\Iacaulay's greatest work is read to-day more for the 
 brilliancy of his style and the power and realism of his 
 characterizations than for the accuracy of his judgments 
 or his contributions to historical knowledge. On the 
 other hand, Carlyle's CromiceU is not only good history, 
 but it has reversed the judgment of the English people, 
 and led to the recognition of its hero as the second 
 founder of English liberties. His French Revolution 
 and Frederick the Great are perhaps the most note- 
 worthy works of their class in the English language, 
 and the latter practically exhausts the historical ma- 
 terials of the period. Yet his most characteristic work 
 is found in his literary and critical essays, which rise 
 to a higher intellectual plane than any which preceded 
 them, and have probably not been excelled by any 
 similar productions in the whole range of literature. 
 
 Among the poets who were strictly contemporary 
 with IMacaulay were Byron, Shelley, Keats, Southey, 
 Coleridge, and Wordsworth. The last three were born 
 between 1770 and 1775, but the greater part of their 
 work was done during Macaulay's lifetime. All may 
 be ranked among England's greatest poets. "Kubla 
 Khan," '' Christabel," and " The Ancient Mariner " by
 
 xxviil INTRODUCTION 
 
 Coleridge, the " Ode on Intimations of Immortality " 
 and " Lines written at Tintern Abbey " by Wordsworth, 
 and the "Lyrics" of Shelley are among' the noblest 
 products of poetic genius to be found in any language. 
 
 Another famous contemporary was Sydney Smith, 
 the greatest of English wits, of whom Macaulay speaks 
 characteristically in one of his letters as follows : 
 
 "The other day as I was changing my neckcloth, 
 which my wig had disfigured, my good landlady 
 knocked at the door of my bedroom and told me that 
 Mr. Smith Vv^ished to see me, and was in my room 
 below. Of ail names by which men are called there 
 is none which conveys a less determinate idea to the 
 mind than that of Smith. . . . Down I went, and, to 
 jny utter amazement, beheld the Smith of Smiths, 
 Sydney Smith, alias Peter Plymley. I had forgotten 
 his very existence till I discerned the queer contrast 
 between the clerical amplitude of his person and the 
 most unclerical wit, whim, and petulance of his eye. 
 ... I am very well pleased at having this oppor- 
 tunity of becoming better acquainted with a man who, 
 in spite of innumerable affectations and oddities, is 
 certainly one of the wittiest and most original writers 
 of our times. ... I have really taken a great liking 
 to him. He is full of wit, humor, and shrewdness. 
 He is .not one of the show-talkers who reserve all 
 their good things for special occasions. It seems to
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF MACAULAY'S AGE xxix 
 
 be his greatest luxury to keep his wife and daughters 
 laughing for two or three hours every day." 
 
 In the course of Macaulay's life he came into close 
 personal acquaintance not only with political leaders, 
 but with many of the more noted authors of his time. 
 Many allusions to them occur in his letters, which are 
 interesting, as they indicate his mental attitude towards 
 waiters whose standing was not at that time estab- 
 lished. A few of these allusions are quoted below.^ 
 
 " Frkle and Prejudice and the five sister novels 
 remained without a rival in his affections. He never 
 for a moment wavered in his allegiance to Miss Aus- 
 ten. In 1858 he wa-ote in his journal: ^If I could get 
 materials I really would write a short life of that 
 wonderful woman, and raise a little money to put up 
 a monument to her in Winchester Cathedral.' " 
 
 In a letter to his sister he says : 
 
 " 1 am glad you have read Madame de Stael's AUe- 
 magne. The book is a foolish one in many respects, 
 but it abounds with information and shows great men- 
 tal power. She was certainly the first woman of her 
 age ; Miss Edgeworth, I think, the second ; and Miss 
 Austen the third." 
 
 1 These allusions and many more may be found in Trerelyan's 
 Life of Macavlay , which is one of the few great biographies in the 
 English language. Every student of Macaulay ought to be familiar 
 with this work.
 
 XXX INTRODUCTION 
 
 Of Lord Byron he says : 
 
 " The worst thing that I know about Lord Byron is 
 the very unfavorable impression he made upon men 
 who certainly were not inclined to judge him harshly, 
 and who, as far as I know, were never personally ill- 
 used by him. I have heard hundreds and thousands 
 of people, who never saw him, rant about him ; but 
 I never heard a single expression of fondness for him 
 fall from the lips of any of those who knew him well." 
 
 The following extract from a letter to the editor of 
 the Edinburgh Review is especially interesting : 
 
 Oct. 19, 1842. 
 
 '^ Dear Napier : This morning I received Dickens's 
 book. I have now read it. It is impossible for me to 
 review it ; nor do I think you would wish me to do so. 
 I cannot praise it, and I will not cut it up. I cannot 
 praise it though it contains a few lively dialogues and 
 descriptions ; for it seems to me to be on the whole a 
 failure. ... A reader who wants an amusing account 
 of the United States had better go to Mrs. Trollope, 
 coarse and malignant as she is. A reader who wants 
 information about American politics, manners, and lit- 
 erature had better go even to so poor a creature as 
 Buckingham. In short, I pronounce the book, in spite 
 of some gleams of genius, at once frivolous and dull. 
 
 ^'Therefore I shall not x^i'^ise it. Neither will I
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF MACAULAY'S AGE XXXI 
 
 attack it; first, be'cause I have eaten salt with Dick- 
 ens ; secondly, because he is a good man and a man of 
 real talent ; thirdly, because he hates slavery as heartily 
 as I do; and fourthly, because I wish to see him en- 
 rolled in our blue and yellow corps, where he may do 
 excellent service as a skirmisher and sharpshooter." 
 
 He had a great admiration for Miss Edgeworth, the 
 accomplished author of Castle llackrent, Ormond, Moral 
 Tales, etc. 
 
 "Among all the incidents connected with the publi- 
 cation of his History, nothing pleased Macaulay so 
 much as the gratification which he contrived to give 
 Maria Edgeworth, as a small return for the enjoyment 
 Avhich, during more than fifty years, he had derived 
 from her charming writings. That lady, who Avas in 
 her eighty-third winter and within a few months of 
 her death, says, in the course of a letter addressed to 
 Dr. Holland : 'And now, my good friend, I require 
 you to believe that all the admiration I have ex- 
 pressed for Macaulay's work is quite uninfluenced by 
 the self-satisfaction, pride, surprise, I had in finding 
 my own name in a note ! I had formed my opinion, 
 and expressed it to my friends who were reading the 
 book to me, before I came to that note. Moreover, 
 there was a mixture of shame, and a tinge of pain, 
 with the pleasure and pride I felt in having a line in
 
 X X X u INTR OD UCTION 
 
 this immortal History given to me, when there is no 
 mention of Sir Walter Scott throughout the work, 
 even in places where it seems impossible that the 
 historian should resist paying the becoming tribute 
 which genius owes, and loves to pay, to genius. . . . 
 IMeanwhile be so good as to make my grateful and 
 deeply felt thanks to the great author for the honor 
 which he has done me.' "' 
 
 Perhaps this omission may be explained by the fol- 
 lowing passage from a letter to Mr. Napier. His 
 estimate of the personal character of Scott is widely 
 at variance with the facts as known to us. 
 
 " Then, again, I have not, from the little I do know 
 about him, formed so high an opinion of his character 
 as most people seem to entertain, and as it would be 
 expedient for the Edinburgh Review to express. He 
 seems to me to have been most carefully and success- 
 fully on his guard against the sins which most easily 
 beset literary men. On- that side he multiplied his 
 precaution, and set a double watch. Hardly any 
 writer of note has been so free from the petty jeal- 
 ousies and morbid irritabilities of our caste. But I 
 do not think that he kept himself equally pure from 
 faults of a very different kind, from the faults of a 
 man of the world. In politics, a bitter and unscrupu- 
 lous partisan ; profuse and ostentatious in expense ; 
 agitated by the hopes and fears of a gambler; perpet-
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF MACAULAY^S AGE xxxiii 
 
 ually sacrificing the perfection of his compositions, and 
 the durability of his fame, to his eagerness for money ; 
 writing with the slovenly haste of Dryden, in order 
 to satisfy wants which were not, like those of Dryden, 
 caused by circumstances beyond his control, but which 
 were produced by his extravagant Avaste or rapacious 
 speculation ; this is the way in which he appears to me. 
 I am sorry for it, for I sincerely admire the greater 
 part of his works; but I cannot think him a high- 
 minded man, or a man of very strict principle." 
 
 With this unfavorable estimate of Scott by Macau- 
 lay it is interesting to compare that of the great critic, 
 Taine, which is illustrated by the following extracts : 
 
 "He (Sir AValter Scott) is a good Protestant, a 
 good husband, a good father and very moral. . . . 
 In critical refinement and benevolent philosophy, he 
 resembles Addison. He resembles him again by the 
 purity and endurance of his moral principles. His 
 amanuensis, IMr. Laidlaw, told him that he was doing 
 great good by his attractive and noble tales, and that 
 young people would no longer wish to look in the 
 literary rubbish of the circulating libraries. When 
 Walter Scott heard this, his eyes filled with tears. 
 On his death-bed he said to his son-in-law: 'Lock- 
 hart, I have but a minute to speak to you. My dear, 
 be a good' man, — be virtuous, be religious, be a good 
 man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when
 
 xxxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 you come to lie here.' This was almost his last word. 
 By this fundamental honesty and this broad human- 
 ity, he was the Homer of modern citizen life." 
 
 It is possible that Macaulay's judgment may have 
 been biased by the fact that while he was an ardent 
 Whig, Scott was an equally ardent Tory. 
 
 PROMINENT AUTHORS WHO WERE CONTEMPORARY 
 WITH MACAULAY. 
 
 Walter Savage Landor 1775-18G4 
 
 Jane Austen 1775-1817 
 
 Maria Edgeworth 1707-1849 
 
 Sydney Smith 1771-1845 
 
 Leigh Hunt 1784-1859 
 
 Thomas Carlyle . 1795-1881 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning .... 1806-1861 
 
 Edward Bulwer (Lord Lytton) .... 1805-1873 
 
 Alfred Tennyson 1809-1892 
 
 Charles Dickens 1812-1870 
 
 Robert Browning 1812-1889 
 
 William M. Thackeray 1811-1863 
 
 Lord Byron 1788-1824 
 
 Percy B. Shelley 1792-1822 
 
 Thomas De Quincey 1785-1859 
 
 John Keats 1795-1821 
 
 Southey 1774-1843 
 
 Coleridge 1772-1834 
 
 Wordsworth 1770-1850 
 
 Scott 1771-1832
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE STUDENT 
 
 Eeadixg to be profitable must be careful and in- 
 telligent. The careless and hasty reader not only 
 fails to gain the knowledge and culture which are the 
 legitimate products of all reading, but even dissipates 
 his intellectual energies, and eventually destroys his 
 ability to appreciate good literature. That method of 
 reading only is intelligent which leads to a clear com- 
 prehension of the author's spirit and intent; and its 
 necessary conditions are a knowledge of his style and 
 vocabulary and such a w^arm interest in the develop- 
 ment of his line of thought and investigation as will 
 serve for an inspiration to a carefiU and earnest study 
 of his works. 
 
 jMuch that is written in literary form is not worth 
 the reading, but no true Avork of literature will ever 
 fail to repay the student for his labor upon it. The 
 wdse selection of a course of reading is therefore a 
 matter of the highest importance; yet there are so 
 many prepared lists and helpful suggestions which
 
 XXX vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 are easily accessible that no earnest student need go 
 astray. 
 
 Before beginning tlie study of an author it is well to 
 learn something about his character and the position 
 which he occupies in the literary history of his age. 
 Oftentimes a know^ledge of his personal life will lead 
 to a better comprehension of his works. Such study 
 should not be minute, and must be taken up not merely 
 to satisfy curiosity, but with the sustained purpose of 
 ascertaining, as far as possible, the sources of his 
 inspiration and the general character and trend of 
 his thought. 
 
 Many authors who are thought to be obscure by the 
 general reader are so only because their spirit and mo- 
 tives are not understood, and therefore their literary 
 productions seem illogical, and sometimes almost or 
 quite meaningless. Browning, who is one of the 
 richest and most fruitful of modern writers, furnishes 
 a good illustration of this fact. The ordinary reader 
 fails to imderstand him* because he does not even 
 apprehend his real personality and truest and deepest 
 purposes ; and thus his language, which is so heavily 
 laden with the rarest treasures of thought, becomes 
 unintelligible. 
 
 The student who is seeking to develop a love for good 
 literature should never cultivate a critical or censorious 
 spirit. His aim should be to search for the true and
 
 SUGGESTIOXS FOR THE STUDENT xxxvil 
 
 tlie beautiful, and not to be on the lookout for faults 
 and blemishes. The acquisition of such a critical spirit 
 must invariably blind the student to those very elements 
 which alone are worth his study. 
 
 If the student searches for faults in Macaulay's works 
 he will surely find them, and often flagrant ones ; but 
 his aim shoidd be far different from this- It is true 
 that an intelligent reading of either Macaulay's Essays 
 or his History cannot fail to disclose his faults ; but 
 these should be passed over with as little notice as 
 possible, and the attention concentrated upon the 
 beauties of his style and thought. Aside from their 
 brillianc}^, there is a peculiarly magnetic quality in 
 ^lacaulay's works which at once wins the reader and 
 brings him into close sympathy with their author. 
 The student who studies him with an earnest purpose 
 will soon find himself under the sway of his magic, 
 and his works will be invested with an almost irre- 
 sistible interest. 
 
 It is a fundamental principle of all literary study 
 that the student should first gain a fair knowledge of 
 the work as a whole, the general trend of reasoning, 
 and the conclusions which the author desires to estab- 
 lish, before proceeding to an analytical and detailed 
 study. So in taking up these essays the student should 
 first read them through carefully without stopping to 
 look up references or to verify allusions, in order to
 
 XXXVIU INTRODUCTION 
 
 gain a general view of the whole field. Then he 
 should turn back and begin a more or less exhaustive 
 study of the essay, giving his attention mainly to 
 the author's style and vocabulary, and to its general 
 content. 
 
 Macaulay's vocabulary was noted chiefly for its wide 
 extent and for his good taste in the use of words. He 
 displays no eccentricities, nor does he employ unusual 
 or provincial forms of speech. ' In his choice of words 
 he is both dignified and graceful. These and other 
 characteristics should be carefully noted, but too much 
 time should not be devoted to the study of words in 
 this or in any other masterpiece. It must always be 
 remembered that words are but the instruments by 
 which thought is expressed, and only enough time 
 should be given to their study to enable the student 
 to master the intricacies of the author's thought. It 
 is the living spirit which quickens, and words are but 
 the vehicles by which it is conveyed. 
 
 The second subject of study is the author's style, 
 and it offers a most fruitful field for interesting and 
 profitable investigation. Few authors have been char- 
 acterized by a style at once so brilliant and so clear ; 
 so florid and picturesque, and yet so simple and direct. 
 His essays abound in imagery, comparisons, contrasts, 
 and allusions. From his boundless stores of informa- 
 tion he draws copiously and with marked spontaneity
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE STUDENT xxxix 
 
 illustrations of his subject whicli cover the widest 
 possible range of human thought and life. He knows 
 not only the great events and personages of the world's 
 history and literature, but he evinces a remarkable 
 familiarity with persons and deeds so inconspicuous 
 as hardly to find mention in the most detailed annals 
 of the past. The student who conscientiously follows 
 out each allusion and illustration in any one of his 
 greater essays will have to search through many dic- 
 tionaries, encyclopaedias, and histories, and will acquire 
 no small fund of useful and interesting information. 
 And whoever does this will gain some idea of the 
 wide range of reading, the indefatigable industry, 
 and the marvellous memory of the author, who wrote 
 many of these essays, as he himself says, afar from 
 books and libraries, without an opportunity even to 
 verify the references with which his memory supplied 
 him so bountifully. 
 
 The student should study carefully the various con- 
 structive devices- which he employs to convey his 
 meaning, such as the balanced and periodical sentence ; 
 the antithetical and climactic forms of expression; 
 and the numerous rhetorical figures, such as j)athos, 
 the various forms of comparison and contrast, humor, 
 hyperbole, irony, etc., all of which he frequently uses 
 with power and effect. Numerous illustrations of all 
 of these and others may be found in each essay, and
 
 xl INTRODUCTION 
 
 they should be identified and studied both analytically 
 and constructively. 
 
 His style may be characterized briefly as clear, simple, 
 animated, and strong. It has sometimes been called 
 artificial, but the true lover of Macaulay will find 
 it the natural and artistic expression of his sym- 
 pathetic mind, and not a series of labored devices to 
 attract readers or impress his points. In the long run 
 the popular verdict of a writer is the true one. Critics 
 may still carp and cavil at the author of " Milton " 
 and " The Lays,'' but by the popular tribunal he has 
 been acquitted of their charges and placed forever 
 among the great masters of thought and expression 
 which the English-speaking world has produced. 
 
 The last and most important topic of study is found 
 in an author's purposes and the steps by which he at- 
 tains them. And here the easiest and by far the most 
 interesting part of the work is reached in a study of 
 Macaulay. 
 
 In his expression he is always clear and frank. No 
 m'atter how radical his views, he never fears to utter 
 them. He never indulges in obscurities or subtleties 
 of thought. His opinions never lack definition ; and 
 he never fails to express them so clearly that they 
 cannot be misunderstood, and so forcibly that it seems 
 almost presumption to attempt to discredit them. It 
 is true that he is so yigorous a thinker, and becomes so
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE STUB EXT xli 
 
 absorbed in the subject with which he is dealing at 
 the moment, that he tends towards radical and ex- 
 aggerated views, so that his subject becomes unduly- 
 exalted and the things with which he compares or 
 contrasts it correspondingly depreciated. But it is 
 by no means a harmful thing for a young person to 
 come into an intimate acquaintance with a man Avho 
 can be at one moment an impetuous lover and at the 
 next moment a violent hater, and one who is not afraid 
 to express his opinions and is never at a loss for vig- 
 orous language to clothe them in. 
 
 After having read the essay as a whole, the student 
 should carefull}^ look up and verify all its allusions 
 and references, re-reading it in the light of his increased 
 knowledge and expanded horizon. He should then 
 make a paragraph summary, that is, he should express 
 the main idea of each paragraph in a single pointed 
 sentence, in proper order. From this summary he 
 should proceed to make a skeleton of the essay by 
 selecting the most important points, expanding them^ 
 and joining to them in their proper order and relation- 
 ship the minor or subordinate elements, until a com- 
 plete outline of the whole essay has been formed. 
 
 This outline should then be studied, point by point, 
 to ascertain whether Macaulay developed his thought 
 in a careful and logical manner ; whether he followed 
 his line of argument closely or indulged in digressions ;
 
 xlii INTRODUCTION 
 
 •whether the system of paragraphing is continuous and 
 harmonious or is characterized by abrupt changes ; 
 whether the thought is expressed in plain language or 
 in figured speech, and if so how the meaning is modi- 
 fied or expanded; does he in any point exaggerate 
 or take a false position, and finally, having defined his 
 purpose, has he attained it ? 
 
 If this method of study is carefully followed out, 
 and supplemented by a wider reading of Macaulay's 
 works, it is believed that the student will not only be 
 benefited intellectually, but that something of the 
 author's strong sweet spirit will enter into his life to 
 broaden and elevate it.
 
 LORD MACAULAY'S PROSE WRITINGS, WITH 
 DATE OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 Fragments of a Eoman Tale. June, 1823. 
 
 On the Royal Society of Literature. June, 1823. 
 
 Scenes from Athenian Revels. January, 1824. 
 
 Criticisms of the Principal Italian Writers, No, I., Dante. 
 
 January, 1824. 
 Criticisms of the Principal Italian Writers, Xo. II., Petrarch. 
 
 April, 1824. 
 Some Account of the Great Lawsuit between the Parishes of 
 
 St. Dennis and St. George in the Water. April, 1824. 
 A Conversation between Mr. Abraham Cowley and Mr. John 
 
 Milton touching the Great Civil War. August, 1824. 
 On the Athenian Orators. August, 1824. 
 A Prophetic Account of a Grand National Epic Poem, to be 
 
 entitled "The Wellingtoniad," and to be published a.d. 
 
 2824. November, 1824. 
 On Mitford's History of Greece. November, 1824. 
 
 Note. — Up to this time his essays were published in Knight's 
 Quarterly Magazine, but all the rest appeared in the Edinburgh 
 
 Revieio. 
 
 Milton. August, 1825. 
 The West Indies. January, 1825. 
 The London University. February, 1826. 
 Machiavelli. March, 1827. 
 
 Social and Industrial Capacities of Negroes. March, 1827- 
 xliii
 
 xliv INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Present Administration, June, 1827. 
 
 John Dryden. January, 1828. 
 
 History. May, 1828. 
 
 Hallam's Constitutional History. September, 1828. 
 
 Mill on Government. March, 1829. 
 
 Westminster Reviewer's Defence of Mill. June, 1829. 
 
 Utilitarian Theory of Government. October, 1829. 
 
 Southey's Colloquies on Society. January, 1830. 
 
 Mr. Robert Montgomery's Poems. April, 1830. 
 
 Sadler's Law of Population. July, 1880. 
 
 Southey's Edition of Pilgrim's Progress. December, 1830. 
 
 Sadler's Refutation Refuted. January, 1831. 
 
 Civil Disabilities of the Jews. January, 1831. 
 
 Moore's Life of Lord Byron. June, 1831. 
 
 Croker's Edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson. September, 
 
 1831. 
 Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden. December, 1831. 
 Rev. Edward Nave's Memoirs of Lord Burleigh. April, 1832. 
 Etienne Dumont's Memoirs of Mirabeau. July, 1832. 
 Lord Mahon's History of the War of the Succession in Spain. 
 
 January, 1833. 
 Horace Walpole. October, 1833. 
 William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. January, 1834. 
 Sir James Mackintosh. July, 1835. 
 Lord Bacon. July, 1837. 
 Sir William Temple. October, 1838. 
 Gladstone on Church and State. April, 1839. 
 Lord Clive. January, 1840. 
 Von Ranke. October, 1840. 
 Leigh Hunt. January, 1841. 
 Lord Holland. July, 1841. 
 Warren Hastings. October, 1841.
 
 PROSE WRITINGS xl\r 
 
 Frederick the Great. April, 1842. 
 
 Madame D'Arblay. January, 1843. 
 
 The Life and Writings of Addison. July, 1843. 
 
 Barrere. April, 1844. 
 
 The Earl of Chatham. October, 1844. 
 
 Note. — The following biographies were contributed to the 
 Enci/dopsedia Britannica. 
 
 Francis Atterbury. December, 1853. 
 John Bunyan. May, 1854. 
 Oliver Goldsmith. February, 1856. 
 Samuel Johnson. December, 1856. 
 William Pitt. Januarj^, 1859. 
 
 In addition to these essays he "^Tote upwards of 
 eighty short biographical sketches of persons more or 
 less noted. 
 
 In 1848 he published the first two volumes of his 
 History of England from the Accession of James II. 
 
 In 1852 the third and fourth volumes appeared. 
 He was engaged in the preparation of the fifth 
 volume, when he died. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Epitaph on Henry Martyn. 
 Lines to the Memory of Pitt. 
 A Radical War-Song.
 
 xlvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Battle of Moncontour. 
 
 The Battle of Naseby. 
 
 Sermon in a Churchyard. 
 
 Translation from A. V. Arnault. 
 
 Dies Irae. 
 
 The Marriage of Tirzah and Ahirad. 
 
 The Country Clergyman's Trip to Cambridge. 
 
 Song. 
 
 Political Georgics. 
 
 The Deliverance of Vienna. 
 
 The Last Buccaneer. 
 
 Epitaph on a Jacobite. 
 
 Lines written in August, 1847. 
 
 Translation from Plautus. 
 
 Paraphrase. 
 
 Inscription on the Statue of Lord William Bentinck. 
 
 Epitaph on Sir Benjamin Heath Malkin. 
 
 Epitaph on Lord Metcalfe. 
 
 Pompeii. 
 
 The Battle of Ivry. 
 
 The Armada. 
 
 The Cavalier's March to London. 
 
 The Lays of Ancient Rome : 
 
 Horatius. 
 
 The Battle of the Lake Regillus. 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 The Prophecy of Capys.
 
 THE ESSAY OK ADDISON 
 
 This essay is one of the most popular of Macaulay^s 
 works, and deservedly, so ; yet the student must not 
 accept Macaulay's estimate of Addison as impartial 
 or authoritative. He was an ardent admirer of Addi- 
 son, and his enthusiasm led him to exaggerate his 
 good qualities and blinded him to his defects. He 
 has also sought to add to the renown of his hero by 
 defaming his rivals, a course that is both ungenerous 
 and unjust. Macaulay's treatment of both Pope and 
 Steele in this essay is eminently unfair, and he weak- 
 ens the effect of his argument materially by his invec- 
 tive. His method of treatment deprives his vrork of 
 much of its critical value ; but if this is borne in 
 mind, the student will be prevented from forming an 
 incorrect estimate of Addison as an author and man, 
 while he will be profoundly influenced by the wonder- 
 ful flow of thought, the brilliancy of diction, and the 
 breadth of allusion which characterize the essay. 
 
 It seems necessary to attempt to state here very 
 briefly the position which Addison holds in the liter- 
 ary history of England, as an antidote to ^[acaulay's 
 somewhat extravagant eulogy. 
 
 Johnson said of him: ''He thinks justly, but he 
 xlvii
 
 xlviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 thinks faintly." A careful study of his works will 
 show that he was never a profound student, and that 
 his judgments, though clearly expressed and well 
 defined, were in the main superficial. He lacked 
 spontaneity and vigor of thought, and frequently 
 seemed to expend his vitality in seeking smooth 
 and free expression rather than in elaborating his 
 subject-matter. He added to this a lack of sympathy 
 and imaginative power, which would have been fatal 
 to almost any other species of composition than that 
 in which he was engaged. 
 
 As a poet Addison was distinctly a failure. In true 
 poetic genius he was utterly lacking. At the best, 
 he was but a writer of political verses and academic 
 memoirs. Had he not come under the influence of 
 Swift and Steele he would probably never have been 
 known as anything more than a clever versifier, and 
 would have held no considerable place in English 
 literature. 
 
 The most of his work, and by far the best, consists 
 of contributions to the periodicals of the day, which 
 his genius and that of Steele have given a high rank 
 in English literature. So excellent Avas this work that, 
 although they have had many followers and rivals, 
 the Spectator SLud'Tatler have never been equalled in 
 brightness, humor, and literary merit. 
 
 Macaulay indulges in too exuberant praise of Addi-
 
 ESSAY ON ADDISON xlix 
 
 son's literary style, which is, indeed, in many ways 
 admirable, but is not by any means above legitimate 
 criticism. Lord Lytton says that Addison's com- 
 mand of expression was not first-rate. While his style 
 is easy and flowing, and often highly polished, it 
 is frequently loose to the verge of vagueness, and is 
 lacking in strength, sublimity, and vigor. Johnson 
 says, ''He was a model of the middle style, — always 
 equable, always easy, without glowing words or pointed 
 sentences." 
 
 In conclusion, it may be said that elegance is the 
 ruling quality of xVddison's style. To the superficial 
 harmony and smoothness of his sentences he sacrifices 
 vigor and depth of thought. As a master of this style 
 of expression he is easily first ; but as a vigorous, keen 
 thinker, a logical reasoner, and a careful student, he is 
 far from deserving all the praise which Macaulay heaps 
 upon him. Yet, while he cannot be placed in the first 
 rank of English authors, he was probably the greatest 
 prose writer of his age.
 
 ADDISON » 
 
 {Edinburgh Heview, July, 1843) 
 
 Some reviewers are of opinion that a lady who dares 
 to publish 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 dissent. We admit, indeed, that in a 
 country which boasts of many female writers, emi- 
 nently qualified by their talents and acquirements to 
 influence the public mind, it would be of most perni- 
 cious consequence that inaccurate history or unsound 
 philosophy should be suffered to pass uncensured, lo 
 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 himself compelled by duty to keep the lists 
 
 1 The Life of Joseph Addison. By Lucy Aikin. 2 vols. 8 vo 
 London, l&iS. 
 
 B 1
 
 2 ADDISON 
 
 against Bradamante.° He, we are told, defended suc- 
 cessfully the cause of whicli he was the champion: 
 but before the fight began, exchanged Balisarda ° for 
 a less deadly sword, of which he carefully blunted the 
 point and edge. 
 
 Nor are the immunities of sex the only immunities 
 which Miss Aikin may rightfully plead. Several of 
 her works, and especially the very pleasing Memoirs 
 of the Reign of James the First, have fully entitled 
 
 lo her to the privileges enjoyed by good writers. One of 
 those privileges we hold to be this, that such writers, 
 when, either from the unlucky choice of a subject, or 
 from the indolence too often produced by success, 
 they hapx^en to fail, shall not be subjected to the 
 severe discipline which it is sometimes necessary to 
 inflict upon dunces and impostors, 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 well acquainted with her 
 subject. No person who is not familiar with the 
 political and literary history of England during the 
 reigns of William the Third, of Anne, and of George
 
 ADDISON 3 
 
 the First, can possibly write a good life of Addison. 
 jSTow, 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 Shakespeare and Raleigh, ° 
 than with Congreve ° and Prior °; and is far more at 
 home among the ruffs and peaked beards of Theo- 
 bald's ° than among the Steenkirks ° and flowing peri- 
 wigs which surrounded Queen Anne's tea table at 
 Hampton. ° She seems to have written about the Eliza- lo 
 bethan 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 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 repu- 
 tation which Miss Aikin has 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 20 
 required. If so, we hope that every paragraph will 
 be revised, and that every date and fact about which 
 there can be the smallest doubt will be carefully 
 verified. 
 
 To Addison himself we are bound by a sentiment
 
 4 ADDISON 
 
 as much like affection as any sentiment can be, which 
 is inspired by one who has 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 to make 
 both the idolater and the idol ridiculous. A man of 
 genius and virtue is but a man. All his powers cannot 
 be equally developed; nor can we expect from him 
 
 CO perfect self-knowledge. We need not, therefore, 
 hesitate to admit that Addison has left us some com- 
 positions which do not rise above mediocrity, some 
 heroic poems hardly equal to Parnell's,° some criticism 
 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 litera- 
 ture, in which many eminent writers have distin- 
 guished themselves, he has had no equal; and this 
 may with strict justice be said of Addison. 
 
 20 As a man, he may not have deserved the adoration 
 which he received from those who, bewitched by his 
 fascinating society, and indebted for all the comforts 
 of life to his generous and delicate friendship, wor- 
 shipped him nightly, in his favorite temple at Button's. ° 
 But, after full inquiry and impartial reflection, wo
 
 ADDISON 5 
 
 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 undoubt- 
 edly be detected in his character ; but the more care- 
 fully it is examined, the more will it appear, 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 particular good disposition has 
 been more conspicuous than in Addison. But the just lo 
 harmony of qualities, the exact temper between the 
 stern and the humane virtues, the habitual observance 
 of every law, not only of moral 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 in- 
 formation. 
 
 His father was the Eeverend Lancelot Addison, 
 who, though eclipsed by his more celebrated son, made 
 some figure in the world, and occupies with credit two 20 
 folio pages in the Biographia Britannica.° Lancelot 
 was sent up, as a poor scholar, from Westmoreland to 
 Queen's College, ° Oxford, in the time of the Common- 
 wealth, made some progress in learning, became, like 
 most of his fellow students, a violent Koyalist, lam-
 
 6 ADDISON 
 
 pooned the heads of the Universit}', and was forced 
 to ask pardon on his bended knees. When he had 
 left college, he earned a humble subsistence by read- 
 ing the liturgy of the fallen Church to the families of 
 those sturdy squires whose manor houses were scat- 
 tered over the Wild of Sussex. ° After the Eestoration, 
 his loyalty was rewarded with the j)0st of chaplain to 
 the garrison of Dunkirk. ° When Dunkirk was sold 
 to France, he lost his employment. But Tangier ° had 
 
 10 been ceded by Portugal to England as part of the 
 marriage portion of the Infanta ° Catharine; and to 
 Tangier Lancelot Addison was sent. A more miser- 
 able situation can hardly be conceived. It was diffi- 
 cult 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. 
 One advantage the chaplain had. He enjoyed an ex- 
 cellent opportunity of studying the history and man- 
 ners of Jews and Mahometans ; and of this opportunity 
 
 20 he appears to have made excellent use. On his return 
 to England, after some years of banishment, he pub- 
 lished an interesting volume on the Polity and Reli- 
 gion of Barbary, and another on the Hebrew Customs 
 and the State of Rabbinical learning. He rose to 
 eminence in his profession, and became one of the
 
 ADDISON 7 
 
 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 by 
 strenuously opposing, in the Convocation 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 Joseph's 
 childhood we know little. He learned his rudiments 
 at schools in his father's neighborhood, and was then lo 
 sent to the Charter House. ° The anecdotes which are 
 popularly related about his boyish tricks do not har- 
 monize very well with what we know of his riper 
 years. There remains a tradition that he was the 
 ringleader 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 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 20 
 enterprising a lad was transformed into the gentlest 
 and most modest of men. 
 
 AVe have abundant proof that, whatever Joseph's 
 pranks may have been, he pursued his studies vigor- 
 ously and successfully. At fifteen he was not only
 
 8 ADDISON 
 
 fit for the university, but 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 verses fell by accident 
 into the hands of Dr. Lancaster, Dean of Magdalene 
 College. ° The young scholar's diction and versifica- 
 tion were already such as veteran professors might 
 envy. Dr. Lancaster was desirous to serve a boy of 
 
 10 such promise; nor was an opportunity long wanting. 
 The Eevolution had just taken place; and nowhere 
 had it been hailed with more delight than at Magda- 
 lene College. That great and opulent corporation had 
 been treated by James, and 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 Church of 
 England from the throne. A president, ° duly elected, 
 
 20 had been violently expelled from his dwelling: a 
 Papist ° had been set over the society by a royal man- 
 date: the Fellows who, in conformity with their 
 oaths, had refused to submit to this usurper, had been 
 dris^en forth from their quiet cloisters and gardens, to 
 die of want or to live on charity. But the day of re-
 
 ADDISON 9 
 
 dress and retribution speedily came. The intruders 
 were ejected: the venerable House was again inhab- 
 ited by its old inmates : learning flourished under the 
 rule of the wise and virtuous Hough; and with learn- 
 ing was united a mild and liberal spirit teo often 
 wanting in the princely colleges of Oxford. In con- 
 sequence of the troubles through which the society 
 had passed, there had been no valid election of new 
 members during the year 1688. In 1689, therefore, 
 there was twice the ordinary number of vacancies; and lo 
 thus Dr. Lancaster found it easy to procure for his 
 young friend admittance to the advantages of a foun- 
 dation then generally esteemed the wealthiest in 
 Europe. 
 
 At Magdalene Addison resided during ten years. 
 He was, at first, one of those scholars who are called 
 Demies, ° but was subsequently elected a Fellow. His 
 college is still 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 2c 
 meadow on the banks of the Cherwell. It is said, 
 and is highly probable, that he was distinguished 
 among his fellow students by the delicacy of his feel- 
 ings, by the shyness of his manners, and by the as- 
 siduity with which he often prolonged his studies far
 
 10 ADDISON 
 
 into the night. It is certain that his reputation for 
 ability and learning stood high. Many years later, 
 the ancient doctors of Magdalene continued to talk 
 in their common room of his boyish compositions, and 
 expressed their sorrow that no copy of exercises so 
 remarkable had been preserved. 
 
 It is proper, however, to remark that Miss Aikin 
 has committed the error, very pardonable in a lady, 
 of overrating Addison's classical attainments. In 
 
 10 one department of learning, 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 
 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 imitators who had preceded 
 
 20 him, Buchanan ° and Milton alone excepted. This is 
 high praise; and beyond this we cannot with justice 
 go. It is clear that Addison's serious attention 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,
 
 ADDISON 11 
 
 he vouchsafed to them only a cursory glance. He 
 does not appear to have attained more than an ordi- 
 nary acquaintance with the political and moral writ- 
 ers of Eome ; nor was his own Latin prose by any means 
 equal to his Latin verse. His 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 Eugby. A minute examination of his 
 works, if we had time to make such an examination, lo 
 would fully bear out these remarks. We will briefly 
 advert to a few of the facts on which our judgment is 
 grounded. 
 
 Great praise is due to the Xotes which Addison ap- 
 pended 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 accom- 
 plished scholar, show also how confined that domain 
 was. They are rich in apposite references to Virgil, 
 Statins, ° and Claudian ; but they contain not a single 20 
 illustration drawn from the Greek poets. iS^ow, if, 
 in the whole compass of Latin 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 in-
 
 12 ADDISON 
 
 debted for that story to Euripides ° and Theocritus/ 
 both of whom he has sometimes followed minutely. 
 But neither to Euripides nor to Theocritus does Addi- 
 son make the faintest allusion; and we, therefore, 
 believe that we do not wrong him by supposing that 
 he 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 illustra- 
 
 10 tions from Ausonius ° and Manilius ° than from Cicero. 
 Even his notions of the political and military affairs 
 of the Roinans seem to be derived from poets and 
 poetasters. Spots made memorable by events 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 hardships which Hannibal's army endured, and 
 proceeds to cite, not the authentic narrative of Polyb- 
 
 2oius,° not the picturesque narrative of Livy,° but the 
 languid hexameters of Silius Italicus.° On the banks 
 of the Rubicon he never thinks of Plutarch's ° lively 
 description, or of the stern conciseness of the Com- 
 mentaries, or of those letters to Atticus ° which so 
 forcibly express the alternations of hope and fear in a
 
 ADDISON 13 
 
 sensitive mind at a great crisis. His only authority 
 for the events of the civil war is Lucan.° 
 
 All the best ancient works of art at Rome and Flor- 
 ence are Greek. Addison saw them, however, without 
 recalling one single verse of Pindar, ° of Callimachus,° 
 or of the Attic dramatists ; but they brought to his 
 recollection innumerable passages of Horace, ° Juve- 
 nal, ° Statins, and Ovid. 
 
 The same may be said of the Treatise on Medals. 
 In that pleasing work we find about three hundred lo 
 passages extracted with great judgment from the 
 Roman poets ; but we do not recollect a single passage 
 taken from any Roman orator or historian; and we 
 are confident that not a line is quoted from any Greek 
 writer. No person, who had derived all his informa- 
 tion 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 necessa^ry to find any further proof that 20 
 Addison's classical knowledge was confined Avithin 
 narrow limits, that proof would be furnished by his 
 Essay on the Evidences of Christianity. The Roman 
 poets throw little or no light on the literary and his- 
 torical questions which he is under the necessity of
 
 14 ADDISON 
 
 examining in that Essay. He is, therefore, left com- 
 pletely in the dark ; and it is melancholy to see how 
 helplessly he gropes his way from 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 the lie 
 about the Thundering Legion,° is convinced that Tibe- 
 rius moved the senate to admit Jesus among the gods, 
 and pronounces the letter of Agbarus° King of Edessa 
 
 y.oto be a record of great authority. Nor were these 
 errors the effects of superstition ; for to superstition 
 Addison 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 at Oxford, he was 
 one of the several writers whom the booksellers en- 
 gaged to make an English version of Herodotus ; and 
 she infers that he must have been a good Greek scholar. 
 We can allow very little weight to this argument, 
 
 20 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 that ever was printed; 
 and this book, bad as it is, Boyle was unable to produce 
 without help. Of Blackmore's attainments Ib the
 
 ADDISON 15 
 
 ancient tongues, it may be sufficient to say that, in his 
 prose he has confounded an aphorism with an apoph- 
 thegm, 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 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 lo 
 what multitudes do well. Bentley ° was so immeasu- 
 rably superior to all the 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 learn- 
 ing. Everybody who had been at a public school had 
 written Latin verses ; many had written such v-erses 
 w^th tolerable success, and were quite able to appre- 
 ciate, though by no means able to rival, the skill with 20 
 which Addison imitated Virgil. His lines on the Ba- 
 rometer ° and the Bowling Green ° were applauded by 
 hundreds, to whom the Dissertation on the Epistles 
 of Phalaris ° was as unintelligible as the hieroglyphics 
 on an obelisk.
 
 16 ADDISON 
 
 Purity Oi style, and an easy flow of numbers, are 
 common to all Addison's Latin poems. Our favorite 
 piece is the Battle of tlie Cranes and Pygmies ; for in 
 that piece we discern a gleam of the fancy and humor 
 which many years later enlivened thousands of break- 
 fast tables. Swift boasted that he was never known 
 to steal a hint ; and he certainly owed as little to his 
 predecessors as any modern writer. Yet we cannot 
 help suspecting that he borrowed, perhaps uncon- 
 losciously, one of the hapi)iest touches in his Voyages 
 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 into the beholders." 
 
 About thirty years before Gulliver's Travels ap- 
 peared, Addison wrote these lines : 
 
 " Jamque acies inter medias sese arduus infert 
 Pygmeadum ductor, qui, raajestate verendus, 
 20 Incessuque gravis, reliquos superemiuet omues 
 
 Mole gigautea, mediamque exsurgit in uluam." ° 
 
 The Latin poems of Addison were greatly and justly 
 admired both at Oxford and Cambridge, before his 
 name had ever been heard by the wits Avho thronged 
 the coffee-houses round Drury Lane theatre." In his
 
 ADDISON 17 
 
 twenty-second year, he ventured to appear before the 
 public as a writer of English verse. He addressed 
 some complimentary lines to Dryden,° wlio, 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 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 Mon- lo 
 tague,° 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 translation of part 
 of the fourth Georgic, Lines to King William, and 
 other performances 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 
 would now have little chance of obtaining the Xewdi- 
 gate prize ° or the Seatonian prize.° And the reason 20 
 is obvious. The heroic couplet ° was then the favorite 
 measure. The art of arranging words in that measure, 
 so that the lines may flow smoothly, that the accents 
 may fall correctly, that the rhymes may strike the ear 
 strongly, and that there may be a pause at the end of
 
 18 ADDISON 
 
 every distich, is an art as mechanical as that of mend- 
 ing a kettle or shoeing a horse, and may be learned 
 by any human being who has sense enough to learn. 
 But, like other mechanical arts, it was gradually 
 improved by means of many experiments and many 
 failures. It was reserved for Pope to discover the 
 trick, to make himself complete master of it, and to 
 teach it to everybody else. From the time when his 
 Pastorals appeared, heroic versification became a 
 
 10 matter of rule and compass; and, before long, all 
 artists were on a level. Hundreds of dunces who 
 never blundered 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 Charles the Second, Rochester,® 
 for example, or Marvel,° or Oldham," would have con- 
 templated with admiring despair. 
 
 Ben Jonson° was a great man, Hoole® a very small 
 
 .20 man. But Hoole, coming after Pope, had learned how 
 to manufacture decasyllabic 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 in the 
 dockyard at Portsmouth. Ben's heroic couplets resem-
 
 ADDISON 19 
 
 ble blocks rudely hewn out by an unpractised hand 
 with a blunt hatchet. Take as a specimen his trans- 
 lation of a celebrated passage in the .Eneid : 
 
 " This child our parent earth, stirred 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 
 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." 
 
 Compare with these jagged misshapen distichs the 
 neat fabric which Hoole's machine produces in unlim- 
 ited abimdance. We take thft first lines on which we 
 open in his version 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 
 Than yon small island on the pleasing coast. 
 If e'er thy sight would blissful sceues exjilore, 
 The current pass, and seek the further shore." 
 
 Ever since the time of Pope there has been a glut 
 of lines of this sort, and we are now as little disposed 
 to admire a man for being able to write them, as for
 
 20 ADDISON 
 
 being able to write his name. But in the days of 
 William the Third such versification Avas rare ; and a 
 rhymer who had any skill in it passed for a great poet, 
 just as in the dark ages a person who could write his 
 name passed for a great clerk. Accordingly, Duke,° 
 Stepney,° Granville,° Walsh,° and others, whose only 
 title to fame was that they said in tolerable metre what 
 might have been as well said in prose, or what was 
 not worth saying at all, were honored with marks of 
 
 I o distinction which ought to be reserved for genius. 
 With these Addison must have ranked, if he had not 
 earned true and lasting glory by performances which 
 very little resembled his juvenile poems. 
 
 Dry den 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 ^neid, complimented his young 
 friend with great liberality, and indeed with more lib- 
 
 20 erality than sincerity. He affected to be afraid that 
 his own performance would not sustain a comparison 
 with the version of the fourth Georgic, by " the most 
 ingenious Mr. Addison of Oxford." " After his bees," ° 
 added Dryden, "my latter swarm is scarcely worth 
 the hiving."
 
 ADDISON 21 
 
 The time had now arrived when it was necessary 
 for Addison to choose a calling. Everything seemed 
 to point his course towards the clerical profession. 
 His habits were regular, his opinions orthodox. His 
 college had large ecclesiastical preferment in its gift;, 
 and boasts that it has given at least one bishop 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 expressions in the young man's rhymes, that his lo 
 intention was to take orders. But Charles ^fontague 
 interfered. Montague had first brought himself into 
 notice by verses, well timed and not contemptibly 
 written, but never, we think, rising above mediocrity. 
 Fortunately 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 Eochester, and 
 turned his mind to official and parliamentary business. 
 It is written that the 'ingenious person who undertook 
 to instruct Kasselas,° prince of Abyssinia, in the art of 20 
 flying, ascended an eminence, waved his wings, sprang 
 into the air, and instantly dropped into the lake. But 
 it is added that the wings, which were unable to sup- 
 port him through the sky, bore him up effectually as 
 soon as he was in the water. This is no bad type of
 
 22 ADDISON 
 
 the fate of Charles Montague, and of men like him. 
 When he attempted to soar into the 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 financier, 
 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 
 
 10 with his own feeble performances, but by discovering 
 and encouraging 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 supported by the ablest and 
 most virtuous of his colleagues, Lord Chancellor Som- 
 ers.° 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 youths of high intel- 
 
 20 lectual qualifications in the public service. The Eev- 
 olution had altered the whole system of government. 
 Before that event the press had been controlled by 
 censors, and the Parliament had sat only two months 
 in eight years. Now the press was free, and had 
 begun to exercise unprecedented influence on the pub-
 
 ADDISON 23 
 
 lie mind. Parliament 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 that 
 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, 
 therefore, 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. jo 
 
 It is remarkable that in a neighboring country, 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 present moment most of the persons 
 whom we see at the head both of the Administration 
 and of the Opposition, have been Professors, His- 
 torians, Journalists, Poets. The influence of the 
 literary class in England, during the generations 20 
 which followed the Kevolution, was great, but by no 
 means so great as it has lately been in France. For, 
 in England, the aristocracy of intellect had to contend 
 with a powerful and deeply rooted aristocracy of a 
 very different kind. Fiance had no Somersets and
 
 24 ADDISON 
 
 Shre^vsbiiries to keep down her Addisoiis and Priors.° 
 It was in the year 1699, when Addison had 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 
 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 
 
 10 Montague a Latin poem, truly Virgilian, both in style 
 and rhythm, on the peace of E,yswick.° 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 indispensable to a diplomatist ; and this 
 qualification Addison had not acquired. It was, there- 
 fore, thought desirable that he should pass some time 
 on the Continent in preparing himself for official em- 
 ployment. His own means were not such as would 
 
 2o enable him to travel : but a pension of three hundred 
 pounds a year was procured for him by the interest 
 of the Lord Chancellor. It seems to have been 
 apprehended that some difficulty might be started 
 by the rulers of Magdalene College. But the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer wrote in the strongest terms
 
 ADDIS ox 25 
 
 to Hough. The State — such was the purport of 
 ^Montague's letter — couhl 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 
 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 the repre- 
 sentative. The close of the ^linister's letter was lo 
 remarkable. '•! am called," he said, '-an enemy of 
 the Church. But I will never do it any other injury 
 than keeping ^Ir. Addison out of it." 
 
 This interference was successful ; and, in the sum- 
 mer of 1099. Addison, made a rich man hy his x:)ension, 
 and still retaining his fellowship, quitted his beloved 
 Oxford, and set out on his travels. He crossed from 
 Dover to Calais, proceeded to Paris, and was received 
 there with great kindness and politeness by a kinsman 
 of his friend Montague, Charles, Earl of Manchester, 20 
 who had just been appointed Ambassador to the Court 
 of France. The Countess, a Whig and a toast,° Avas 
 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, in some
 
 26 ADDISON 
 
 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. 
 
 Lewis the Fourteenth 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 the prince. No book ap- 
 
 10 peared that had not an air of sanctity. E,acine,° who 
 was just dead, had passed the close of his life in 
 writing sacred dramas ; and Dacier ° was seeking for 
 the Athanasian mysteries in Plato. Addison de- 
 scribed this state of things in a short but lively and 
 graceful letter to Montague. Another letter, written 
 about the same time to the Lord Chancellor, conveyed 
 the strongest assurances of gratitude and attachment. 
 " The only return I can make to your Lordship," said 
 Addison, ''will be to apply myself entirely to my 
 
 20 business." With this view he quitted Paris and 
 repaired to Blois,° a place where it was supposed 
 that the French language was spoken in its highest 
 purity, and where not a single Englishman could be 
 found. Here he passed some months pleasantly and 
 profitably. Of his way of life at Blois, one of his
 
 ADDISON 27 
 
 associates, an Abbe named Philippeaux, gave an 
 account to Joseph Spence.° If this account is to be 
 trusted, Addison studied much, mused much, 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 -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, lo 
 some of which were long after published in the 
 Guardian,° that, while he appeared lo 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. 
 From Blois he returned to Paris ; and, having now 
 mastered the French language, found great pleasure 
 in the society of French philosophers and poets. 
 He gave an account, in a letter to Bishop Hough, 
 of two highly interesting conversations, one with 20 
 Malbranche,° the other with Boileau.° Malbranche 
 expressed great partiality for the English, and ex- 
 tolled the genius of Kewton,° but shook his head when 
 Hobbes ° was mentioned, and was indeed so unjust 
 as to call the author of the Leviathan a poor silly
 
 28 ADDISON 
 
 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 melan- 
 choly, lived in retirement, seldom went either to Court 
 or to the Academy,° and was almost inaccessible to 
 strangers. Of the English, and of English literature 
 he knew nothing. He had hardly heard the name of 
 Dryden. Some of our countrymen, in the warmth of 
 
 lo their patriotism, have asserted that this ignorance must 
 have been affected. We own that we see no ground 
 for such a supposition. English literature was to the 
 Erench of the age of Lewis the Fourteenth 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 Sir Joshua,° or at Streatham with Mrs. 
 Thrale,° had the slightest notion that Wieland° was 
 one of the first wits and poets, and Lessing,° beyond 
 
 20 all dispute, the first critic in Europe. Boileau knew 
 just as little about the Paradise Lost, and about 
 Absalom and Ahitophel ° ; but he had read Addison's 
 Latin poems, and admired them greatly. They had 
 given him, he said, quite a new notion of the state of 
 learning and taste among the English. Johnson will
 
 ADDISON 29 
 
 have it that these praises were insincere. "Nothing," 
 says he, " is better known of Boilean than that he had 
 an injudicious and peevish contempt of modern Latin; 
 and therefore his profession of regard was probably 
 the effect of his civility rather than approbation." 
 Xow, nothing is better known of Boileau, than that he 
 Avas 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 caustic, dis- lo 
 dainful, and self-coniident spirit rebelled against that 
 authority to which everything else in France bowed 
 down. He had the spirit to tell Lewis the Fourteenth, 
 firmly and even rudely, that his Majesty knew nothing 
 about poetry, and admired verses which were detesta- 
 ble. AYhat was there in Addison's position that could 
 induce the satirist, whose stern and fastidious temper 
 had been the dread of two generations, to turn syco- 
 phant for the first and last time ? Xo:- was Boileau's 
 contempt of modern Latin either injudicious or peevish. 20 
 He thought, indeed, that no poem 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 prob- 
 able that, in the best modern Latin, a writer of the
 
 30 ADDISON 
 
 Augustan age would have detected ludicrous improprie- 
 ties. Aud 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 of Livy, Pollio,° whose taste had 
 been formed on the banks of the Tiber, detected the 
 inelegant idiom of the Po ? Has any modern scholar 
 understood Latin better than Frederic the Great 
 understood French ? Yet is it not notorious that 
 
 lo Frederic 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 
 "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 ° and Fracastorius ° wrote Latin 
 as well as Dr. Eobertson ° and Sir Walter Scott wrote 
 
 20 English ? And are there not in the Dissertation on 
 Lidia, the last of Dr. Robertson's Works, in Waverley, 
 in Marmion, Scotticisms at 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
 
 ADDISON 31 
 
 Bourne °? Surely not. Xor was Boileau so ignorant 
 or tasteless as to be incapable of appreciating good 
 modern Latin. In the very letter to which Johnson 
 alludes, Boileau says — '^Xe croyez pas pourtant que 
 je veuille par la blaraer les vers Latins que vous 
 m'avez envoyes d'un de vos illustres acadeinieiens. 
 Je les ai trouves fort beaux, et dignes de Yida et de 
 Sannazar, mais non pas d'Horace et de Yirgile."" 
 Several poems, in modern Latin, have been praised 
 by Boileau quite as liberally as it was his habit to lo 
 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 undiscerning contempt for modern Latin 
 verses, which has been imputed to him, is, that he 
 wrote and published Latin verses in several metres. 
 Indeed it happens, curiously enough, that the most 
 severe censure ever pronounced by him on modern 
 Latin is conveyed in Latin hexameters. We allude 
 to the fragment which begins — 20 
 
 ' Quid numeris iterum me balbutire Latinis, 
 Longe Alpes citra natum de patre Sicambro, 
 Musa, jubes ? ' ° 
 
 For these reasons we feel assured that the praise 
 which Boileau bestowed on the 3IacJunce Gesticulantes°
 
 32 ADDISON 
 
 and the Gerano-PygmceomacJiia, was sincere. He 
 certainly opened Mm self to Addison with a freedom 
 which was a snre indication of esteem. Literature 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 undoubtedly some of the qualities of a great critic. 
 He wanted imagination ; but he had strong sense. His 
 literary code was formed on narrow principles ; but in 
 
 lo applying it, he showed great judgment and penetration. 
 In mere style, abstracted from the ideas of which style 
 is the garb, his taste was excellent. He was well 
 acquainted with the great Greek writers ; and, though 
 unable fully to appreciate their creative genius, ad- 
 mired the majestic simplicity 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 mind of Boileau had 
 
 20 on the mind of 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, died ; and bequeathed his domin- 
 ions to Philip, Duke of Anjou, a younger son of the
 
 ADDISOX 33 
 
 Dauphin.° The King of France, in direct violation of 
 his engagements, both with Great Britain and with 
 the States-General,° accepted the bequest on behalf of 
 his grandson. The house of Bourbon was at the sum- 
 mit 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 
 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 lo 
 just been left him. " The French conversation," says 
 Addison, '-begins to grow insupportable; that which 
 was before the vainest nation in the world is now worse 
 than ever." Sick of the arrogant exultation of the 
 Parisians, and probably foreseeing that the peace be- 
 tween France and England could not be of long dura- 
 tion, he set off for Italy. 
 
 In December, 1700,^ he embarked at Marseilles. As 
 he glided along the Ligurian coast, he was delighted 
 by the sight of myrtles and olive trees, which retained 20 
 
 lit is strange that Addison should, in the first line of his travels, 
 hare misdated his departure from Marseilles by a whole year, and 
 still more strange that this slip of the pen, which throws tue whole 
 narrative into inextricable confusion, should have been repeated in 
 a succession of editions, aoid never detected by Tickell or by Hurd. 
 
 D
 
 34 ADDISON 
 
 their verdure under the winter solstice. Soon, how- 
 ever, h3 encountered one of the black storms of the 
 Mediterranean. The captain of the ship gave up all 
 for lost, and confessed himself to a Capuchin who hap- 
 pened to be on board. The English heretic, in the 
 mean time, fortified himself against the terrors of death 
 with devotions of a very different kind. How strong 
 an impression this perilous voyage made on him, ap- 
 pears from the ode,° " How are thy servants blest, O 
 
 10 Lord ! " which was long after published in the Spec- 
 tator. After some days of discomfort and danger, 
 Addison was glad to 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 her Book of 
 Gold,° Addison made a short stay. He admired the 
 narrow streets overhung by long lines of towering pal- 
 aces, the walls rich with frescoes, the gorgeous temple 
 
 20 of the 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. He passed Lake Benaciis ° while a gale 
 was blowing, and saw the waves raging as they raged
 
 ADDISON 35 
 
 when Virgil looked upon them. At Venice, then the 
 gayest spot in Europe, the traveller spent the Carnival, 
 the gayest season 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 for a valuable hint. 
 He was present when a ridiculous play on the death 
 of Cato was performed. Cato, it seems, was in love 
 with a daughter of Scipio. The lady had given her lo 
 heart to Caesar. The rejected lover determined to de- 
 stroy himself. He appeared seated in his library, a 
 dagger in his hand, a Plutarch and a Tasso ° before 
 him ; 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. There cannot, 
 we conceive, be the smallest doubt that this scene, in 
 spite of its absurdities and anachronisms, struck the 
 traveller's imagination, and suggested to him the 20 
 thought of bringing Cato on the English stage. It is 
 well known that about this time he began his tragedy, 
 and that he finished the first four acts before he re- 
 turned to England. 
 
 On his way from Venice to Eome, he was drawn
 
 36 ADDISON 
 
 some miles out of the beaten road by a 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 so bad that few travellers 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 this singular 
 
 10 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 
 which surrounded the metropolis of civil and spiritual 
 tyranny was scarcely less desolate than the uncleared 
 wilds of America. 
 
 At Eome Addison remained on his first visit only 
 long enough to catch a glimpse of St. Peter's ° and of 
 the Pantheon. ° His haste is the more extraordinary 
 
 20 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 
 allures from distant regions persons of far less taste 
 and sensibility than his. Possibly, travelling, as he 
 did, at the charge of a Government distinguished by
 
 ADDISON 37 
 
 its enmity to the Church, of Eome, he may have 
 thought that it would be imprudent in him to assist 
 at the most magnificent rite of that Church. ^lany 
 eyes would be upon him ; and he might find it difficult 
 to behave in such a manner as to give offence 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 cere- 
 mony which is known among men, and posted along 
 the Appian way to ]Sraples. lo 
 
 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 Herculaneum, and rows of vines grew over 
 the streets of Pompeii. The temples of P8estum° 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 even to artists and antiquaries. 
 Though situated within a few hours' journey of a 
 great capital, where Salvator° had not long before 20 
 painted, and where Vico° was then lecturing, those 
 noble remains were as little known to Europe as the 
 ruined cities overgrown by the forests of Yucatan. 
 "What Avas to be seen at Naples, Addison saw. He 
 climbed Vesuvius, explored the tunnel of Posilipo,°
 
 38 ADDISON 
 
 and wandered among the vines and almond trees ot 
 Capre8e.° But neither the wonders of nature, nor 
 those of art, could so occupy his attention as to pre- 
 vent 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 the 
 Fifth,° was in a state of paralytic dotage. Even Castile 
 and Aragon were sunk in wretchedness. Yet, com- 
 pared with the Italian dependencies of the Spanish 
 
 lo crovm, Castile and Aragon might be called prosperous. 
 It is clear that all the observations which Addison 
 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 travel as the best cure for 
 Jacobitism.° In his Freeholder," the Tory fox-hunter ° 
 asks what travelling is good for, except to teach a 
 man to jabber French, and to talk against passive 
 obedience. 
 
 From Kaples, Addison returned to Rome by sea, 
 
 20 along the coast which his favorite Virgil had cele- 
 brated. The felucca passed the headland where the 
 oar and trumpet were placed by the Trojan advent- 
 urers on the tomb of Misenus,° and anchored at night 
 under the shelter of the fabled promontory of Circe. 
 The voyage ended in the Tiber, still overhung with
 
 ADDISON 39 
 
 dark verdure, and still turbid ^yith yellow sand, as 
 when it met the eyes of ^neas. 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 inad dogs and from streets black 
 with funerals, to gather the first 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 breathe unhurt in tainted lo 
 air, he was thinking of the August and September 
 which he had passed at Rome. 
 
 It was not till the latter end of October that he tore 
 himself away from the masterpieces of ancient and 
 modern art which are collected in the city so long 
 the mistress of the world. He then journeyed north- 
 ward, passed through Sienna, and for a moment forgot 
 his prejudices in favor of classic architecture as he 
 looked on the magnificent cathedral. At Florence he 
 spent some days with the Duke of Shrewsbury," who, 20 
 cloyed with the pleasures of ambition, and impatient 
 of its pains, fearing both parties, and loving neither, 
 had determined to hide in an Italian retreat talents 
 and accomplishments which, if they had been united 
 with fixed principles and civil courage, might have
 
 40 ADDISON 
 
 made him the foremost man of his age. These days, 
 we are told, passed pleasantly; and we can easily 
 believe it. For Addison was a delightful companion 
 when he was at his ease ; and the Duke, though he 
 seldom 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 the Vatican." He then pursued his 
 
 lo journey through a country in which the ravages of the 
 last war were still discernible, and in which all men 
 were looking forward with a dread to a still fiercer 
 conflict." Eugene" had already descended from the 
 Kheetian Alps, to dispute with Catinat the rich plain 
 of Lombardy. The faithless ruler of Savoy ° was still 
 reckoned among the allies of Lewis. England had 
 not yet actually declared war against France; but 
 Manchester had left Paris ; and the negotiations 
 which produced the Grand Alliance" against the 
 
 20 House of Bourbon were in progress. Under such 
 circumstances, it was desirable for an English travel- 
 ler to reach neutral ground 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
 
 ADMSOX 41 
 
 i^apoleon. The winter, however, was mild; and 
 the passage was, for those times, easy. To this 
 journey Addison alluded when, in the ode which 
 we hare already quoted, he said that for him the 
 Divine goodness had warmed the hoary Alpine hills. 
 
 It was in the midst of the eternal snow that he 
 composed his Epistle to his friend Montague, now 
 Lord Halifax. That Epistle, once widely renowned, 
 is now known only to curious readers, and will hardly 
 be considered by those to whom it is known as in any lo 
 perceptible degree heightening Addison's fame. It is, 
 however, decidedly superior to any English composi- 
 tion which he had previously published. Nay, we think 
 it quite as good as any poem in heroic metre which 
 appeared during the interval between the death of 
 Dryden and the publication of the Essay on Criti- 
 cism. It contains passages as good as the second- 
 rate passages of Pope, and would have added to the 
 reputation of Parnell or Prior. 
 
 But, whatever be the literary merits or defects of 20 
 the Epistle, it undoubtedly does honor to the prin- 
 ciples and spirit of the 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
 
 42 ADDISON 
 
 dismissed the impeachment, had, as it seemed, 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 cowardice or meanness 
 in the suavity and moderation which distinguished 
 Addison from all the other public men of those 
 stormy times. 
 
 At Geneva, the traveller learned that a partial 
 change of ministry had taken place in England, and 
 
 10 that the Earl of Manchester had become Secretary of 
 State. Manchester exerted himself to serve his young 
 friend. It Avas thought advisable that an English 
 agent should be near the person of Eugene in Italy ; 
 and Addison, whose diplomatic education was now 
 finished, was the man selected. He was preparing 
 to enter on his honorable functions, when all his 
 prospects Avere for a time darkened by the death of 
 William the Third. 
 
 Anne had long felt a strong aversion, personal, 
 
 20 political, and religious, to the Whig party. That 
 aversion appeared in the first measures of her reign. 
 Manchester was deprived of the seals, after he had 
 held them only a few weeks. Neither Somers nor 
 Halifax was sworn of the Privy Council. Addison 
 shared the fate of his three patrons. His hopes of
 
 AT) VIS ox 43 
 
 employment iu the public service were at an end; 
 liis pension was stopped; and it was necessary for 
 him to support himself by his own exertions. He 
 became tutor to a young English traveller, and 
 appears to have rambled with his pupil over a great 
 part of Switzerland and Germany. At this time he 
 wrote his pleasing treatise on ^Eedals. It was not 
 published till after his death; but several distin- 
 guished scholars saw the manuscript, and gave just 
 praise to the grace of the style, and to the learning lo 
 and ingenuity evinced by the quotations. 
 
 From Germany Addison repaired to Holland, w^here 
 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 Eng- 
 land. He was there cordially received by his friends, 
 and introduced by them into the Kit Cat Club, a 
 society in which were collected all the various talents 
 and accomplishments which then gave lustre to the 
 Whig party. 20 
 
 Addison was, during some months after his return 
 from the Continent, hard pressed by pecuniary diffi- 
 culties. But it was soon in the power of his noble 
 patrons to serve him effectually. A political change, 
 silent and gradual, but of the highest importance, was
 
 44 ADDISON 
 
 in 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 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 
 Godolphin° and the Captain General Marlborough." 
 The country gentlemen and the country clergymen 
 
 lo had fully expected that the policy of these ministers 
 would be directly opposed to that which had been 
 almost constantly followed 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 Dissenters ° by 
 the late King would be curtailed, if 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 
 
 20 with foreign powers, and, above all, with 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 
 m the vicarages, in cathedral closes, and in the manor- 
 houses of fox-hunting squires, were not shared by the
 
 ADDISON 45 
 
 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 least as respected 
 the alliances of the country and the conduct of the 
 war. But, if the foreign policy of the Whigs were 
 adopted, it was impossible to abstain from adopting 
 also their financial policy. The natural consequences 
 followed. The rigid Tories were alienated from the 
 Government. The votes of the Whigs became neces- 
 sary to it. The votes of the AVhigs could be secured lo 
 only by further concessions ; and further concessions 
 the Queen was induced to make. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1704, the state of par- 
 ties 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. Canning ° and his friends in 1826 corresponded to 
 that which Marlborough and Godolphin occupied in 
 1704. Nottingham ° and Jersey ° were, in 1704, what 
 Lord Eldon ° and Lord Westmoreland ° were in 1826. 20 
 The Whigs of 1704 were in a situation resembling 
 that in which the Whigs of 1826 stood. In 1704, 
 Somers,° Halifax,^ Sunderland,° Cowper,° were not in 
 office. There was no avowed coalition between them 
 and the moderate Tories. It is probable that no di-
 
 40 ADDISON 
 
 rect communication tending to such a coalition liad 
 yet taken place ; yet all men saw that such a coalition 
 was inevitable, nay, that 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 August, 1704. By the Whigs the news 
 was hailed with transports of joy and pride. No fault, 
 no cause of quarrel, could be remembered by them 
 against the Commander whose genius had, in one day, 
 
 10 changed the face of Europe, saved the Imperial throne, 
 humbled the House of Bourbon, and secured the Act 
 of Settlement ° against foreign hostility. The feeling 
 of the Tories was very different. They could not in- 
 deed, without impudence, openly express regret at an 
 event so glorious to their country ; but their congratu- 
 lations were so cold and sullen as to give deep disgust 
 to the victorious general and his friends. 
 
 Godolphin was not a reading man. Whatever time 
 he could spare from business he was in the habit of 
 
 20 spending at Newmarket ° or at the card table. But he 
 was not absolutely indifferent to poetry ; and he was 
 too intelligent an observer not to perceive that litera- 
 ture was a formidable engine of political warfare, and 
 that the great Whig leaders had strengthened their 
 party, and raised their character, by extending a lib-
 
 ADDISON 47 
 
 eral and judicious patronage to good writers. He was 
 mortified, and not without reason, by tlie exceeding 
 badness of the 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, 
 And each man mounted on his capering beast ; 
 Into the Danube they were pushed by shoals." 
 
 Where to procure better verses the Treasurer didio 
 not know. He understood how to negotiate a loan, 
 or remit a subsidy: he was also well versed in the 
 history of running horses and fighting cocks ; but his 
 acquaintance among the poets was very small. He 
 consulted Halifax ; but Halifax affected to decline the 
 office of adviser. He had, he said, done his best, 
 when he nad power, to encourage men whose 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 20 
 money 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." Godolphin, who was expert at
 
 48 ADDISON 
 
 the soft answer which turneth 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 mean time 
 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 
 
 10 Minister should apply in the most courteous manner 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 Haymarket. In this 
 humble lodging he was surprised, on the morning 
 which followed the conversation between Godolphin 
 and Halifax, by a visit from no less a person than 
 the Kight Honorable Henry Boyle, then Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, and afterwards Lord Carleton. 
 This high-born minister had been sent by the Lord 
 
 20 Treasurer as ambassador to the needy poet. Addison 
 readily undertook the proposed task, a task which, to 
 so good a Whig, was probably a pleasure. When the 
 poem was little more than half finished, he showed 
 it to Godolphin, who was delighted with it, and par- 
 ticularly with the famous similitude of the Angel. °
 
 ADDISON 49 
 
 Addison was instantly appointed to a Commissioner- 
 ship worth about two hundred pounds a year, and 
 was assured that 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 than the Epistle to Halifax. Yet it un- 
 doubtedly ranks high among the poems which appeared 
 during the interval between the death of Dry den and 
 the dawn of Pope's genius. The chief merit of the lo 
 Campaign, we think, is that which was noticed by John- 
 son, the manly and rational rejection of 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 cit- 
 izens, ignorant of discipline, and armed with imple- 
 ments of labor rudely turned into weapons. On each 
 side apjjeared conspicuous a few chiefs, whose wealth 
 had enabled them to procure good armor, horses, and 20 
 chariots, whose leisure had enabled them to practise 
 military exercises. One such chief, if he were a man 
 of great strength, agility, and courage, would prob- 
 ably be more formidable than twenty common men ; 
 and the force and dexterity with which he flung
 
 50 ADDISON 
 
 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 men of a former 
 generation, of men who sprang from the Gods, and 
 communed with the 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 ex- 
 
 loploits as resembling in kind, but far surpassing in 
 magnitude, those of the stoutest and most expert com- 
 batants of his own age. Achilles, clad in celestial 
 armor, drawn by celestial coursers, grasping the spear 
 which none but himself could raise, driving all Troy 
 and Lycia before him, and choking Scamander with 
 dead, was only a magnificent exaggeration of the real 
 hero, who, strong, fearless, accustomed to the use of 
 weapons, guarded by a shield and helmet of- the best 
 Sidonian fabric and whirled along by horses of Thes- 
 
 20 salian 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 Life- 
 guardsman Shaw ° would be considered as a much 
 greater warrior than the Duke of Wellington. Bonor 
 parte loved to describe the astonishment with which
 
 ADDISON 51 
 
 the Mamelukes ° looked at his diminutive figure. 
 Mourad Bey, distinguished above all his fellows by 
 his bodily strength, and by the skill with which he 
 managed his horse and his sabre, could not believe 
 that a man who was scarcely five feet high, and rode 
 like a butcher, could be the greatest soldier in Europe. 
 Homer's description of war had therefore as much 
 truth as poetry requires. But truth was altogether 
 wanting to the performances of those who, writing 
 about battles which had scarcely anything in common lo 
 with the battles of his times, servilely imitated his 
 manner. The folly of Silius Italicus, in particular, is 
 positively nauseous. He undertook to record in verse 
 the vicissitudes of a great struggle between generals 
 of the first order : and his 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 Xero 
 sends his spear into Asdrubal's side. Fabius slays 
 Thuris and Butes and Maris and Arses, and the 20 
 long-haired Adherbes, and the gigantic Thylis, and 
 Sapharus and Monsesus, and the trumpeter Morinus. 
 Hannibal runs Perusinus through the groin Avith a 
 stake, and breaks the backbone of Telesinus with a 
 huge stone. This detestable fashion was copied in
 
 52 ADDISON 
 
 modern times, and continued to prevail down to the 
 age of Addison. Several .versifiers had described 
 William turning thousands to flight by his single 
 prowess, and dyeing the Boyne° with Irish blood. 
 Nay, so estimable a writer as John Philips,^ the 
 author of the Splendid Shilling," represented Marl- 
 borough as having won the battle of Blenheim merely 
 by stre^igth of muscle and skill in fence. The follow- 
 ing lines may serve as an example : 
 
 ( " Churchill, viewing where 
 
 The violence of Tallard ° most prevailed, 
 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 sen^e and taste, departed 
 from this ridiculous fashion. He reserved his praise 
 for the qualities which made Marlborough truly great, 
 energy, sagacity, military science. But, above all, the
 
 . ADDISON' 53 
 
 poet extolled the firmness of that mind which, in the 
 midst of confusion, uproar, and slaughter, examined 
 and disposed everything with the serene wisdom of a 
 higher intelligence. 
 
 Here it was that he introduced the famous compart 
 son of Marlborough to an Angel guiding the whirl- 
 wind. We will not dispute the general justice of 
 Johnson's remarks on this passage. But we must 
 point out one circumstance which appears .to have 
 escaped all the critics. The extraordinary effect lo 
 which the simile produced when it first appeared, 
 and which to the following generation seemed inex- 
 plicable, is doubtless to be chiefly attributed to a 
 line which most readers now regard as a feeble paren- 
 thesis, 
 
 " 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, 1703, the onl;y; tempest 
 which in our latitude has equalled the rage of a tropi- 
 cal hurricane, had left a dreadful recollection in the 20 
 minds of all men. Xo other tempest was ever in this 
 country the occasion of a parliamentary address or of 
 a public fast. Whole fleets had been cast away. 
 Large mansions had been blown down. One Prelate
 
 54 ADDISON 
 
 had been buried beneath the ruins of his palace. 
 London and Bristol had presented the appearance of 
 cities 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' enjoyed among Addison's con- 
 temporaries, has always seemed to us to be a remarka- 
 ble instance of the advantage which, in rhetoric and 
 
 10 poetry, the particular has over the general. 
 
 Soon after the Campaign, was published Addison's 
 narrative of his Travels in Italy. The first effect pro- 
 duced by this Narrative was disappointment. The 
 crowd of readers who expected politics and scandal, 
 speculations on 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 Rutulians" than 
 
 20 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 of the few, and, before the book was reprinted, 
 it was so eagerly sought that it sold for five times the
 
 ADDISON 55 
 
 original price. It is still read with pleasure: the 
 style is pure and flowing; the classical quotations and 
 allusions are numerous and happy; and we are now 
 and then charmed by that singularly humane and deli- 
 cate 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 censured 
 on account of its faidts of omission. We have already 
 said that, though rich in extracts from the Latin poets, 
 it contains scarcely any references to the Latin orators lo 
 and historians. We must add, that it contains little, 
 or rather no information, respecting the history and lit- 
 erature of modern Italy. To the best of our remem- 
 brance, Addison does not mention Dante,° Petrarch,° 
 i3occaccio,° Boiardo,° Berni,° Lorenzo de' Medici,° or 
 Machiavelli.° He coldly tells us that at Ferrara he 
 saw the tomb of Ariosto,° and that at \'enice he heard 
 the gondoliers sing verses of Tasso.° But for Tasso 
 and Ariosto he cared far less than for Valerius Flac- 
 cus ° and Sidonius Apollinaris.° The gentle flow of 20 
 the Ticin° brings a line of Silius to his mind. The 
 sulphurous steam of Albula suggests to him several 
 passages of Martial. ° But he ha^s not a word to say 
 of the illustrious dead of Santa Croce ° ; he crosses 
 the wood of Eavenna without recollecting th6 Spectre
 
 56 ADDISON 
 
 Huntsman," and wanders up and down Eimini without 
 one thought of Francesca." At Paris he had eagerly 
 sought an introduction to Boileau ; but he seems not 
 ' to have been at all aware that at Florence he w^as 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 most 
 remarkable, because Filicaja was the favorite poet of 
 the accomplished Somers, under whose protection id- 
 
 10 dison travelled, and to w^hom the account of the Trav- 
 els is dedicated. The truth is, that Addison knew 
 little and cared less, about the literature of modern 
 Italy. His favorite mojiels were Latin. His favorite 
 critics were French. Half the Tuscan poetry that he 
 had read seemed to him monstrous, and the other half 
 tawdry. ° 
 
 His Travels w^ere followed by the lively Opera of 
 Eosamond.° The piece was ill set to music, and there- 
 fore failed on the stage, but it completely succeeded 
 
 20 in print, and is indeed excellent in its kind. The 
 smoothness with which the verses glide, and the elas- 
 ticity with which they bound, is, to our ears at least, 
 very pleasing. We are inclined to think that if Addi- 
 son had left heroic couplets to Pope, and blank verse 
 to Rowe,° and had employed himself in writing airy
 
 ADDISON 57 
 
 and spirited songs, his reputation as a poet would have 
 stood far higher than it now does. Some years after 
 his death, Eosamond was set to new music by Doctor 
 Arne°; and was performed with complete success. 
 Several passages long retained their popularity, and 
 were daily sung, during the latter part of George the 
 Second's reign, at aP t\\c harpsichords in England. 
 
 While Addison thus amused himself, his prospects, 
 and the prospects of his party, were constantly becom- 
 ing brighter and brighter. In the spring of 1705 the lo 
 ministers were freed from the restraint imposed by a 
 House of Commons in which Tories of the most per- 
 verse class had the ascendency. The elections were 
 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. Hal- 
 ifax was sent in the following year to carry the deco- 
 ration of the order of the garter ° to the electoral Prince 
 of Hanover,° and was accompanied on this honorable 20 
 mission by Addison, who had just been made Under 
 Secretary of State. The Secretary 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
 
 58 ADDISON 
 
 Sunderland. In every department of the state, in- 
 deed, the High Churchmen were compelled to give 
 place to their opponents. At the close of 1707, the 
 Tories who still remained in 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 quarrelled with the Duchess of 
 Marlborough," was unsuccessful. The time was not 
 yet. The Captain General ° was at the height of popu- 
 
 lo larity and glory. The Low Church party had a ma- 
 jority 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 mad- 
 ness, by the prosecution of Sacheverell.° Harley and 
 his adherents were compelled to retire. The victory 
 of the Whigs was complete. At the general election 
 of 1708, their strength in the House of Commons be- 
 came irresistible; and before the end of that year, 
 
 20 Somers was made Lord President of the Council, and 
 Wharton ° Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 Addison sat for Malmesbury in the House of Com- 
 mons which was elected in 1708. But the House of 
 Commons was not the field for him. The bashf ulness 
 of his nature made his wit and eloquence useless in
 
 ADDISON 59 
 
 debate. He once rose, but could not overcome his 
 diffidence, and ever after remained silent. Xobody 
 can think it strange that a great writer should fail as 
 a speaker. But many, probably, will think it strange 
 that Addison's failure as a speaker should have had 
 no unfavorable effect on his success as a politician. 
 In our time, a man of high rank and great fortune 
 might, though speaking very little and very ill, hold a 
 considerable post. But it would now be inconceivable 
 that a mere adventurer, a man who, when out of office, lo 
 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. Addison, without high birth, and 
 with little property, rose to a post which Dukes, the 
 heads of the great houses of Talbot,° Eussell,° and 
 Bentinck,*^ have thought it an honor to fill. Without 
 opening his lips in debate, he rose to a post, the 
 highest that Chatham ° or Fox° ever reached. And 
 this he did before he had been nine years in Parlia- 20 
 ment. We must look for the explanation of this seem- 
 ing miracle to the peculiar circumstances in which 
 that generation was placed. During the interval which 
 elapsed between the time when the Censorship of the 
 Press ° ceased, and the time when parliamentary pro-
 
 60 ADDISON 
 
 ceedings began to be freely reported, literary talents 
 were, to a public man, of much more importance, and 
 oratorical talents of 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 introduce 
 that fact or argument into a speech made in Parlia- 
 ment. If a political tract were to appear superior to 
 the Conduct of the Allies,° or to the best numbers of 
 the Freeholder," the circulation of such a tract would 
 
 10 be languid indeed when compared with the circulation 
 of every remarkable word uttered 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 multitudes in Antrim ° and 
 Aberdeenshire. ° The orator, by the help of the short- 
 hand writer, has to a great extent superseded the 
 pamphleteer. It was not so in the reign of Anne. 
 The best speech could then produce no effect except 
 
 20 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 impor- 
 tance in a country governed by parliaments, and indeed 
 at that ti^ne governed by triennial parliaments. The pen
 
 ADDISON 61 
 
 was therefore a more formidable political engine than 
 the tongue. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox contended only in 
 Parliament. But Walpole ° and Pulteney,° the Pitt 
 and Fox of an earlier period, had not done half of what 
 was necessary, when they sat down amidst the acclama- 
 tions of the House of Commons. They had still to 
 plead their cause before the country, and this they 
 could only do by means of the press. Their works are 
 now forgotten. But it is certain that there were in Grub 
 Street ° few more assiduous scribblers of Thoughts, lo 
 Letters, Answers, Eemarks, than these two great 
 chiefs of parties. Pulteney, when leader of the Oppo- 
 sition, and possessed of fhirty thousand a year, edited 
 the C raftsman. ° Walpole, though not a man of liter- 
 ary habits, was the author of at least ten pamphlets, 
 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, certainly, in Anne's reign, the best Tory 
 speaker; Cowper was probably the best Whig speaker, 20 
 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 as Addison. When these 
 things are duly considered, it will not be thought 
 strange that Addison should have climbed higher in the
 
 62 ADDISON 
 
 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 
 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 influence which 
 arises from character. The world, always ready to 
 
 10 think the worst of needy political adventurers, was 
 forced to make one exception. Eestlessness, violence, 
 audacity, laxity of principle, are the vices 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 with- 
 out 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 
 
 20 truth, humanity, and social decorum ; that no outrage 
 could ever provoke 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 popular men of
 
 . ADDISON 63 
 
 his time; and much of his popularity he owed, we be- 
 lieve, to that very timidity which his friends lamented. 
 That timidity often prevented him from exhibiting 
 his talents to the best advantage. But it propitiated 
 Xemesis.° It averted that envy which would other- 
 wise have been excited by fame so splendid, and by 
 so rapid an elevation. Xo man is so great a favorite 
 with the public as he who is at once an object of ad- 
 miratiouj of respect, and of pity; and such were the 
 feelings which Addison inspired. Those who enjoyed lo 
 the privilege of hearing his familiar conversation, de- 
 clared with one voice that it was superior even to his 
 writings. The brilliant' Mary Montague ° said, that 
 she had known all the wits, and that Addison was 
 the best company in the world. The malignant Pope 
 was forced to own, that there was a charm in Addi- 
 son'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 known any associate so agreeable as Addi- 20 
 son. Steele," an excellent judge of lively conversa- 
 tion, said, that the conversation of 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
 
 64 , ADDISON 
 
 neither Terence nor Catullus, but Addison alone. 
 Young,° an excellent judge of serious conversation, 
 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 hearer. Nor were Addi- 
 son's great colloquial powers more admirable than the 
 courtesy and softness of heart which appeared in his 
 conversation. At the same time, it would be too 
 much to say that he was wholly devoid of the malice 
 
 lo 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 were ill received, he changed his tone, 
 " assented with civil leer," and lured the flattered cox- 
 comb deeper and deeper into absurdity. That such 
 was his practice we should, we think, have guessed 
 from his works. The Tatler's criticisms on Mr. 
 Softly's° sonnet, and the Spectator's dialogue with 
 
 20 the politician who is so zealous for the honor of Lady 
 Q — p — t — s, are excellent specimens of this innocent 
 mischief. 
 
 Such were Addison's talents for conversation. But 
 his rare gifts were not exhibited to crowds or to stran- 
 gers. As soon as he entered a large company, as soon
 
 ADDISON 65 
 
 as he saw an unknown face, his lips were sealed, and 
 his manners became constrained. None who met him 
 only in great assemblies would have been able to be- 
 lieve that he was the same man who had often kept a 
 few friends listening and 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 perfection, it 
 was necessary to be alone with him, and to hear him, lo 
 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 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 
 intellect, and was therefore too easily seduced into 
 convivial excess. Such excess was in that age re- 
 garded, even by grave men, as the most venial of all 20 
 peccadilloes, and was so far from being a mark of ill- 
 breeding, that it was almost essential to the character 
 of a fine gentleman. But the smallest speck is seen 
 on a white ground ; and almost all the biographers of 
 Addison have said something about this failing. Of
 
 66 ADDISON 
 
 any other statesman or writer of 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 generally arises from 
 a very different cause. He became a little too fond of 
 seeing himself surrounded by a small circle of admir- 
 ers, to whom he was as a King or rather as a God. 
 
 lo All these men were far inferior •to him in ability, and 
 some of them had very serious faults. Nor did those 
 faults escape his observation; for, if ever there was 
 an eye that saw 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 one of benevolence, 
 slightly tinctured with contempt. He was at perfect 
 ease in their company ; he was grateful for their de- 
 
 20 voted attachment ; and he loaded them with benefits. 
 Their veneration for him appears to have 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 ad-
 
 ADDISON 67 
 
 mitted that he contracted some of the faults which 
 can scarcely be avoided by any person who is so un- 
 fortunate as to be the oracle of a small literary coterie. 
 
 One member of this little society was Eustace 
 Budgell,° a young Templar of some literature, and a 
 distant relation of Addison. There was at this time 
 no stain on the character of Budgell, and it is not im- 
 probable that his career would have been prosperous 
 and honorable, if the life of his cousin had been pro- 
 longed. But, when the master was laid in the grave, lo 
 the disciple broke loose from all restraint, descended 
 rapidly from one degree of vice and misery to an- 
 other, ruined his fortune by follies, attempted to re- 
 pair it by crimes, and at length closed a wicked and 
 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 Ad- 
 dison, and recorded those feelings in the last lines 
 which he traced before he hid himself from infamy 
 under London Bridge. 20 
 
 Another of Addison's favorite companions was Am- 
 brose Phillips,° a good AYliig and a middling poet, 
 who had the honor of bringing into fashion a species 
 of composition which has been called, after his name, 
 Namby Pamby. But the most remarkable members
 
 68 ADDISON 
 
 of the little senate, as Pope long afterwards called it, 
 were Richard Steele and Thomas Tickell.° 
 
 Steele had known Addison from childhood. They 
 had been together at the Charter House and at Ox- 
 ford; but circumstances had then, for a time, sepa- 
 rated them widely. Steele had left college without 
 taking a degree, had been disinherited by a rich rela- 
 tion, had led a vagrant life, had served in the army, 
 had tried to find the philosopher's stone, and had 
 
 10 written a religious treatise and several comedies. He 
 was one of those people whom it is impossible either 
 to hate or to respect. His temper w\as sweet, his 
 affections warm, his spirits lively, his passions strong, 
 and his principles weak. His life was spent in sin- 
 ning and repenting; in inculcating what was right, 
 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, how- 
 ever, so good-natured that it was not easy to be seri- 
 
 2oOusly angry with him, and that even rigid moralists 
 felt more inclined to pity than to blame him, when he 
 diced himself into a spunging house ° or drank himself 
 into a fever. Addison regarded Steele with kindness 
 not unmingled with scorn, tried, with little success, to 
 keep him out of scrapes, introduced himx to the great,
 
 ADDISON 69 
 
 procured a place for him, corrected his plays, and, 
 though by no means rich, lent him large sums of 
 money. One of these loans appears, from a letter 
 dated in August, 1708, to have amounted to a thousand 
 pounds. These pecuniary transactions probably led 
 to frequent bickerings. It is said that, on one occa- 
 sion, Steele's negligence, or dishonesty, provoked Ad- 
 dison to repay himself by the help of a bailiff. AVe 
 cannot join with Miss Aikin in rejecting this story. 
 Johnson heard it from Savage, who heard it from lo 
 Steele. Few private transactions 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 Avho condemn Addison's severity. The 
 most amiable of mankind may well be moved to indig- 
 nation, 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 is not the less striking because it is 20 
 taken from fiction. Dr. Harrison, in Fielding's ° Ame- 
 lia, 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
 
 70 ADDISON 
 
 informed that Booth, while pleading poverty as an ex- 
 cuse 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 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, promising reformation and speedy re- 
 
 10 payment. 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 wanting to his series of the Twelve Caesars; to 
 put off buying the new edition of Bayle's ° Dictionary ; 
 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 day he calls on Steele, and finds 
 scores of gentlemen and ladies assembled. The fiddles 
 
 20 are playing. The table is groaning under Champagne, 
 Burgundy, and pyramids of sweetmeats. Is it strange 
 that a man whose kindness is thus abused, should send 
 sheriff's ofiicers to reclaim what is due to him ? 
 
 Tickell was a young man, fresh from Oxford, who 
 had introduced himself to public notice by writing
 
 ADDISON" 71 
 
 a most ingenious and graceful little poem in praise 
 of the opera of Rosamond. He deserved, and at 
 length attained, the first place in Addison's friend- 
 ship. For a time Steele and Tickell were on good 
 terms. But they loved Addison too much to love 
 each other, and at length became as bitter enemies 
 as the rival bulls in Virgil. 
 
 At the close of 1708 Wharton became Lord Lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland, and appointed Addison Chief 
 Secretary. Addison was consequently under the lo 
 necessity of quitting London for Dublin. Besides 
 the chief secretaryship, which was then Avorth about 
 two thousand pounds a year, he obtained a patent 
 appointing him keeper of the Irish Records for life, 
 with a salary of three or four hundred a year. 
 Budgell accompanied his cousin in the capacity of 
 private Secretary. 
 
 AVharton and Addison had nothing in common but 
 Whiggism. The Lord Lieutenant was not only licen- 
 tious and corrupt, but was distinguished from other 20 
 libertines and jobbers by a callous impudence which 
 presented the 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
 
 72 ADDISON 
 
 murmur. He long afterwards 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 Ireland has, 
 we think, wholly escaped the notice of all his biog- 
 raphers. 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 of the 
 10 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 formidable audience than the English 
 House ; and many tongues which were tied by fear in 
 the greater assembly became fluent in the smaller. 
 Gerard Hamilton," for example, Avho, 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 Secretary to Lord 
 20 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 perform- 
 ances which, though highly respectable, were not 
 built for duration, and which would, if he had pro-
 
 ADDISOy 73 
 
 ducecl nothiiif]^ else, have now been almost forgotten, 
 on some excellent Latin verses, on some English verses 
 which occasionally rose above mediocrity, and on a 
 book of travels, agreeably written, bnt not indicating 
 any extraordinary 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 himself a 
 man of genius, and to enrich our literature Avith 
 compositions which will live as long as the English 
 language. lo 
 
 In the spring of 1709 Steele formed a literary 
 project, of which he was far indeed from foreseeing 
 the consequences. Periodical papers had during 
 many years been published in London. Most of 
 these were political ; but in some of them questions 
 of morality, taste, and love casuistry had been dis- 
 cussed. 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, 20 
 at the request, it is said, of Addison, and thus had 
 access to foreign intelligence earlier and more authen- 
 tic than was in 'those times within the reach of an 
 ordinary newswriter. This circumstance seems to 
 have suggested to him the scheme of publishing a
 
 74 ADDISON 
 
 periodical paper on a new plan. It was to appear 
 on the days on which the post left London for the 
 country, which were, in that 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 G-recian. 
 It was also to contain remarks on the fashionable 
 topics of the day, compliments to beauties, pasquin- 
 ades on noted sharpers, and criticisms on popular 
 
 10 preachers. The aim of Steele does not appear to 
 have been at 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 dear for his know- 
 ledge. 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 Avas easy and not incorrect; and, 
 though his wit and humor were of no high order, his 
 
 20 gay animal spirits imparted to his compositions an 
 air of vivacity which ordinary readers could hardly 
 distinguish from common genius. His writings have 
 been well compared to those light wir^es which, though 
 deficient in body and flavor, are yet a pleasant small 
 drink, if not kept too long, or carried too far.
 
 ADDISON 75 
 
 Isaac Bickerstaff,° Esquire, Astrologer, was an imag- 
 inary person, almost as well known in that age as Mr. 
 Paul Pry or Mr. Samuel Pickwick in ours. Swift had 
 assumed the name of Bickerstaff in a satirical pam- 
 phlet against Partridge, the maker of almanacs. 
 Partridge had been fool enough to publish 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 convulsions of laughter. Steele determined to lo 
 employ the name, which this controversy had made 
 popular; and, in 1709, it was announced that Isaac 
 Bickerstaff, Esquire, Astrologer, was about to publish 
 a paper called the Tatler.° 
 
 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 said, "like a distressed prince who calls 
 in a powerful neighbor to his aid. I was undone by 20 
 my auxiliary. When I had once called him in, I 
 could not subsist without dependence on him." " The 
 paper," he says elsewhere, "was advanced indeed. It 
 was raised to a greater thing than I intended it." 
 
 It is probable that Addison, when he sent across St.
 
 7G ADDISON 
 
 George's Clianuel his first contributions to the Tatler, 
 had no notion of the extent and variety of his own 
 powers. He was the possessor of a vast mine, rich 
 with a 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 sometimes lead, intermingled 
 with a little silver. All at once, and by mere acci- 
 dent, he had lighted on an inexhaustible vein of the 
 
 10 finest gold. 
 
 The mere choice and arrangement of his words 
 would have sufficed to make his essays classical. For 
 never, not even by Dryden, not even by Temple,° had 
 the English language been written with such sweet- 
 ness, grace, and facility. But this was the smallest 
 part 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 
 
 20 have triumphed over all faults of manner. As a 
 moral satirist he stands unrivalled. If ever the best 
 Tatlers and Spectators were equalled in their own 
 kind, we should be inclined to guess that it must have 
 been by the lost comedies of Menander.° 
 
 In wit, properly so called, Addison w^as not inferior
 
 ADDISOX 77 
 
 to Cowley or Butler.° No single ode of Cowley con- 
 tains so many liappy analogies as are crowded into the 
 lines to Sir Godfrey Kneller°; and we would undertake 
 to collect from the Si)ectators as great a number of 
 ingenious illustrations as can be found in Hudibras. 
 The still higher faculty of invention Addison possessed 
 in still larger measure. The numerous fictions, gener- 
 ally original, often wild and grotesque, but always 
 singidarly graceful and happy, which are found in 
 his essays, fully entitle him to the rank of a great ic 
 poet, a rank to which his metrical compositions give 
 him no claim. As an observer of life, of manner, of 
 all the shades of human character, he stands in the 
 first class. And what he observed he had the art of 
 communicating in two widely different ways. He 
 could describe virtues, vices, habits, whims, as well as 
 Clarendon. ° But he could do something better. He 
 could call human beings into existence, and make them 
 exhibit themselves. If we wish to find anything more 
 vivid than Addison's best portraits, we must go either 20 
 to Shakespeare or 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 mirth from incidents 
 which occur every day, and from little peculiarities of
 
 78 ADDISON 
 
 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. 
 
 Perhaps the best way of describing Addison's pecul- 
 iar 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 
 century, were, we conceive, Addison, Swift, and Vol- 
 taire." Which of the three had the greatest power of 
 
 10 moving laughter may be questioned. But each of 
 them, within his own domain, was supreme. 
 
 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 Swift 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 com- 
 pany are convulsed with merriment, while the Dean, 
 
 20 the author of all the mirth, preserves an invincible 
 gravity, and even sourness of aspect", and gives utter- 
 ance 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 that of 
 Swift as from that of Voltaire. He neither laughs
 
 ADDISON 79 
 
 out like the Frencli wit, nor, like the Irish wit, throws 
 a double portion of severity into his countenance 
 while laughing inwardly, but preserves a look pecul- 
 iarly his own, a look of demure serenity, disturbed 
 only by an arch sparkle of the eye, an almost imper- 
 ceptible elevation of the brow, an almost impercepti- 
 ble curl of the lip. His tone is never that either of 
 a Jack Pudding ° or of a Cynic.° It is that of a 
 gentleman, in whom the quickest sense of the ridicu- 
 lous is constantly tempered by good nature and good lo 
 breeding. 
 
 We own that the humor of Addison is, in our opinion, 
 of a more delicate 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 letter of the Abbe Coyer ° to Pan- 
 sophe is Voltaire all over, and imposed, during a long 
 time on the Academicians of Paris. There are pas- 
 sages in Arbuthnot's ° satirical works which we, at 20 
 least, cannot distinguish from Swift's best writing. 
 But of the many eminent men who have made Addi- 
 son their model, though several have copied his mere 
 diction with happy effect, none have been able to 
 catch the tone of his pleasantry. In the World,° in
 
 80 ADDISON 
 
 the Connoisseurj in the Mirror, in the Lounger, 
 there are numerous papers written in obvious imita- 
 tion of his Tatlers and Spectators. Most of these 
 papers have some merit: many 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 
 perspicacity. 
 
 But that which chiefly distinguishes Addison from 
 Swift, from' Voltaire, from almost all the other great 
 
 10 masters of ridicule, is the grace, the nobleness, the 
 moral purity, which we find even in his merriment. 
 Severity, gradually hardening and darkening into 
 misanthropy, characterizes the works 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 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 
 
 20 monkey-like was his grimacing and chattering. The 
 mirth of Swift is the mirth 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 from 
 an exquisite perception of the ludicrous, their mirth
 
 ADDISON 81 
 
 must surely be none other than the mirth of Addi- 
 son; a mirth consistent with tender compassion for 
 all that is frail, and 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 degrad- 
 ing idea. -His humanity is without a parallel in liter- 
 ary history. The highest proof of virtue is to possess 
 boundless power without abusing it. ISTo kind of power 
 is more formidable than the power of making men lo 
 ridiculous ; and that power Addison 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 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 malignity might have seemed to justify as ter- 
 rible a revenge as that which men, not superior to him 20 
 in genius, wreaked on Bettesworth ° and on Franc de 
 Pompignan.° He was a politician ; he was the best 
 w^riter of his party ; he lived in times of fierce excite- 
 ment, in times when persons of high character and 
 station stooped to scurrility such as is now practised
 
 82 ADDISON 
 
 onjy by 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 moral- 
 ity it is difficult to speak too highly. It is true, that, 
 when the Tatler appeared, that age of outrageous 
 profaneness and licentiousness which followed the 
 Kestoration had passed away. Jeremy Collier" had 
 shamed the theatres into something which, compared 
 
 JO with 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 virtues and the sullen formality of the Puri- 
 tans. That error it is the glory of Addison to have 
 dispelled. He taught the nation that the faith and 
 the morality of Hale ° and Tillotson ° might be found 
 in company with wit more sparkling than the wit of 
 Congreve, and with humor richer than the humor of 
 
 2oVanbrugh.° So effectually, 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 considered among us as 
 the mark of a fool. And this revolution, the greatest 
 and most salutary ever eifected by any satirist, he
 
 ADDISON 83 
 
 accomplished, be it remembered, without writing one 
 personal lampoon. 
 
 In the early contributions of xVddison to the Tatler 
 his peculiar powers were not fully exhibited. Yet 
 from the first, his superiority to all his coadjutors was 
 evident. Some of his later Tatlers are fully equal to 
 anything that he ever wrote. Among the portraits, 
 we most admire Tom Folio,° Ned Softly,° and the 
 Political Upholsterer." The proceedings of the Court 
 of Honor,° the Thermometer of Zeal,° the story of the lo 
 Frozen Words," the Memoirs 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 
 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. 
 
 During the session of Parliament which commenced 
 in November, 1709, and which the impeachment of 20 
 Sacheverell has made memorable, Addison appears to 
 have resided in London. The Tatler was now more 
 popular than any periodical paper had ever been ; and 
 his connection with it was generally known. It was 
 not known, however, that almost everything good in
 
 84 ADDISON 
 
 the Tatler was his. The truth is, that the fifty or 
 sixty numbers which we 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 
 numbers in which he had no share.° 
 
 He required, at this time, all the solace which he 
 could derive from literary success. The Queen had 
 always disliked the Whigs. She had during some 
 years disliked the Marlborough family. But, reigning 
 
 10 by a disputed title, she could not yenture directly to 
 oppose herself to a majority of both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment ; 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 causes which had 
 restrained her from showing her aversion to the Low 
 Church party ceased to operate. The trial of Sachev- 
 erell produced an outbreak of public feeling scarcely 
 less violent than the outbreaks which we can ourselves 
 
 20 remember in 1820, and in 1831.° The country gentle- 
 men, 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 Tories would have a majority. The ser- 
 vices of Marlborough had been so splendid that they
 
 ADDISON 85 
 
 were no longer necessary. The Queen's throne Tvas 
 secure from all attacks on the part of Lewis. Indeed, 
 it seemed much more likely that the English and Ger- 
 man armies would divide the spoils of Versailles ° and 
 Marli ° than that a Marshal of France would bring 
 back the Pretender to St. James's. ° The Queen, act- 
 ing by the advice of Harley, determined to dismiss her 
 servants. In June the change commenced. Sunder- 
 land was the first who fell. The Tories exulted over 
 his fall. The AYhigs tried, during a few weeks, to lo 
 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, 
 Godolphin was surprised by a letter from Anne, which 
 directed him to break his white staff.° Even after this 
 event, the irresolution or dissimulation of Harley kept 
 up the hopes of the Whigs during another month: 
 and then the ruin became rapid and violent. The 
 Parliament was dissolved. The Ministers were turned 
 out. The Tories were called to office. The tide of 20 
 popularity ran violently in favor of the High Church 
 party. That party, feeble in the late House of Com- 
 mons, was now irresistible. The power which the 
 Tories had thus suddenly acquired, they used with . 
 blind and stupid ferocity. The howl which the whole
 
 86 ADDISON 
 
 pack set up for prey and for blood appalled 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 move- 
 ment of indignation at the injustice with which they 
 were treated. No body of men had ever administered 
 the government with more energy, ability, and moder- 
 ation; and their success had been proportioned to 
 their wisdom. They had saved Holland and Ger- 
 
 10 many. 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. 
 They had respected the rights of conscience and the 
 liberty of the subjects. They retired, leaving their 
 country at the height of prosperity and glory. And 
 yet they were pursued to their retreat by such a roar 
 of obloquy as was never raised against the government 
 which threw away thirteen colonies, or against the 
 
 20 government which sent a gallant army to perish in the 
 ditches of Walcheren.° 
 
 None of the Whigs suffered more in the general 
 wreck than Addison. He had just sustained some 
 heavy pecuniary losses, of the nature of which we are 
 imperfectly informed, when his Secretaryship was
 
 ADDISON 87 
 
 taken from him. He had reason to believe that he 
 should also be deprived of the small Irish office which 
 he held by patent. He had just resigned his Fellow- 
 ship. It seems probable that 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 fort- 
 unes were rising, he had been, in the phrase of the 
 romances which were then fashionable, permitted to 
 hope. But Mr. Addison the ingenious writer, and ^Ir. 
 Addison the Chief Secretar}^, were, in her ladyship's lo 
 opinion, two very different persons. All these calam- 
 ities united, however, could not disturb the serene 
 cheerfulness of a mind conscious of innocence, and rich 
 in its own wealth. He told his friends, with smiling 
 resignation, that they ought to admire his philosophy, 
 that he had lost at once his fortune, his place, his Fel- 
 lowship, and his mistress, that he must think of turn- 
 ing tutor again, and yet that his spirits were as good 
 as ever. 
 
 He had one consolation. Of the unpopularity which 20 
 his friends had incurred, he had 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 
 returned to Parliament without even a contest. Swift,
 
 88 ADDISON 
 
 who was now in London, and who had already deter- 
 mined on quitting the Whigs, wrote to Stella in these 
 remarkable words: "The Tories carry it among the 
 new members 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 regarded Addi- 
 son is the- more honorable to him, because it had not 
 been purchased by any concession on his part. Dur- 
 
 10 ing the general election he published a political Jour- 
 nal, entitled the Whig Examiner." Of that Journal, it 
 may be sufficient to say that Johnson, in spite of his 
 strong political prejudices, pronounced it to be supe- 
 rior in wit to any of Swift's writings on the other side. 
 When it ceased to appear. Swift, in a letter to Stella, 
 expressed his exultation at the death of so formidable 
 an antagonist. " He might well rejoice," says Johnson, 
 " at the death of that which he could not have killed." 
 " On no occasion," he adds, " was the genius of Addison 
 
 20 more vigorously exerted, and on none did the superior- 
 ity of his powers more evidently appear." 
 
 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 gen- 
 eral ruin of the Wliig party. He felt himself to be
 
 ADDISON 89 
 
 in a situation which made it his duty to take a 
 decided part in politics. But the case of Steele 
 and Ambrose Phillips was different. For Phillips, 
 Addison even condescended to solicit, with what 
 success we have not ascertained. Steele held two 
 places. He was Gazetteer, and he was also a Com- 
 missioner 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 active against the new government ; lo 
 and he was, during more than two years, induced by 
 Addison to observe this armistice with tolerable 
 fidelity. 
 
 Isaac Bickerstaff accordingly became silent upon 
 politics, and the article of news which had once 
 formed about one-third of his paper, altogether 
 disappeared. The Tatler had completely changed 
 its character. It was now nothing but a series of 
 essays on books, morals, and manners. Steele there- 
 fore resolved to bring it to a close and to commence 20 
 a new work on an improved plan. It was announced 
 that this new work would be published daily. The 
 undertaking was generally regarded as bold, or 
 rather rash ; but the event amply justified the confi- 
 dence with which Steele relied on the fertility of
 
 90 ADDISON 
 
 Addison's genius. On the second of January, 1711, 
 appeared the last Tatler. At the beginning of March 
 following appeared the first of an incomparable series 
 of papers, containing observations on life and litera- 
 ture by an imaginary Spectator.^ 
 
 The Spectator himself was conceived and drawn by 
 Addison ; and it is not easy to doubt that the portrait 
 was meant to be in some features a likeness of the 
 painter. The Spectator is a gentleman who, after 
 
 10 passing a studious youth at the university, has 
 travelled on classic ground, and has bestowed much 
 attention on curious points of antiquity. He has, 
 on his return, fixed his residence in London, and has 
 observed all the forms of life which are to be found 
 in that great city, has daily listened 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 the 
 morning, he often listens to the hum of the Ex- 
 
 20 change ; in the evening, his face is constantly to be 
 seen in the pit of Drury Lane theatre. But an in- 
 surmountable bashfulness prevents him from opeuing 
 his mouth, except in a small circle of intimate friends. 
 These friends were first sketched by Steele. Four 
 of the club, the templar, the clergyman, the soldier,
 
 ADDISON 91 
 
 and the merchant, were uninteresting figures, fit only 
 for a background. 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, colored them, and is in truth the 
 creator of the Sir Roger de Coverley and the Will 
 Honeycomb with whom we are all familiar. 
 
 The plan of the Spectator must be allowed to be 
 both original and .eminently happy. Every valuable lo 
 essay in the series may be read with pleasure sepa- 
 rately; yet the five or six hundred essays form a 
 whole, and a whole which has the interest of a novel. 
 It must be remembered, too, that at that time no 
 novel, giving a lively and powerful picture of the 
 common life and manners of England, had appeared. 
 Eichardson** was w^orking as a compositor. Fielding 
 was robbing birds' nests. Smollett ° was not yet born. 
 The narrative, therefore, w^hich connects together the 
 Spectator's Essays, gave to our ancestors their first 20 
 taste of an exquisite and untried pleasure. That 
 narrative w^as indeed constructed Avitli no art or 
 labor. The events were such events as occur every 
 day. Sir Roger comes up to town to see Eugenio, 
 as the worthy baronet always calls Prince Eugene,
 
 92 ADDISON 
 
 ' goes with the Spectator on the water to Spring Gar- 
 dens, walks among the tombs in the Abbey, and is 
 frightened by the Mohawks,° but conquers his appre- 
 hension so far as to go to the theatre when the Dis- 
 tressed Mother ° is acted. The Spectator pays a visit 
 in the summer to Coverley 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. ° 
 
 10 At last a letter from the honest butler brings to the 
 club the news that Sir Eoger is dead. Will Honey- 
 comb 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 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 
 
 20 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 novelists. 
 
 We say this of Addison alone; for Addisoli is the
 
 ADDISON 93 
 
 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 essay of any of his coadjutors. 
 His best essays approach near to absolute perfection ; 
 nor is their excellence more wonderful than their 
 variety. His invention never seems to flag ; nor is he 
 ever under the necessity of repeating himself, or of 
 wearing out a subject. 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 lo 
 a bottle. As soon as we have tasted the first sparkling 
 foam of a jest, it is withdrawn and a fresh draught of 
 nectar is at our lips. On the Monday *we have an 
 allegory as lively and ingenious as Lucian's° Auction 
 of Lives; on the Tuesday, an Eastern apologue as 
 richly colored as the Tales of Scheherezade ° ; on the 
 Wednesday, a character described with the skill of a 
 La Briiyere ° ; on the Thursday, a scene from common 
 life, equal to the best chapters in the Vicar of Wake- 
 field ; on the Eriday some sly Horatian pleasantry on 20 
 fashionable follies, on hoops, patches, or puppet shows ; 
 and on the Saturday a religious meditation, which will 
 bear a comparison with the finest passages in Mas- 
 sillon.° 
 
 It is danjjerous to select where there is so much that
 
 04 ADDISON 
 
 deserves the highest praise. We will venture, however, 
 to say that any person who wishes to form a 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 Eetired Citizen, the Vision of 
 Mirza, the Transmigrations of Pug the Monkey, and 
 the Death of Sir Roger de Coverley.* 
 
 The least valuable of Addison's contributions to the 
 
 10 Spectator are, in the judgment of our age, his critical 
 papers. Yet his critical papers are always luminous, 
 and often ingenious. The very worst of them must be 
 regarded as creditable to him, when the character of 
 the school in which he had been trained is fairly con- 
 sidered. The best of them were much too good for his 
 readers. In truth, he was not so far behind our 
 generation as he was before his own. No essays in 
 the Spectator were more censured and derided than 
 those in which he raised his voice against the contempt 
 
 20 with which our fine old ballads were regarded, and 
 showed the scoffers that the same gold which, burn- 
 ished and polished, gives lustre to the ^neid and the 
 
 * Nos. 26, 329, 69, 317, 159, 343, 517. These papers are all in the 
 first seven volumes. The eighth must be considered as a separate 
 work.
 
 ADDISON 95 
 
 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 in- 
 creased, and had risen to near four thousand when 
 the stamp tax was imposed. ° That tax was fatal to 
 a crowd of journals. The Spectator, however, stood 
 its ground, doubled its price, and, though its circula- lo 
 tion fell off, still yielded a large revenue both to the 
 state and to the 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 luxury for the few. The 
 majority were content 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 remembered 20 
 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 shop-keeper or a farmer 
 who found any pleasure in literature, was a rarity.
 
 96 ADDISON 
 
 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, the sale of the Spectator must 
 be considered 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 1712 the Spectator ceased to appear. 
 It was probably felt that the short-faced gentleman 
 
 10 and his club had been long enough before the town; 
 and that it was time to withdraw them, and to replace 
 them by a new set of characters. In a few weeks the 
 first number of the Guardian ° was published. But the 
 Guardian was unfortunate both in its birth and in its 
 death. It began in dulness and disappeared in a tem- 
 pest of faction. The original plan was bad. Addison 
 contributed nothing until sixty-two numbers had ap- 
 peared ; and it was then impossible to make the Guar- 
 dian what the Spectator had been. Nestor Ironside 
 
 20 and the Miss Lizards were people to whom even he 
 could impart no interest. He could only 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 ques-
 
 ADDISON 97 
 
 tion Tvhich has puzzled tlie editors and biographers, 
 but which seems to us to admit of a very easy solu- 
 tion. He was then engaged in bringing his Cato ° on 
 the stage. 
 
 The first four acts of this drama had been 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 manu- 
 script were loud in praise, some thought it possible 
 that an audience might become impatient even of very lo 
 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 friends, who hoped that the 
 public would discover some analogy between the fol- 
 lowers of Caesar and the Tories, between Sempronius 
 and the apostate Whigs, between Cato, struggling 
 to the last for the liberties of Rome, and the band 
 of "patriots who still stood firm round Halifax and 
 AYharton. 20 
 
 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 true, would not have pleased the
 
 98 ADDISON 
 
 skilful eye of Mr. Macready.° Juba's waistcoat blazed 
 with gold lace ; Marcia's hoop was Avorthy of a 
 Duchess on the birthday ; and Cato ° wore a wig worth 
 fifty guineas. The prologue was written by Pope, 
 and is undoubtedly a dignified and spirited compo- 
 sition. 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 Peers in 
 Opposition. The pit was crowded with attentive and 
 
 10 friendly listeners from the Inns of Court and the liter- 
 ary coffee-houses. Sir G-ilbert Heathcote,° Governor of 
 the Bank of 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 Garra- 
 way's than in the haunts of wits and critics. 
 
 These precautions were quite superfluous. The To- 
 ries, as a body, regarded Addison with no unkind feel- 
 ings. Nor was it for their interest, professing, as they 
 did, profound reverence for law and prescription, land 
 
 20 abhorrence both of popular insurrections and of stand- 
 ing armies, to appropriate to themselves reflections 
 thrown on the great military chief and demagogue, 
 who, with the support of the legions and of the com- 
 mon people, subverted all the ancient institutions of 
 his country. Accordingly, every shout that was raised
 
 ADDISON 99 
 
 by the members of the Kit Cat was echoed by the High 
 Churchmen of the October ; and the curtain at length 
 fell amidst thunders of unanimous applause. 
 
 The delight and admiration of the town were de- 
 scribed by the Guardian in terms which we might 
 attribute to partiality, were it not that the Examiner, 
 the organ of the Ministry, 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. lo 
 The honest citizens who marched under the orders of 
 Sir Gibby,° as he was facetiously called, probably knew 
 better w^hen 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 Sempronius their 
 favorite, and by giving to his insincere rants louder 
 plaudits than they bestowed on the temperate eloquence 
 of Cato. AYharton, too, who had the incredible effront- 
 ery to applaud the lines about flying from prosperous 
 vice and from the power of impious men to a private 20 
 station, did not escape the sarcasms of those who justly 
 thought that he could fly from nothing more vicious 
 or impious than himself. The epilogue, which was 
 written by Garth, ° a zealous AVhig, was severely and 
 not unreasonably censured as ignoble and out of place.
 
 100 ADDISON 
 
 But Addison was described, even by the bitterest Tory- 
 writers, as a gentleman of wit and virtue, in whose 
 friendship many persons of both parties Were happy, 
 and whose name ought not to be mixed up with fac- 
 tious squabbles. • 
 
 Of the jests by which the triumph of the Whig 
 party was disturbed, the most severe and happy was 
 Boliugbroke's. Between two acts, he sent for Booth 
 to his box, and presented him, before the whole thear 
 
 lotre, with a purse of fifty guineas for defending the 
 cause 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. 
 
 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 the Act at Oxford," and there, before an 
 audience which retained an affectionate remembrance 
 of Addison's accomplishments and virtues, his tragedy 
 was enacted during several days. The gownsmen
 
 ADDISON 101 
 
 began to besiege tlie theatre in the forenoon, and by 
 one in the afternoon all the seats were filled. 
 
 About the merits of the piece which had so ex- 
 traordinary an effect, the public, we suppose, has made 
 up its mind. To compare it with the masterpieces of 
 the Attic stage, wdth the great English dramas of the 
 time of Elizabeth, or even with the productions of 
 Schiller's ° manhood, would be absurd indeed. Yet it 
 contains excellent dialogue and declamation, and, 
 among plays fashioned on the Erench model, must be lo 
 allowed to rank high ; not indeed with Athalie ° or 
 Saul ° ; but, we think not below Cinna,° and certainly 
 above 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 Eacine. Be this as it may, we have little 
 doubt that Cato did as much as the Tatlers, Spectators, 
 and Ereeholders united, to raise Addison's fame among 
 his contemporaries. 
 
 The modesty and good nature of the successful 20 
 dramatist had tamed even the malignity of faction. 
 But literary envy, it should seem, is a fiercer passion 
 than party spirit. It was by a zealous Whig that the 
 fiercest attack on the Whig tragedy was made. John 
 Dennis ° published Eemarks on Cato, which were writ-
 
 102 ADDISON 
 
 ten with some aciiteness and with much coarseness 
 and asperity. Addison neither defended himself nor 
 retaliated. On many points he had an excellent de- 
 fence; and nothing would have been easier than to 
 retaliate ; for Dennis had written bad odes, bad trage- 
 dies, bad comedies ; he had, moreover, a larger share 
 than most men of those infirmities and eccentricities 
 which excite laughter ; and Addison's power of turning 
 either an absurd book or an absurd man into ridicule 
 
 10 was unrivalled. Addison, however, serenely conscious 
 of his superiority, looked with pity on his assailant, 
 Avhose temper, naturally irritable and gloomy, had 
 been soured by want, by controversy, and by literary 
 failures. 
 
 But among the young candidates for Addison's 
 favor, there was one distinguished by talents from the 
 rest, and distinguished, we fear, not less by malignity 
 and insincerity. Pope was only twenty -five. But his 
 powers had expanded to their full maturity ; and his 
 
 20 best poem, the Kape of the Lock, had recently been 
 published. Of his genius, Addison had always ex- 
 pressed high admiration. 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 himself on
 
 ADDISOX 103 
 
 society for tlie uiikinclness of nature. In the Specta- 
 tor, 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 evidently more galled by the censure than 
 gratified by the praise, returned thanks for the ad- 
 monition, and promised to profit by it. The two 
 writers continued to exchange civilities, counsel, and 
 small good offices. Addison publicly extolled Pope's lo 
 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 Eemarks on Cato gave the 
 irritable poet an opportunity of venting his malice 
 under the show of friendship ; and such an opportu- 
 nity couhl not but be welcomed to a nature which was 
 implacable in enmity, and which always preferred the 
 tortuous to the straight path. He published, accord- 
 ingly, the Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis. 20 
 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, brilliant with 
 antitheses : but of dramatic talent he was altogether 
 destitute. If he had written a lampoon on Dennis,
 
 104 ADDISON 
 
 such as that on Atticiis,° or that on Sporus,° the ohl 
 grumbler would have been crushed. But Pope writing 
 dialogue 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 the 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 
 
 io the drama ; and the nurse thinks that he is calling for 
 a dram. "There is," he cries, "no peripetia ° in the 
 tragedy, no change of fortune, no change at all." 
 ^■' Pray, good Sir, be not angry," says the old woman ; 
 "' I'll fetch change." This is not exactly the pleas- 
 antry of Addison. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Addison saw through 
 his officious zeal, and felt himself deeply aggrieved by 
 it. So foolish and spiteful a pamphlet could do him 
 no good, and, if he were thought to have any hand in 
 
 20 it, must do him harm. Gifted with incomparable 
 powers of ridicule, he had never, even in self-defence, 
 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 
 outrages from which he had himself constantly ab-
 
 ADDISON 105 
 
 stained. He accordingly declared that he had no 
 concern in the Karrative, that he disapproved of it, 
 and that if he answered the Remarks, he vrould answer 
 them like a gentleman ; and he took care to communi- 
 cate this to Dennis. Pope was bitterly mortified; 
 and to this transaction we are inclined to ascribe 
 the hatred with which he ever after regarded Addi- 
 son. 
 
 In September, 1713, the Guardian ceased to appear. 
 Steele had gone mad about politics. A general elec- lo 
 tion had just taken place : he had been chosen member 
 for Stockbridge ; and he fully expected to play a first 
 part in Parliament. The immense 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 popularity 
 to the genius of his friend. His spirits, 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 20 
 and moderate members of his own party regretted 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 has determined to
 
 106 ADDISON 
 
 go on, and that any advice I may give him in this 
 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 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 
 Parliament, he made the Tories so angry that they 
 determined to expel him. The Whigs stood by him 
 
 lo gallantly, bat were unable to save him. The vote of 
 expulsion was regarded by all dispassionate men as 
 a tyrannical exercise 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 ever 
 regain the place which he had held in the public 
 estimation. 
 
 Addison about this time conceived the design of 
 adding an eighth volume to the Spectator. In June, 
 
 20 1714, the first number of the new series appeared, and 
 during about six months three papei's were published 
 weekly. Nothing can be more striking than the con- 
 trast between the Englishman and the eighth volume 
 of the Spectator, between Steele without Addison and 
 Addison without Steele; the Englishman is forgotten.
 
 ADDISON 107 
 
 The eighth volume of the Spectator contains, perhaps, 
 the finest essays, both serious and playful, in the 
 English language. 
 
 Before this volume was completed, the death of 
 Anne produced an entire change in the administration 
 of public affairs. The blow fell 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 chief minister. But the Queen was on her lo 
 death-bed before the white staff had been given, and 
 her last public act was to deliver it with a feeble 
 hand to the Duke of Shrewsbury. The emergency 
 produced a coalition between all sections of public 
 men who were attached to the Protestant succession. 
 George the First was proclaimed without opposition. 
 A Council, in which the leading Whigs had seats, toj3k 
 the direction of affairs till the new King should arrive. 
 The first act of the Lords Justices was to appoint 
 Addison their Secretary. 20 
 
 There is an idle tradition that he was directed to 
 prepare a letter to the King, that 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
 
 108 ADDISON 
 
 flattering to mediocrity should be popular; and we 
 are sorry to deprive dunces of their consolation. But 
 the truth must be told. It was well observed by Sir 
 James Mackintosh,° whose knowledge of these times 
 was unequalled, that Addison never, in any official 
 document, affected w4t or eloquence, and that his 
 despatches are, without exception, remarkable for 
 unpretending simplicity. Everybody who knows with 
 what ease Addison's finest essays w^ere produced must 
 
 lobe convinced that, if well turned phrases had been 
 wanted, he would have had no difficulty in finding 
 them. 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 con- 
 sulted experienced clerks who remembered the times 
 when William the Third was absent on the Continent, 
 in what form a letter from the Council of Regency tc 
 the King ought to be drawn. We think it very likely 
 that the ablest statesmen of our time, Lord John Eus- 
 
 20 sell,° Sir Robert Peel,° Lord Palmerston,° for example, 
 would, in similar circumstances, be found quite as 
 ignorant. Every office has some little mysteries which 
 the 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
 
 ADDISON 109 
 
 of the department ; another by his deputy ; to a third 
 the royal sign manual is necessary. One communica- 
 tion is 1;0 be registered, 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 
 the India Board, if the ablest President of the India 
 Board were moved to the War Office, he would require 
 instructions on points like these ; and we do not doubt 
 that Addison required such instruction when he became, 
 for the first time. Secretary to the Lords Justices. lo 
 
 George the First took possession of his kingdom 
 without opposition. A new ministry was formed, and 
 a new Parliament favorable to the Whigs chosen. Sun- 
 derland ° was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; 
 and Addison again went to Dublin as Chief Secretary. 
 
 At Dublin Swift resided ; and there was much spec- 
 ulation about the way in which the Dean and the 
 Secretary would behave towards each other. The 
 relations which existed between these remarkable men 
 form an interesting and pleasing portion of literary 20 
 history. They had early attached themselves to the 
 same political party and to the same patrons. ^Miile 
 Anne's Whig ministry was in power, the visits of 
 Swift to London and the official residence of Addison 
 in Ireland had given them opportunities of knowing
 
 110 ADDISON 
 
 each other. They were the two shreAvdest observers 
 of their age. But their observations on each other 
 had left them to favorable conclusions. Swift did full 
 justice to the rare powers of conversation which were 
 latent under the bashful deportment 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 two very different men. 
 
 lo But the paths of the two friends diverged widely. 
 The Whig statesmen loaded Addison with solid bene- 
 fits. They praised Swift, asked him to dinner, and 
 did nothing more for him. His profession laid him 
 under a difficulty. In the State they could not pro- 
 mote 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 the 
 public^ which had no high opinion of their orthodoxy. 
 He did not make fair allowance for the difficulties 
 
 20 which prevented Halifax and Somers from serving 
 him, thought himself an ill-used man, sacrificed honor 
 and consistency to revenge, joined the Tories, and 
 became their most formidable champion. He soon 
 found, however, that his old friends were less to 
 blame than he had supposed. The dislike with which
 
 ADDISON 111 
 
 the Queen and the heads of 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. 
 
 Difference of political 02)inion had produced, not 
 indeed a quarrel, but a coldness between Swift and 
 Addison. They at length ceased altogether to see 
 each other. Yet there was between them a tacit com- 
 pact like that between the hereditary guests in the lo 
 Iliad. 
 
 ''E7X€a 5* dWrjXcJv dXeu/xeOa /cat Sl 6iJ.i\ov ' 
 HoWoI ixkv yap i/xol Tpwej KXeiTol r' irrlKovpoi, 
 'Krelveiv, 8v kc deos ye iropr) Kai iroaal klx^Ioo^ 
 IloXXot 5' a2 coi Axcttot, ivalpefxey, bv k€ dvyrjai,. 
 
 It is not strange that Addison, who calumniated 
 and insulted nobody, should not have calumniated or 
 insulted Swift. But it is remarkable that Swift, to 
 whom genius nor virtue was sacred, and who generally 
 seemed to find, like most other renegades, a peculiar 20 
 pleasure in attacking old friends, should have shown 
 so much respect and tenderness to Addison. 
 
 Fortune had now changed. The accession of the 
 House of Hanover had secured in England the lib- 
 erties of the people, and in Ireland the dominion of
 
 1 12 ADDISON 
 
 the Protestant caste. To that caste Swift was more 
 odious than any other man. He was hooted and even 
 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 libelled and insulted him. At 
 this time Addison arrived. He had been advised not 
 to show the smallest civility to the Dean of St. Pat- 
 rick's. He had answered, with admirable spirit, that 
 
 lo it might be necessary for men whose fidelity to their 
 party was suspected, to hold no intercourse with 
 political opponents; 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 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 opinions 
 
 20 agreed with his, shared his good fortune. He took 
 Tickell with him to Ireland. He procured for Budg- 
 ell a lucrative place in the same kingdom. Ambrose 
 Phillips was provided for in England. Steele had 
 injured himself so much by his eccentricity and per- 
 verseness, that he obtained but a very small part of
 
 ADDISON 113 
 
 what he thought his due. He was, however, knighted ; 
 he had a place in the household ; and he subsequently 
 received other marks of favor from the court. 
 
 Addison did not remain long in Ireland. In 1715 
 he quitted his Secretaryship for a seat at the Board of 
 Trade.° In the same year his comedy of the Drummer 
 was brought on the stage. The name of the author 
 was not announced; the piece was coldly received; 
 and some critics have expressed a doubt whether it 
 were really Addison's. To us the evidence, both ex- lo 
 ternal and internal, seems decisive. It is not in Addi- 
 son's best manner ; but it contains numerous passages 
 which no other writer known to us could have pro- 
 duced. It was again performed after Addison's death, 
 and, being known to be his, was loudly applauded. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1715, while the Rebel- 
 lion ° 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 20 
 few serious papers nobler . than the character of 'iiis 
 friend Lord Somers, and certainly no satirical papers 
 superior to those in which the Tory foxhunter is 
 introduced. This character is the original of Squire 
 Western, and is drawn with all Fielding's force, and
 
 114 ADDISON 
 
 with a delicacy of which Fielding was altogether 
 destitute. As none of Addison's works exhibit 
 stronger marks of his genius than the Freeholder, 
 so none does more honor to his moral character. It 
 is difficult to extol too highly the candor and human- 
 ity of a political writer whom even the excitement of 
 civil war cannot hurry into unseemly violence. Ox- 
 ford, it was well known, was then the stronghold of 
 Toryism. The High Street had been repeatedly lined 
 
 10 with bayonets in order to keep down the disaffected 
 gownsmen; and traitors pursued by the messengers 
 of the Government had been concealed in the garrets 
 of several colleges. 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 in his heart 
 to deal harshly even with imaginary persons. His 
 foxhunter, though ignorant, stupid, and violent, is at 
 heart a good fellow, and is at last reclaimed by the 
 
 20 clemency of the King. Steele was dissatisfied with 
 his.friend's moderation, and, though he acknowledged 
 that the Freeholder was excellently written, com- 
 plained that the Ministry played on a lute when it 
 was necessary to blow the trumpet. He accordingly 
 determined to execute a flourish after his own fashion,
 
 ADDISON 115 
 
 and tried to rouse the public spirit of the nation by 
 means of a paper called the Town Talk,° which is now 
 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. 
 
 In the same year in which the Drummer was acted, 
 and in which the first numbers of the Freeholder ap- 
 peared, the estrangement of Pope and Addison be- 
 came complete. Addison had from the first seen that lo 
 Pope was false and malevolent. Pope had discovered 
 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 ma- 
 chinery. These two cantos had been loudly ap- 
 plauded, 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 Rosicrusian° mythology with the 
 original fabric. He asked Addison's advice. Addison 20 
 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 mend it. 
 Pope afterwards declared that this insidious counsel 
 first opened his eyes to the baseness of him who gave it.
 
 116 ADDISON 
 
 Now there can be no doubt that Pope's 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 Addi- 
 son's advice was bad, does it necessarily follow that it 
 was 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 run- 
 
 lo ning such a risk. Even if he were so lucky as to get 
 the thirty thousand pound prize, we should not admit 
 that we had counselled him ill ; and we should cer- 
 tainly think it the height of injustice in him to ac- 
 cuse us of having been actuated by malice. We 
 think Addison's advice good advice. It rested on a 
 sound principle, the result of long and wide experi- 
 ence. The general rule undoubtedly is that, when a 
 successful work of imagination has been produced, 
 it should not be recast. We cannot at this moment 
 
 20 call to mind a single instance in which this rule has 
 been transgressed with happy effect, except the in- 
 stance of the Kape of the Lock. Tasso recast his 
 Jerusalem. Akenside° recast his Pleasures of the 
 Imagination and his Epistle to Curio. Pope himself, 
 emboldened no doubt by the success with which he
 
 ADDISON 111 
 
 had expanded and remodelled the Rape of the Lock, 
 made the same experiment on the Dunciad. 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 twice, and what nobody else has ever 
 done ? 
 
 Addison's advice was good, but had it been bad, 
 why should we pronounce it dishonest ? Scott tells 
 us that one of his best friends predicted the failure of 
 AYaverley. Herder ° adjured Goethe ° not to take so lo 
 unpromising a subject as Faust. Hume ° tried to dis- 
 suade Robertson from writing the history of Charles 
 the Fifth, ^ay. Pope himself was one of those who 
 prophesied that Cato would never succeed on the 
 -stage, and advised Addison to print it without risking 
 a representation. But Scott, Goethe, Robertson, Ad- 
 dison, had the good sense and generosity to give their 
 advisers credit for the best intentions. Pope's heart 
 was not of the same kind with theirs. 
 
 In 1715, while he was engaged in translating the 20 
 Iliad, he met Addison at a coffee-house. Phillips 
 and Budgell were there ; but their sovereign got rid of 
 them, and asked Pope to dine with him alone. After 
 dinner, Addison said that he lay under a difficulty 
 which he wished to explain. " Tickell," he said,
 
 118 ADDISON 
 
 "translated some time ago the first book of the Iliad. 
 I have promised to look it over and correct it. I can- 
 not therefore ask to see yours; for that would be 
 double dealing." Pope made a civil reply, and 
 begged that his second book might have the advantage 
 of Addison's revision. Addison readily agreed, looked 
 over the second book, and sent it back with warm 
 commendations. 
 
 Tickell's version of the first book appeared soon 
 
 10 after this conversation. In the preface, all rivalry was 
 earnestly disclaimed. Tickell declared that he should 
 not go on with the Iliad. That enterprise he should 
 leave to powers which he admitted to be superior to 
 his own. His only view, he said, in publishing this 
 specimen was to bespeak the favor of the public to a 
 translation of the Odyssey, in which he had made 
 some progress. 
 
 Addison, and Addison's devoted followers, pro- 
 nounced both the versions good, but maintained that 
 
 20 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 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
 
 ADDISON 119 
 
 Dream. When Bottom makes his appearance with an 
 ass's head instead of his own, Peter Quince exclaims, 
 " Bless thee ! Bottom, bless thee f thou art translated." 
 In this sense, undoubtedly, the readers of either Pope 
 or Tickell may very properly exclaim, '' Bless thee ! 
 Homer; thou art 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 appears to have done. But an odious lo 
 suspicion had sprung up in the mind of Pope. He 
 fancied, and he soon firmly believed, that there was a 
 deep conspiracy against his fame and his fortunes. The 
 work on which he had staked his reputation was to be 
 depreciated. The subscription, on which rested his 
 hopes of a competency, was to be defeated. With this 
 view Addison had made a rival translation ; Tickell had 
 consented to father it ; and the wits of Button's had 
 united to puff it. 
 
 Is there any external evidence to support this grave 20 
 accusation ? The answer is short. There is absolutely 
 none. 
 
 Was there any internal evidence which proved Addi- 
 son to be the author of this version ? Was it a work 
 which Tickell was incapable of producing ? Surely
 
 120 ADDISON 
 
 not. Tickell was a Fellow of a College at Oxford, 
 and must be supposed to have been able to construe 
 the Iliad ; and he was a better versifier than his friend. 
 We are not aware that Pope pretended to have dis- 
 covered any turns of expression peculiar to Addison. 
 Had such turns of expression been discovered, they 
 would be sufficiently accounted for by supposing 
 Addison to have corrected his friend's lines, as he 
 owned that he had done. 
 
 lo 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. Addison had been, during many 
 years, before the public. Literary rivals, political 
 opponents, had kept their eyes on him. But neither 
 envy nor faction, in their utmost rage, had ever im- 
 puted to him a single deviation from the laws of honor 
 and of social morality. Had he" been indeed a man 
 
 20 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 latent so 
 long? He was a writer of tragedy: had he ever 
 injured Eowe ? He was a writer of comedy : had he 
 not done ample justice to Congreve, and given valuable
 
 ADDISON 121 
 
 help to Steele ? He was a pamphleteer : have not his 
 good nature and generosity been acknowledged by 
 Swift, his rival in fame and his adversary in poli- 
 tics ? 
 
 That Tickell should have been guilty of a villany 
 seems to us highly improbable. That Addison should 
 have been guilty of a villany seems to us highly 
 improbable. Bat that these two men should have 
 conspired together to commit a villany seems to us 
 improbable in a tenfold degree. All that is known lo 
 to us of their intercourse tends to prove, that it 
 was not the intercourse of two accomplices in crime. 
 These are some of the lines in which Tickell poured 
 forth his sorrow over the coffin of Addison: 
 
 " Or dost thou warn poor mortals left behind, 
 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, 20 
 
 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 shall part us more." 
 
 In what words, Ave should like to know, did this 
 guardian genius invite his pupil to join in a plan such
 
 122 ADDISON 
 
 as the Editor of the Satirist ° would hardly dare to pro- 
 pose to the Editor of the Age ° ? 
 
 We do not accuse Pope of bringing an accusation 
 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 mean 
 and as malicious as that of which he suspected Addi- 
 son and Tickell. He was all stiletto and mask. To 
 
 10 injure, to insult, and to save himself from the conse- 
 quences of injury and insult by lying and equivocating, 
 was the habit of his life. He published a lampoon on 
 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 Wortley Montague ° ; he was taxed with it ; 
 and he lied with more than usual effrontery and vehe- 
 mence. He puffed himself and abused his enemies 
 
 20 under feigned names. He robbed himself of his own 
 letters, and then raised the hue and cry after him. 
 Besides his frauds of malignity, of fear, of interest, 
 and of vanity, there were frauds which he seems to 
 have committed from love of fraud alone. He had a 
 habit of stratagem, a pleasure in outwitting all who
 
 ADDISON 123 
 
 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 being. Yet Pope was scarcely dead when it 
 was discovered that, from no motive except the mere 
 love of artifice, he had been guilty of an act of gross 
 l^erfidy to Bolingbroke.° 
 
 Xothing was more natural than that such a man as 
 this should attribute to others that which he felt lo 
 within himself. A plain, probable, coherent explana- 
 tion is frankly given to him. He is certain that it is 
 all a romance. A line of conduct scrupulously fair, 
 and even friendly, is pursued towards him. He is 
 convinced that it is merely a cover for a vile in- 
 trigue 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 he carries in his own 
 bosom. 
 
 Whether Pope's malignity at length provoked Addi- 20 
 son to retaliate for the first and last time, cannot now 
 be known with certainty. We have only Pope's story, 
 which runs thus. A pamphlet appeared containing 
 some reflections which stung Pope to the quick. What 
 those reflections were, and whether they were reflec-
 
 124 ADDISON 
 
 tions of which he had a right to complain, we have 
 now no means of deciding. The Earl of Warwick,^ a 
 foolish and vicious lad, who regarded Addison with 
 the feeling with which such lads generally regard 
 their best friends, told Pope, truly or falsely, that 
 this pamphlet had been written by Addison's direc- 
 tion. AVhen we consider what a tendency stories 
 have to grow, in passing even from one honest man 
 to another honest man, and when we consider that 
 
 10 to the name of honest man neither Pope nor the Earl 
 of Warwick had a claim, we are not disposed to attach 
 much importance to this anecdote. 
 
 It is certain, however, that Pope was furious. He 
 had already sketched the character of Atticus in prose. 
 In his anger he turned his prose into the brilliant and 
 energetic lines which everybody knows by heart, or 
 ought to 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 
 
 20 are inclined to believe, too fond of presiding over a 
 circle of humble 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 " appears
 
 ADDISON 125 
 
 from innumerable passages in his writings, and from 
 none more than from those 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 that 
 he ne'er obliged." 
 
 That Addison felt the sting of Pope's satire keenly 
 we cannot doubt. That he was conscious of one of 
 the weaknesses with which he was reproached is 
 highly probable. But his heart, we firmly believe, lo 
 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 distorted and 
 diseased body, tenanted by a yet more distorted and 
 diseased mind; spite and envy thinly disguised by 
 sentiments as benevolent and noble as those which 
 Sir Peter Teazle ° admired in Mr. Joseph Surface °; a 
 feeble sickly licentiousness; an odious love of filthy 
 and noisome images; these were things which a genius 20 
 less powerful than that to which we owe the Spectator 
 could easily have held up to the mirth and hatred of 
 mankind. Addison had, moreover, at his command, 
 other means of vengeance which a bad man would 
 not have scrupled to use. He was powerful in the
 
 126 ADDISON 
 
 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. 
 Pope, near 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, under penal laws and many other disadvan- 
 tages." It is pleasing to reflect that the only revenge 
 
 10 which Addison took was to insert in the Freeholder a 
 warm encomium on the translation of the Iliad, and 
 to exhort all 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 Virgil. From that time to 
 the end of his life, he always treated Pope, by Pope's 
 own acknowledgment, with justice. Friendship was, 
 of course, at an end. 
 
 20 One reason whicli^induced the Earl of Warwick to 
 play the ignominious part of talebearer on this occa- 
 sion, may have been his dislike of the marriage which 
 was about to take place between his mother and Addi- 
 son. The Countess Dowager,° a daughter of the old 
 and honorable family of the Middletons of Chirk, a
 
 ADDISON 127 
 
 family which, in any country but ours, would be called 
 noble, resided at Holland House.° Addison had, dur- 
 ing some years, occupied at Chelsea, a small dwelling, 
 once the abode of Nell Gwynn.° Chelsea is now a 
 district of London, and Holland House may be called 
 a town residence. But, in the days of Anne and 
 George the First, milkmaids and sportsmen wandered 
 between green hedges, and over fields bright with 
 daisies, from Kensington almost to the shore of the 
 Thames. Addison and Lady Warwick were country ic 
 neighbors, and became intimate friends. The great 
 wit and scholar tried to allure the young Lord from 
 the fashionable amusements of 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 
 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 20 
 very large allowance has been made for flattery, would 
 lead us to believe that she was a fine woman; and her 
 rank doubtless heightened her attractions. The court- 
 ship was long. The hopes of the lover appear to 
 have risen and fallen with the fortunes of his party.
 
 128 ADDISON 
 
 His attachment was at length a matter of such notori- 
 ety that, when he visited IreUincl for the last time, 
 Eowe addressed some consolatory v.erses to the Chloe 
 of Holland House. It strikes iis as a little strange 
 that, in these verses, Addison should be called Lyci- 
 das,° 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. He had reason 
 
 10 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 pur- 
 chased an estate in Warwickshire, and had been wel- 
 comed to his domain in very tolerable verse by one of 
 the neighboring squires, the poetical foxhunter, Will- 
 iam .Somerville.° In August, 1716, the newspapers 
 announced that Joseph Addison, Esquire, famous for 
 many excellent works both in verse and prose, had 
 espoused the Countess Dowager of Warwick. 
 
 2o He now fixed his abode at Holland House, a house 
 which can boast of a greater number of inmates dis- 
 tinguished in political and literary history than any 
 other private dwelling in England. His portrait still 
 hangs there. The features are pleasing ; the complex- 
 ion is remarkably fair ; but, in the expression we
 
 ADDISON 129 
 
 trace rather the gentleness of his disposition than the 
 force and keenness of his intellect. 
 
 ISTot long after his marriage he reached the height 
 of civil greatness. The Whig Government had, during 
 some time, being torn by internal dissensions. Lord 
 Townshend led one section of the Cabinet, Lord Sun- 
 derland the other. At length, in the spring of 1717, 
 Sunderland triumphed. Townshend retired from of- 
 fice, and was accompanied by Walpole and Cowper. 
 Sunderland proceeded to reconstruct the Ministry ; lo 
 and Addison was appointed Secretary of State. It is 
 certain that the Seals were pressed upon him, and' 
 were at first declined by him. Men equally versed 
 in official business might easily have been found ; and 
 his colleagues knew that they could not expect assist- 
 ance from him in debate. He owed his elevation to 
 his popularity, to his stainless probity, and to his lit- 
 erary fame. 
 
 But scarcely had Addison entered the Cabinet when 
 his health began to fail. From one serious attack he 20 
 recovered in the autumn ; and his recovery was cele- 
 brated in Latin verses, worthy of his own pen, by 
 Vincent Bourne, who was then at Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. A relapse soon took place; and, in the 
 following spring, Addison was prevented by a severe
 
 130 ADDISON 
 
 asthma from discharging the duties of his post. He 
 resigned it, and was succeeded by his friend Craggs, 
 a young man whose natural parts, though little im- 
 proved 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 been the most formidable 
 of all the rivals of Walpole. 
 
 As yet there was no Joseph Hume.° The Minis- 
 
 10 ters, therefore, were able to bestow on Addison a retir- 
 ing pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year. In 
 what form this pension 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 seems to have 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, 
 
 20 and he meditated many works, a tragedy on the death 
 of Socrates, a translation of the Psalms, a treatise on 
 the evidences of Christianity. Of this last perform- 
 ance, a part, which we could well spare, has come 
 down to us. 
 
 But the fatal complaint soon returned, and gradu-
 
 ADDISON 13:1 
 
 ally 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 
 early, which has been generally received, and 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 dining- 
 room, blazing with the gilded devices of the House lo 
 of Kich,° 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, 
 however, were not left to him. Sir Eichard 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 Whig party was triumphant, a 
 large compensation for what he had suffered when it 
 was militant. The Whig leaders took a very different 20 
 view of his claims. They thought that he had, by his 
 own petulance and folly, brought them as well as him- 
 self 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
 
 132 ADDISON 
 
 them, and especially angry with Addison. But what 
 above all seems to have disturbed Sir Eichard, was 
 the elevation of Tickell, who, at thirty, was made by 
 Addison, Under Secretary of State ; while the Editor 
 of the Tatler and Spectator, the author of the Crisis, 
 the member for Stockbridge who had been persecuted 
 for firm adherence to the House of Hanover, was, at 
 near fifty, forced, after many solicitations and com- 
 plaints, to content himself with a share in the patent 
 
 10 of Drury Lane theatre. Steele himself says, in his 
 celebrated letter to Congreve, that Addison, by his 
 preference of Tickell, " incurred the warmest resent- 
 ment of other gentlemen ; " and everything seems to 
 indicate that, of those resentful gentlemen, Steele was 
 himself one. 
 
 While poor Sir Richard was brooding over what he 
 considered as Addison's unkindness, a new cause ot 
 quarrel arose. The Whig party, already divided 
 against itself, was rent by a new schism. The cele- 
 
 20 brated Bill for limiting the number of Peers had been 
 brought in. The proud Duke of Somerset, first in 
 rank of all the nobles whose origin permitted them to 
 sit in Parliament, was the ostensil)le author of the 
 measure. But it was supported, and, in truth, devised 
 by the Prime Minister.
 
 ADDISON 133 
 
 We are satisfied that the Bill was most pernicious ; 
 and we fear that the motives which induced Sunder- 
 land to frame it were not honorable to him. But we 
 cannot deny that it was supported by many of the 
 best and wisest men of that age. Kor was this strange. 
 The royal prerogative had, within the memory of the gen- 
 eration then in the vigor of life, been so grossly abused, 
 that it was still regarded with a jealousy which, when 
 the peculiar situation of the House of Brunswick is 
 considered, may perhaps be called immoderate. The lo 
 particular prerogative of creating peers had, in the 
 opinion of the Whigs, been grossly abused by Queen 
 Anne's last Ministry; and even the Tories admitted 
 that her Majesty, in swamping, as it has since been 
 called, the Upper House, had done what only an ex- 
 treme case could justify. The theory of the English 
 constitution, according to many high authorities, was 
 that three independent powers, the sovereign, the 
 nobility, and the commons, ought constantly to act as 
 checks on each other. If this theory were sound, it 20 
 seemed to follow that to put one of these powers 
 under 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 of the Crown and the Com-
 
 134 ADDISON 
 
 mons, and was indebted only to their moderation for 
 any power which it might be suffered to retain. 
 
 Stede took part with the Opposition, Addison with 
 the Ministers. Steele, in a paper 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 to us that the 
 premises of both the controversialists were unsound, 
 
 lothat, on those premises, Addison reasoned well and 
 Steele ill, and that consequently Addison brought out 
 a false conclusion while Steele blundered upon the 
 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 observed 
 the laws of propriety. But at length Steele so far for- 
 got himself as to throw an odious imputation on the 
 morals of the chiefs of the administration. Addison 
 
 20 replied with severity, but, in our opinion, with less 
 severity than was due to so grave an offence against 
 morality and decorum; nor did he, in hi3 just anger, 
 forget for a moment the laws of good taste and good 
 breeding. One calumny w^iich has been often re- 
 peated, and never yet contradicted, it is our duty to
 
 ADDISON 135 
 
 expose. It is asserted in the Biographia Britannica, 
 that Addison designated Steele as "little Dicky." ° 
 This assertion was repeated by Johnson, who had 
 never seen the Old Whig, and was therefore excusable. 
 It has also been repeated by Miss xVikin, who has 
 seen the Old Whig, and for whom therefore there is 
 less excuse. Xow, 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 jSTewton's name lo 
 was Isaac. But we confidently affirm that Addison's 
 little Dicky had no more to do with Steele, than 
 Sheridan's little Isaac with iN'ewton. If we apply the 
 words "little Dicky" to Steele, we deprive a very 
 lively and ingenious passage, not only of all its wit, 
 but of all its meaning. Little Dicky was the nickname 
 of Henry Xorris, 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.^ 
 
 1 We will transcribe the "whole paragraph. How it can ever have 
 been misunderstood is unintelligible to us. 
 
 " But our author's chief concern is for the poor House of Com- 
 mons whom he represents as naked and defenceless, when the 
 Crown, by losing this prerogative, would be less able to protect 
 them against the power of a House of Lords. Who forbears laugh- 
 ing when the Spanish Friar represents little Dicky, under the
 
 136 ADDISON 
 
 The merited reproof which Steele had received, 
 though softened by some kind and courteous expres- 
 sions, galled him bitterly. He replied with little 
 force and great acrimony; but no rejoinder appeared. 
 Addison was fast hastening to his grave ; and had, we 
 may well suppose, little disposition to prosecute a 
 quarrel with an old friend. His complaint had ter- 
 minated in dropsy. He bore up long and manfully. 
 But at length he abandoned all hope, dismissed his 
 10 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 with the sweet and grace- 
 ful eloquence of a Saturday's Spectator. In this, his 
 last composition, he alluded to his approaching end in 
 words so manly, so cheerful, and so tender, that it is 
 
 person of Gomez, insulting the Colonel who was able to fright him 
 out of his wits with a single frown ? This Gomez, says he, flew 
 upon hira like a dragon, got hira down, the Devil being strong in 
 him, and gave him bastinado on bastinado, and buffet on buffet, 
 which the poor Colonel, being prostrate, suffered with a most Chris- 
 tian patience. The improbability of the fact never fails to raise 
 mirth in the audience ; and one may ventui'e to answer for a British 
 House of Commons, if we may guess, from its conduct hitherto, 
 that it will scarce be either so tame or so weak as our author 
 supposes."
 
 ADDISON 137 
 
 dilfxCult to read them without tears. At the same 
 time he earnestly recommended the interests of Tick- 
 ell to the care of Craggs. 
 
 Within a few hours of the time at which this dedi- 
 cation was written, Addison sent to beg Gay,° who was 
 then living by his wits about town, to come to Holland 
 House. G-ay went, and was received with great kind- 
 ness. To his amazement his forgiveness was implored 
 by the dying man. Poor Gay, the most good-natured 
 and simple of mankind, could not imagine what he lo 
 had to forgive. There vras, however, some wrong, the 
 remembrance of 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 sup- 
 posed that some plan to serve him had been in agita- 
 tion at Court, and had been frustrated by Addison's 
 influence. Nor is this improbable. Gay had paid 
 assiduous court to the royal family. But in the 
 Queen's days he had been the eulogist of Bolingbroke, 20 
 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 pre- 
 ferment of one whom he might regard as a political 
 enemy. Neither is it strange that, when reviewing
 
 138 ADDISON 
 
 his whole life, and earnestly scrutinizing all his mo- 
 tives, he should think that he had acted an unkind 
 and ungenerous part, in using his power against a dis- 
 tressed man of letters, who was as harmless and as 
 helpless as a child. 
 
 One inference may be drawn from this anecdote. 
 It appears that Addison, on his death-bed, called him- 
 self to a strict account, and was not at ease till he had 
 asked pardon for an injury which it was not even sus- 
 
 lopected that he had committed, for an injury which 
 would have caused disquiet only to a very tender con- 
 science. Is it not then reasonable to infer that, if he 
 had really been guilty of forming a base conspiracy 
 against the fame and fortunes. of a rival, he would 
 have expressed some remorse for so serious a crime ? 
 But it is unnecessary to multiply arguments and evi- 
 dence for the defence, when there is neither argument 
 nor evidence for the accusation. 
 
 The last moments of Addison were perfectly serene. 
 
 20 His interview with his son-in-law is universally known. 
 " See," he said, " how a Christian can die." The piety 
 of Addison was, in truth, of a singularly cheerful char- 
 acter. The feeling which predominates in all his de- 
 votional writings is gratitude. God was to him the 
 all-wise and all-powerful friend who had watched over
 
 ADDISON 139 
 
 his cradle with more than maternal tenderness ; who 
 had listened to his cries before they could form them- 
 selves into 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 to partake them ; who 
 had rebuked the waves of the Ligurian gidf, had puri- 
 fied the autumnal air of the Campagna, and had re- 
 strained the avalanches of Mont Cenis. Of the Psalms, lo 
 his favorite was that which represents 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 ascribed 
 all the happiness of his life, he relied in the hour of 
 death with a love which casteth out fear. He died on 
 the seventeenth of June, 1719. He had just entered 
 on his forty-eighth year. 
 
 His body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber," 20 
 and was borne thence to the Abbey ° at dead of night. 
 The choir sang a funeral hymn. Bishop Atterbury, 
 one of those Tories who had loved and honored the 
 most accomplished of the AVhigs, met the corpse, and 
 led the procession by torchlight, round the shrine of
 
 140 ADDISON 
 
 Saint Edward, and the graves of the Plantagenets, to 
 the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. On the north side 
 of tliat Chax^el, in the vault of the House of Albemarle, 
 the coffin of Addison lies next to the coffin of Mon- 
 tague. Yet a few months ; and the same mourners 
 passed again along the same aisle. The same sad 
 anthem was again chanted. The same vault was 
 again opened; and the coffin of Craggs was placed 
 close to the coffin of Addison. 
 
 10 Many tributes were paid to the memory of Addison ; 
 but one- alone is now remembered. Tick ell 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 purity of Cowper. This fine poem was prefixed 
 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 countrymen should be eager to 
 
 2o possess his writings, even in a costly form, is not 
 wonderful. But it is wonderful that, though English 
 literature was then little studied on the Continent, 
 Spanish Grandees, Italian Prelates, Marshals of France, 
 should be found in the list. Among the most remark- 
 able names are those of the Queen of Sweden, of Prince
 
 ADDISON 141 
 
 Eugene, of tlie Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Dukes 
 of Parma, ]\Iodena, and Guastalla, of the Doge of 
 Genoa, of the Eegent Orleans, and of Cardinal Dubois. 
 We ought to add that this edition, though eminently 
 beautiful, is in some important points defective ; nor, 
 indeed, do we yet possess a complete collection of 
 Addison's writings. 
 
 It is strange that neither his opulent and noble 
 widow, nor any of his powerful and attached friends, 
 should have thought of placing even a simple tablet, lo 
 inscribed with his name, on the walls of the Abbey. 
 It was not 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, skilfully graven, appeared in 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, wdth 
 the account of the Everlasting Club, or the Loves of 
 Hilpa and Shalum, just finished for the next day's 20 
 Spectator, in his hand. Such a mark of national re- 
 spect was due to the unsullied statesman, to the accom- 
 plished scholar, to the master of pure English elo- 
 quence, to the consummate painter of life and manners. 
 It was due, above all, to the great satirist, who alone
 
 142 ADDISON 
 
 knew how to use ridicule without abusing it, who, 
 without inflicting a wound, effected a great social re- 
 form, and who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long 
 and disastrous separation, during which wit had been 
 led astray by profligacy, and virtue by fanaticism.
 
 NOTES 
 
 This essay was published in the Edinburgh Seview, July, 
 1843. On June 15 ]\Iacaulay wrote to the editor as follows : 
 
 " I mistrust my own judgment of what I write so much that 
 I shall not be at all surprised if both you and the public think 
 my paper on Addison a failure ; but I own that I am partial to 
 it. It is now more than half finished. I have some researches 
 to make before I proceed ; but I have all the rest in my head, 
 and shall write very rapidly. I fear that I cannot contract my 
 matter into less than seventy pages. You will not, I think, be 
 inclined to stint me. 
 
 '' I am truly vexed to find Miss Aikin's book so veiy bad that 
 it is impossible for us, with due regard to our own character, to 
 praise it. All that I can do is to speak civilly of her writings 
 generally, and to express regret that she should have been 
 nodding. I have found, I will venture to say, not less than 
 forty gross blunders as to matters of fact in the first volume. 
 Of these I may, perhaps, point out eight or ten as courteously 
 as the case may bear ; yet it goes much against my feelings to 
 censure any woman, even with the greatest lenity." 
 
 As far as can be judged from the sale of the separate essays, 
 the article on Addison ranks fourth in popularity, being excelled 
 only by the essays on Clive, Hastings, and Chatham, in the 
 order named. 
 
 143 •
 
 lU NOTES 
 
 Page 1, line 2. franchises is used in the sense of privileges 
 or immunities. 
 
 Page 2, line 1. Knight, Bradamante. For the passage re- 
 ferred to, see Ariosto's Orlando Fiirioso, XLV. 
 
 1. 3. Balisarda was Rogero's enchanted sword. 
 
 1. 18. the Laputan flapper. Gulliver'' s Travels, Laputa, 
 Ckapter II. In the country of Laputa the inhabitants are so 
 absent-minded that they have to be constantly flapped on the 
 head with a bladder in order to keep their attention aroused. 
 
 Page 3, line 5. Raleigh, Sir Walter, (1552-1618), the great 
 statesman, explorer, and author, whose talents added so much 
 to the glory of Elizabeth's reign. 
 
 1. 6. Congreve, William, (1670-1729), an Enghsh dramatic 
 poet, who achieved both fame and fortune by his productions. 
 
 1. 6. Prior, Matthew, (1664-1721), was an English poet and 
 diplomatist. 
 
 1. 8. Theobald's, the country seat of Cecil, Elizabeth's noted 
 minister. It eventually came into possession of James I., "who 
 made great gardens and stocked them with all kinds of trees 
 and fruits, so that every great stranger in England must needs 
 go to see the curious knots and mazes of flowers, and the 
 vineries and shrubbery. ' ' 
 
 1. 8. Steenkirks. Lace neckcloths, very carefully adjusted, 
 were worn commonly by men of fashion. At the battle of 
 Steenkirk, in Holland, where William III. was defeated, when 
 the brigade of the Bourbonnais was flying before the onset of 
 the allies, there was no time for foppery, and the finest gentle- 
 men of the court came spurring to the front of the line of battle 
 with tli^ir cravats in disorder. It therefore became a fashion
 
 NOTES 145 
 
 among the beauties of Paris to wear around their necks kerchiefs 
 of the finest lace studiously disarranged, and these kerchiefs 
 were called " steenkirks." 
 
 1. 10. Hampton Court was built by Wolsey, and became a 
 favorite residence of the English sovereigns. It was here that 
 the famous conference of 1604 was held, at which it was decided 
 to make a new translation of the Bible, which afterwards became 
 known as the King James Version. 
 
 Page 4, line 13. Parnell, Thomas, (1679-1718), was a poet of 
 Irish birth, who assisted Pope in his translation of Homer, and 
 wrote the life of Homer which is prefixed to the Iliad. 
 
 1. 14. Dr. Blair, a Scottish divine, who was appointed Pro- 
 fessor of Rhetoric and Belles-lettres in Edinburgh University. 
 He wrote and published a series of lectures on Rhetoric which 
 were very popular. 
 
 1. 15. Dr. Johnson's tragedy. The play referred to is the 
 one which was first acted under the name of Mahomet and 
 Irene. It had " no plot worth mentioning, no development of 
 characters, no bustle or intrigue, and was totally without 
 interest." For a brief though careful sketch of Johnson's life 
 and writings see Edmund Gosse's History of English Literature 
 in the Eighteenth Century^ pp. 282-295. 
 
 1. 24. Button's. A noted coffee-house in London, which 
 was much frequented by Addison and his friends. 
 
 Page 5, line 21. Biographia Britannica was a collection of 
 short biographical sketches, which was published in London, 
 1747-1766. An enlarged edition was begun in 1778, but was 
 carried only to the fifth volume. In the large list of books 
 which Macaulay read while in India, in addition to all his 
 other labors, he includes this ponderous work. 
 
 L
 
 146 NOTES 
 
 1. 23. Queen's College, one of the important colleges of 
 Oxford, was founded in 13-10. 
 
 Page 6, line 6. Wild of Sussex. This was a tract of land 
 extending from the Straits of Dover to Beachy Head. Wild is 
 from A.-S.iceald, forest. 
 
 1. 8. Dunkirk is a fortified seaport town in the extreme 
 northern part of France. It was burned by the English in 
 1388, and captured by them in 1658, but was sold back to the 
 French king by Charles II. in 1662. 
 
 1. 9. Tangier is the chief port of Morocco, and is located on 
 the Straits of Gibraltar. Although in summer its climate is 
 very trying, in the winter it is exceptionally fine. 
 
 1. 11. Infanta. In Spain and Portugal any princess of the 
 royal blood, except the eldest daughter when heir-apparent, is 
 called infanta. Catharine of Braganza was the daughter of 
 John IV. of Portugal and queen of Charles II. She brought 
 Tangier and Bombay in dower. 
 
 Page 7, line 6. Tillotson, (1630-1694), was originally a strict 
 Puritan, but at the Restoration he went over to the Established 
 Church, and was given numerous honors. In 1689 he was 
 appointed by William a member of a commission to revise 
 the English liturgy, and in 1691 was made Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. 
 
 1. 11. Charter House, (a corruption of Chartreuse), was a 
 hospital and school in London, which was founded in 1611. 
 The school is for the benefit of " the sons of poor gentlemen to 
 whom the charge of education is too onerous." Among the 
 eminent men educated there were Addison, John Wesley, 
 George Grote, Bishop Thirlwall, and Thac*keray.
 
 NOTES 147 
 
 Page 8, line 7. Magdalene (pronounced maudlin) College. 
 See Macaulay's History of Enrjland, II., Ch. VII., p. 222, for 
 a brilliant desGiiption of this college. 
 
 1. U. his Chancellor. The infamous Judge Jeffries. 
 
 1. 19. a president. John Hough, a distinguished bishop of 
 the English Church. 
 
 1. 16. a Papist. Anthony Farmer. 
 
 Page 9, line 17. Demies. The "corporation or society of 
 Magdalene College consisted of a president, of thirty scholars 
 calledr demies, and of a train of chaplains, clerks, and choristers. 
 
 Page 10, line 12. Lucretius, (94-55 b.c), was a Roman, and 
 the greatest poet of rationalism the world has ever produced. 
 His one great poem was the De Berum Xatnra, which is called 
 the greatest didactic poem ever written. Professor Wilkinson 
 says of it : 
 
 "It was almost an exact opposite to the object of the great 
 poem of Milton. That object was to explore eternity and 
 vindicate the ways of God to man. This object was to explore 
 the universe and vindicate man against the ways of gods, — 
 gods that were no gods. The audacious sublimity, the sublime 
 audacity of their several attempts, seem to ally the two poets in 
 genius while separating them thus widely in aim." 
 
 Lucretius is known as the great apostle of atheism of ancient 
 times. 
 
 1. 13, Catullus, Gains Valerius, (87-54 b.c), was a Roman 
 lyric poet, and was chiefly noted for the gi'ace and beauty of 
 his style. 
 
 1. 13. Claudian was a Roman epic poet, and is regarded 
 as the last of the classical Latin poets. He was born at about 
 the end of the fourth century.
 
 148 NOTES 
 
 1. 13. Prudentius, Aurelius Clemens, (348-405), was a Roman 
 poet, who devoted himself almost exclusively to theological 
 studies and religious poetry. 
 
 1. 20. Buchanan, George, (1506-1582), was a classical scholar 
 of great repute. He was the tutor of Mary, Queen of Scots, and 
 afterwards preceptor of the young king, James VI., of Scot- 
 land, who succeeded to the English throne upon the death of 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 Page 11, line 16. Metamorphoses. The best-known work of 
 the great Latiu poet, Publius Ovidius Naso, better known as 
 Ovid. 
 
 1. 20. Statins, Publius Papinius, (45-96), was a Roman 
 author and poet. 
 
 1. 24. For the myth of Pentheus see Gayley's Classic Myths. 
 Page 12, line 1. Theocritus was a Greek poet, who flourished 
 in the first half of the third century b.c. 
 
 1. 1. Euripides, (480-406 b.c), was the third of the great trio 
 of Greek dramatists, the other two being Sophocles and -^schylus. 
 
 1. 10. Ausonius, Decimus Magnus, (310-394), and Manilius, 
 Marcus, who lived during the age of Augustus, were both minor 
 Latin poets. 
 
 1. 20. Polybius, (204-125 b.c), was a noted Greek historian. 
 
 1. 20. Livy, (59 b.c.-17 a.d.), was the greatest of Roman 
 historians. His life was devoted to the preparation of a history 
 of Rome from its foundation to 9 b.c, in one huntlred and 
 forty-two books, of which only thirty-five have come down to us. 
 While not always accurate, his narrative is fluent and vividly 
 picturesque, and is frequently brilliant and dramatic. 
 
 1. 21. Silius Italicus, (25-101), wrote an epic poem in
 
 NOTES 149 
 
 seventeen books on the Second Punic War. It is the longest 
 and probably the dullest of all Latin poems. 
 
 1. 22. Plutarch, (66-120), was a great Greek biographer. The 
 most famous of his works is a series of Parallel Lives, forty- 
 six lives in twenty-three pairs, a Greek biography being set over 
 against a Roman. 
 
 1. 24. Atticus, Titus Pompon ius, (109-32 b.c), was an ac- 
 complished Roman author and historian. 
 
 Page 13, line 2. Lucan, (39-65), was a nephew of Seneca. 
 Only a portion of one of his works is extant, Pharsalia, or De 
 Bello Cimli, a heroic poem of ten books treating of the civil 
 wars between Caesar and Pompey. 
 
 1. 5. Pindar, ("The Theban Eagle''), was the greatest of 
 Greek lyric poets. 
 
 1. 5. Callimachus was a writer of hymns and epigrams. 
 
 1. 7. Horace, (65-8 b.c), was the greatest of Roman lyric 
 poets. His works are more widely read to-day and more gener- 
 ally admired than those of any other Latin poet. 
 
 1. 8. Juvenal, (56-140), was a Roman satirist. He wrote 
 sixteen satires in heroic hexameters, which were full of stern 
 indignation against the vices, follies, and crimes of Roman life. 
 His descriptions were vivid, realistic, and oftentimes coarse. 
 
 Page 14, line 5. Cock-Lane ghost. In Cock-Lane, Stock- 
 well, in 1762, certain knockings were heard, which Mr. Parsons, 
 the owner, declared proceeded from the ghost of Mrs. Kent, who 
 (he wished people to suppose) had been murdered by her hus- 
 band. All London was agog with the story ; but it was found 
 out that the knockings were produced by a girl employed by 
 Parsons, and were made by rapping on a board which she took 
 into her bed.
 
 150 NOTES 
 
 1. 6. Ireland's Vortigern. William Henry Ireland, (1777- 
 1835), was an author who was noted chiefly for his forgeries. 
 Having made a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon he forged a lease 
 containing the pretended signature of Shakespeare, which he said 
 he had discovered among some old law papers. He afterwards 
 executed other similar forgeries, among which was Vortigern, a 
 tragedy purporting to have been written by Shakespeare. Be- 
 sides this he wrote Henry II. and attributed it also to Shake- 
 speare, but the true origin of both of these plays was soon 
 discovered. 
 
 1. 7. the Thundering Legion. This name was given to a 
 legion of Christians who served under the Koman emperor, 
 Marcus Aurelius. The tradition is in brief that once while on 
 the march they were so tormented with thirst that they prayed 
 to God for rain. The prayer was answered by a terrific thun- 
 derstorm which not only enabled them to quench their thirst, 
 but also destroyed a large number of the enemy. 
 
 1. 8. Agbarus. Eusebius states that this king was taken 
 sick and wrote a letter to Jesus begging him to come and heal 
 him. Christ answered by a letter, saying that he would send 
 one of his disciples. 
 
 1. 21. Boyle, Charles, (1676-1731), was an author, soldier, 
 and statesman, but was more distinguished as a soldier than as 
 a writer. He edited and published the so-called Epistles of 
 Fhalaris. 
 
 1. 21. Blackmore, Sir Richard, (1650-1729), was a physician 
 and a voluminous writer of theological and poetical works of 
 little value or interest. 
 
 Page 15, line 11. Bentley, Richard, (1662-1742), was the 
 srcatest critic and classical scholar of his age.
 
 NOTES 151 
 
 1. 22. His lines on the Barometer and the Bowling Green. 
 
 Johnson says : "Three of his Latin poems are upon subjects 
 "11 which, perhaps, he would not have ventured to have written 
 in his own language. The Battle of the Cranes and Pj^gmies ; 
 tue Barometer ; and a Bowling Green, When the matter is 
 low and scanty, a dead language, in which nothing is mean be- 
 cause nothing is familiar, affords great conveniences ; and by 
 the sonorous magnificence of Roman syllables, the writer con- 
 ceals penury of thought and want of novelty often from the 
 reader and often from himself." 
 
 1. 24. Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris. Phalaris, 
 who was proverbially the most cruel tyrant known to antiquity, 
 was ruler of Agrigentum in Sicily in the middle of the sixth 
 century b.c. Little is known of him historically, though his 
 ingenious cruelty forms the subject of many fables and stories. 
 The famous Epistles, one hundred and forty-eight in number, 
 fir.st printed in Venice in 1498, and afterwards often reprinted 
 and translated, give quite another picture of his character, and 
 were read and generally believed to be authentic until Bentley 
 proved them spurious in what Person styles "that immortal 
 dissertation " to which no answer was or could be given. 
 
 Page 16, lines 18-21. These verses occur in the Battle of the 
 Cranes and Pygmies and may be translated as follows : — 
 
 "And now into the midst of the squadrons the bold leader 
 of the Pygmies forces his way, who, awe-inspiring in his majesty 
 and commanding in his movements, excels all the rest with his 
 gigantic form, and rises to the height of the elbow." 
 
 1. 25. coffee-houses round Drury Lane theatre. Before the 
 introduction of newspapers, coffee-houses were important cen- 
 tres or sources of information where people assembled to learn 
 the news and discuss the important questions of the day.
 
 152 NOTES 
 
 The following were among the most noted resorts of this 
 period : — 
 
 Garraway's, which was located in Cornhill, was much fre- 
 quented by those who were engaged in mercantile transactions. 
 It is said that tea was sold here first in England. 
 
 The Grecian, so called after the Greek by whom it was kept, 
 was the common resort of scholars and students. 
 
 Button's was the favorite resort of Addison and his cronies. 
 
 Jonathan's was frequented by stock-jobbers and speculators. 
 
 The October Club was a parliamentary club formed in 1690. 
 It was named for the October ale for which it was famed. 
 
 Child's was an establishment in St. Paul's churchyard, much 
 frequented by professional men. 
 
 St. James' was a famous Whig resort. 
 
 White's Chocolate House was noted as a resort of gamblers 
 and sporting men. For a description of the origin and growth 
 of the Coffee-house, see Macaulay's England, /., Ch. III., p. 286. 
 
 Page 17, line 3. Dryden, (1631-1700), was an English poet 
 and dramatist. He was appointed poet-laureate in 1668. 
 
 1. 9. Congreve, William, (1670-1729), was an English dra- 
 matic poet, of whom Donald Mitchell says : " Congreve was in 
 his way an important man — immensely admired. Voltaire 
 said he was the best comedy writer England had ever known ; 
 and when he came to London this keen-witted Frenchman 
 (who rarely visited) went to see Mr. Congreve at his rooms in 
 the Strand. Nothing was too good for Mr. Congreve ; he had 
 patronage and great gifts ; it seemed always to be raining 
 roses upon his head. The work he did was not great work, but 
 it was exquisitely done." 
 
 1. 11. Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, (1661-1715), was 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer under William III. He was a
 
 NOTES 153 
 
 noted statesman and a patron of letters. See Macaulay's Eng- 
 land. 
 
 1. 20. Newdigate and Seatonian prizes were prizes given at 
 Oxford and Cambridge respectively for English verse. The 
 Newdigate prize was not to be awarded to a poem which 
 exceeded fifty lines in length, and the Seatonian prize was for 
 the best English poem upon a subject "to be most conducive 
 to the honor of the supreme Being and the recommendation of 
 virtue." 
 
 1. 21. The heroic couplet was iambic pentameter, a measure 
 which lends itself to a clear, terse, and epigrammatic style. As 
 Macaulay says, it was mechanical, and was soon abandoned. 
 Lowell called it "the rocking-horse measure." 
 
 Page 18, line 16. Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, (1648- 
 1680), was a favorite at the court of Charles II., and was noted 
 for his wit and his vices. He wrote some poems and letters 
 which were both vulgar and licentious. Taine says of him : 
 " His manners were those of a lawless and wretched mounte- 
 bank. ... He spent his time between gossiping with the 
 maids of honor, broils with men of letters, the receiving of 
 insult, and the giving of blows." 
 
 1. 17. Marvel, Andrew, (1621-1678), was a friend and as- 
 sistant of Milton in the Latin secretaryship. He wrote politi- 
 cal satires and some very sweet and beautiful verse. 
 
 1. 17. Oldham, John, (1653-1683), was a satirical poet. Hal- 
 lara says of him: " His poems are spirited and pointed, and he 
 ranks after Dryden." 
 
 1. 19. Ben Jonson, (1573-1637), was probably the greatest 
 dramatist, next to Shakespeare, of the Elizabethan Age. His 
 best-known works are Every Man in his Humor and Every Man
 
 154 NOTES 
 
 out of his Humor, lie was made poet-laureate in 1619. He 
 was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his tombstone bears 
 the inscription, " 0-rare Ben Jonson." 
 
 1. 19. Hoole, John, (1727-1803), was an English dramatist 
 and translator. 
 
 1. 24. Brunei, Sir Marc Isambard, (1769-1849), was noted as a 
 skilful engineer and the author of a number of ingenious inven- 
 tions. He invented a machine for turning out block pulleys, 
 which are referred to in the text. He planned and constructed 
 the first tunnel under the Thames. 
 
 Page 19, lines 4-12. This selection is taken from Jonson's The 
 Poetaster., V., 1. It is a translation of the uUiieid, IV., 178-183. 
 
 1. 16. Tasso, Torquato, (1544-1595), was an Italian poet 
 and the author of the great epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata. 
 The selection in the text is taken from this work, XIV., 58. 
 It will be interesting to compare this translation with the 
 standard one of J. H. Wiffen, in which the passage reads : 
 
 " O thou, whoe'er thou art, whom sweet self-will, 
 Or eliauce, or idlesse to this region guides I 
 
 No greater wonder in design or skill 
 Can the world show than that this islet hides ; 
 
 Pass o'er and see." 
 
 Page 20, line 5. Duke, Kichard, (1655-1711), an English theo- 
 logian and poet of very doubtful ability. 
 
 1. 6. Stepney, George, (1663-1707), Johnson saj^s of him : 
 " He apparently professed himself a poet, and added his name 
 to those of other wits in the version of Juvenal; but he is a 
 very licentious translator, and does not recompense his neglect 
 of the author by beauties of his own. In his original poems, 
 now and then, a happy line may, perhaps, be found and, now
 
 NOTES 155 
 
 and then, a short composition may give pleasure. But there 
 is, in the whole, little either of the grace of wit or the vigor of 
 nature." 
 
 1. 6. Granville, George, (1667-1735), was a statesman and a 
 writer of some repute, but is now forgotten. 
 
 1.6. Walsh, William. (1663-1709). Johnson says of him : 
 "He is known more by his familiarity with greater men than 
 by anything done or written by himself.'' 
 
 1. 23. -'After his bees." The subject of the Fourth Georgia 
 is the keeping of bees. 
 
 Page 21, line 17. Dorset, Charles Sackville, Earl of, (1637- 
 170G), was a noted courtier and patron of letters. Among the 
 authors who profited by his generosity was Dryden. He wrote 
 a number of satires and songs which were much admired. 
 
 1. 20. See Hasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, the most noted of 
 the works of Samuel Johnson. It was written in a 'week's 
 time to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral. 
 
 Page 22. line 17. Somers, John, (1651-1716), was one of 
 the most noted scholars and statesmen of the times. He was 
 the leader of the Whig party, and during the reign of William 
 III. occupied many high official positions, and was Anally 
 appointed Lord Chancellor in 1697. 
 
 Page 23, line 25. Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset, 
 (1661-1748), and Charles Talbot, Dtike of Shrewsbury, (16()0- 
 1718), were both noted Whig statesmen and patrons of letters. 
 The leading statesmen of Addison's time were accustomed to 
 extend their patronage to writers of prominence, and thus put 
 them under obligations which they could not fail to acknow- 
 ledge.
 
 156 NOTES 
 
 Page 24, line 1. Prior, Matthew, (1664-1721), was an Eng- 
 lish poet and diplqmatist. 
 
 1. 4. Both the great chiefs of the Ministry. Somers and 
 Montague. 
 
 1. 11. peace of Ryswick. A treaty of peace was signed at 
 this place between France and the allies, Germany, England, 
 Holland, and Spain, September 21, 1697. 
 
 Page 25, line 22. a toast. A lady whose health is drunk in 
 honor or respect. 
 
 Page 26, line 1. the Kit Cat Club was one of the most 
 famous clubs of this period. It dates from 1703, and was made 
 up of about forty gentlemen of rank and ability who were in- 
 terested in promoting the Protestant succession in the House of 
 Hanover. Among its members were the Dukes of Marlborough 
 and Devonshire, Lord Halifax, Sir Robert Walpole, Congreve, 
 Granville, and Addison. Its name is said to be derived from a 
 noted pastry cook, Christopher Catt, who lived near the tavern 
 where they met in King Street, Westminster, and supplied the 
 members with pies. The association lasted about twenty years. 
 
 1. 10. Racine, Jean Baptiste, (1639-1699), was one of the 
 greatest of French dramatists. In his earlier life he gave him- 
 self up to pleasure and dissipation, but towards the end of his 
 life his moral attitude changed completely, so that he even con- 
 templated becoming a Carthusian monk. 
 
 1. 12. Dacier, Andr^, (1651-1722), was a French scholar, 
 librarian of the king, and translator of Plutarch. An interest- 
 ing passage from one of Addison's letters in reference to this 
 translation of Plato is found in Kemble's State Papers and Let- 
 ters, page 237.
 
 NOTES 157 
 
 " As for the present state of learning there is nothing pub- 
 Ushed here which has not in it an air of devotion. Dacier has 
 been forced to prove his Plato a very good Christian before he 
 ventures to translate him, and has so far complied with the taste 
 of the age that his whole book is overrun with texts of scripture, 
 and the notion of pre-existence, supposed to be stolen from two 
 verses out of the Prophets." — Addison to Halifax, Paris, Oc- 
 tober, 1699. 
 
 Dacier was, at this time, making an effort to show a relation- 
 ship between the doctrines of Athanasius, the great Alexandrian 
 bishop, (246-273), and the systems of Plato, the greatest of the 
 Greek philosophers, and one whose works have exerted no little 
 influence upon Christian theology. 
 
 1, 21: Blois was a beautiful city one hundred and twelve 
 miles southwest of Paris. It was once the favorite residence of 
 the kings of France. 
 
 Page 27, line 2. Joseph Spence, (1699-1768), was an English 
 author and critic. 
 
 1. 12. The Guardian was published in the interval between 
 the suspension of the Spectator and the resumption of its publi- 
 cation. The first number appeared March 12, 1713, and the 
 last was published October 1 of the same year. 
 
 1. 21. Malbranche, Nicolas, (1638-1715), was a French 
 philosopher. 
 
 1. 21. Boileau, Nicolas, (1636-1711), was a French poet and 
 satirist. 
 
 1. 23. Newton, Sir Isaac, (1642-1727), was perhaps the most 
 illustrious of English philosophers and scientists. Sir James 
 Mcintosh says: " Shakespeare, Milton, Locke, and Newton are
 
 158 NOTES 
 
 four names beyond competition superior to any that the Conti- 
 nent can put against tliem." Pope wrote : 
 
 " Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: 
 God said ' Let Newton be ' and all was light." 
 
 1. 24. Hobbes, Thomas, (1588-1679), was an English philoso- 
 pher. He wrote many works, but probably the best known of 
 them all is the Leviathan^ published in IGol, which contains the 
 complete system of his philosophy. 
 
 Page 28, line 6. the Academy. The first institution of this 
 kind in France was founded by Cardinal Kichelieu in 1635. It 
 was formed for the purpose of refining the French language and 
 style, and to that end published a dictionary of the national 
 language in 1Q94. It consisted of forty members, and a place 
 among them was eagerly sought as one of the highest honors 
 which could be attained by an autlior. It was reorganized in 
 1795 and again in 1806 by Napoleon so as to be much more 
 comprehensive in its scope and design, and to-day membership 
 in the Academy is the most distinguished honor to which a 
 French scholar or scientist can aspire. 
 
 1. 17. Sir Joshua Reynolds, (1723-1792), was a distinguished 
 painter. He was the central figure in a number of literary and 
 political clubs, and was noted as a host. He was the first presi- 
 dent of the Royal Academy. 
 
 1. 18. Mrs. Thrale was celebrated in her youth as "the 
 beautiful Miss Salisbury," Dr. Johnson was an inmate of her 
 family from 1766 to 1781 at Southwark and at Streatham. 
 Accordhig to Dr. Johnson: '-If not the wisest woman in the 
 world, she was undoubtedly one of the wisest." See Macaulay's 
 Essay on Johnson. 
 
 1. 18. Wieland, Christoph Martin, (1733-1813).
 
 NOTES 159 
 
 1. 19. Lessing, Gotthold Epliraim, (1729-1781). It is said of 
 him: -'The principal characteri-stic of Lessing's mind was his 
 pure and passionate love of truth. By his heroic struggle for 
 the possession of truth he became the greatest critic of modern 
 times, the reformer in literature, and one of the foremost liber- 
 ators of the human mind not only for the eighteenth century 
 but for all time." 
 
 1. 22. Absalom and Ahitophel was a political satire by 
 Drj'den. 
 
 Page 30, line 5. Pollio, Gains Asinius, (76 e.g.— 5 a.d.), 
 was a Roman poet, historian, and critic who enjoyed the friend- 
 ship of Vergil and Horace. He also excelled as an orator, and 
 was sometimes ranked next to Cicero. It is difficult for a mod- 
 ern student to see any just grounds for his criticism of Livy's 
 style. 
 
 1. 18. Erasmus, Desiderius, (1467-1536), a celebrated scholar 
 and philosopher, was born in Holland. He established the 
 reputation of bemg the most eminent scholar and witty writer 
 of the times. He was a friend of Luther, and did much to 
 forward the Reformation in its first stages, but he afterwards 
 dissented from some of Luther's doctrines and was denounced 
 by him. 
 
 1. 18. Fracastorius, Hieronymus, (1483-1553), was a learned 
 physician and poet of Verona. 
 
 1. 19. Robertson. TTilliam, (1721-1793), was a native of Mid- 
 Lothian, Scotland, and was noted for his advanced scholarship 
 and as a historian. 
 
 1. 25. alcaics of Gray. Alcaics are lyric poems written in a 
 peculiar measure first used by Alcaeus, a Greek poet, who flour- 
 ished about 600 B.C.
 
 160 NOTES 
 
 1. 25. Thomas Gray, (1716-1771), was an English poet, and is 
 best known for his " Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." 
 
 I. 25. elegiacs : a style of verse commonly used by the Greeks 
 and Romans in writing elegies. It consists of couplets of alter- 
 nate hexameters and pentameters. 
 
 Page 31, line 1. Vincent Bourne, (1695-1747), was an usher 
 in Westminster School, who was admJred for his Latin poetry. 
 Cowper, who was his pupil in AVestminster, says of him, " I 
 think him a better Latin poet than Tibullus, Propertius, Au- 
 sonius, or any of the writers in his way, except Ovid, and not 
 at all inferior to him.' ' 
 
 II. 4-8. " Do not think, however, that I desire to criticize the 
 Latin verses of your illustrious academicians which you have 
 sent me. I have found them very beautiful and worthy of 
 Vida and Sannazar, but not of Horace and of Vergil." Vida 
 was a Latin poet of the Renaissance, who was noted for the 
 smoothness of his style more than for the originality of his 
 thought. Sannazar was a contemporary of Vida. 
 
 I. 12. Pere Fraguier's epigrams. P^re Fraguier, (1666-1728), 
 was a French savant and writer. An epigram is a short poem 
 of a pointed or antithetical character. The name was given by 
 the Greeks to a poetic inscription on a public monument. 
 
 II. 21-23. " Why do you bid me, Muse, born of a Sicam- 
 brian father far this side of the Alps, to stammer again in Latin 
 numbers ? " 
 
 1. 25. Machinoe Gesticulantes^ Gerano-Pygmceomachia were 
 the names of two of Addison's Latin poems. 
 
 Page 32, line 17. the Spectator was the well-known period- 
 ical which succeeded the Tatler, under the joint editorship of 
 Steele and Addison.
 
 NOTES 161 
 
 Page 33, line 1. Dauphin was the name given to the oldest 
 son of the king of France, who was the heir apparent to the 
 throne. 
 
 1. 3. States-General was an assembly composed of repre- 
 sentatives of the nation. The national assemblies of both 
 France and Holland were known by this name. Here the ref- 
 erence is to Holland. 
 
 Page 34, line 9. The stanzas of the hymn which refer to 
 this incident are as follows : 
 
 " Think, O my soul, devoutly think, 
 How with affrighted eyes 
 Thou saw'st the wide extended deep 
 In all its horrors rise. 
 
 " Confusion dwelt in every face, 
 And fear in every heart, 
 When waves on waves, and gulphs in gulphs, 
 O'ercame the pilot's art. 
 
 '* Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord, 
 Thy mercy set me free. 
 Whilst in the confidence of prayer 
 My soul took hold on thee. 
 
 " The storm was laid, the winds retired, 
 Obedient to thy will ; 
 The sea that roared at thy command 
 At thy command was still. 
 
 ** In midst of dangers, fears and death, 
 Thy goodness I'll adore, 
 And praise thee for thy mercies 
 And humbly hope for more. 
 
 M
 
 162 . NOTES 
 
 " My life, if thou preserv'st my life, 
 Thy sacritice shall be ; 
 And death, if death must be my doom, 
 Shall join my soul to thee." 
 
 1. 14. Genoa was under the rule of France from 1380 to 
 1528, when Andrea Doria threw oft" the French domination and 
 restored the old form of government, under hereditary rulers 
 known as doges, which endured until the French Revolution. 
 
 1. 17. Book of Gold. The state register of nobility. 
 
 1. 24. Lake Benacus. The modern Lago di Garda, the larg- 
 est and one of the most beautiful of the lakes of northern 
 Italy. On account of its fine climate and the beauty of its 
 scenery it has been a popular resort from the earliest times. 
 
 Page 35, line 13. Tasso, Bernardo, (1493-1569), was a noted 
 Italian poet. Observe the anachronism. 
 
 Page 36, line 5. San Marino is the oldest and smallest inde- 
 pendent republic in the world. It is situated in eastern central 
 Italy, includes an area of thirty-two square miles, and has a 
 population of about 8,000. 
 
 1. 18. St. Peter's is the celebrated basilica in Rome, and 
 is said to be the largest church in Christendom. It was be- 
 gun in 1450, and consecrated by Pope Urban VIII, in 1626. 
 Raphael had charge of the building for some time, and Michael 
 Angelo designed the dome. 
 
 1. 19. the Pantheon is the oldest and most perfectly pre- 
 served of all the ancient structures in Rome. It was built by 
 Marcus Agrippa, 27 b.c, and was restored by Severus and 
 Caracalla, 202 a.d. It was transformed into a Christian church 
 in 60 7- A. D.
 
 NOTES .103 
 
 1. 20. Holy Week is the last week in Lent, and is sometimes 
 known as the " Still Week." 
 
 Page 37, line 15. Paestum was an ancient Roman town sit- 
 uated about forty miles southeast of Naples. Three very an- 
 cient Doric temples still remain in a fair state of preservation. 
 
 1. 20. Salvator Rosa was a celebrated Italian painter, 
 
 1. 21. Vico, Giovanni Battista, was an Italian jurist, philos- 
 opher and critic. 
 
 1, 25. Posilipo. The tunnel of Posilipo, 22t)0 feet in length, 
 on the road from Naples to Pozzuoli, was built about thirty-six 
 years before the Christian era and is still in use. 
 
 Page 38, line 2, Caprese is an island at the entrance of the 
 Bay of Naples. On it is located a famous cavern known as 
 the Grotto of the Nymphs. The infamous Roman emperor, 
 Tiberius, spent the last ten years of his life on this island, and 
 built twelve villas or palaces, of which the ruins still remain. 
 
 1. 7, Philip the Fifth, the grandson of Louis XIV. of 
 France, was declared heir to the Spanish throne by the will 
 of Charles II., who died childless, Nov. 1, 1700. 
 
 1. 15. Jacobitism. The Jacobites were partisans of King 
 James II., who was dethroned in 1688. They maintained a 
 party organization, and continued to plot for the return of the 
 Stuarts for a number of years. 
 
 1. 15, Freeholder was published from September 23, 1715, to 
 June 26, 1716. Addison contributed to it many vigorous arti- 
 cles in support of the government. 
 
 1. 15. The Tory fox-hunter is a delightful picture of a 
 partisan politician. He appears first in No. 22 of the Free- 
 holder^ and again in Nos. 4-i and 47.
 
 164 NOTES 
 
 1. 23. tomb of Misenus. See the Eneid, Bk. VI. 
 
 Page 39, line 4. hot and sickly months. The summer in 
 Home is very unhealthful, especially for foreigners. 
 
 1. 20. Duke of Shrewsbury was Lord Chamberlain to 
 James II., and an active promoter of the Revolution of 1689. 
 He was Secretary of State under William III. and a member of 
 the Privy Council in the reign of Anne. Macaulay says of him : 
 "The character of this man is a curious study. ... He was, 
 with great abilities, a weak man, and, though endowed with 
 many amiable and attractive qualities, could not be called an 
 honest man." Macaulay's History of England, Vol. III., 
 Ch. 15. 
 
 Page 40, line 8. Museum. Reference is probably made to 
 the Palazzo degli Ufflzi, which contains a world-famous collec- 
 tion of statuary in marble and bronze, cameos, and pictures, 
 among them the Venus by Titian and the Holy Family by 
 Michael Angelo. 
 
 1. 9. the Vatican, the well-known palace of the Popes, was 
 built by Pope Leo IV., about 850 a.d. It is made up of a great 
 mass of buildings fronting on twenty different courts, and con- 
 tains about eleven thousand rooms. It contains a great many 
 celebrated wall paintings, an Etruscan Museum, a few great 
 pictures, and the largest collection of classical statuary in 
 Europe. 
 
 1. 13. fiercer conflict : The war of the Spanish Succession, 
 which broke out in 1701. 
 
 1. 13. Prince Eugene was a Frenchman, but he entered the 
 Austrian service early in his life and gained the reputation of 
 being q, brave soldier and an able general. In the war of the 
 Spanish Succession he first commanded the Austrian army in
 
 NOTES 165 
 
 Italy, where he was opposed by the French army under Marshal 
 Catinat, whom he surprised and took captive. 
 
 1. 15. The faithless ruler of Savoy : Victor Amadeus VI. 
 
 In this war he first supported Louis but afterwards turned 
 
 against him. His defection was rewarded at the close of the 
 
 , war by the acquisition of the island of Sicily and the title of 
 
 king. 
 
 1. 19. the Grand Alliance was the second against France. 
 It was composed of England, the Netherlands, Germany and 
 Prussia, Austria, and Portugal. 
 
 1. 23. Mont Cenis is a mountain pass of the Alps between 
 Italy and France. Napoleon built a carriage road over it in 
 1803-1810 to connect the two countries. It is now pierced by 
 a tunnel which was opened in 1871. 
 
 Page 44, line 8. Lord Treasurer Godolphin, (1645-1712) , was 
 a noted statesman of this period. He held many high positions 
 under James, William, and Anne, and had decided talents for 
 public business but no political or moral principles. When 
 chamberlain to the Queen of James II. he conformed to the 
 Roman Catholic rites, and was Protestant, Tory, or Whig, as 
 would best serve his interests. 
 
 1. 8. Captain General Marlborough. John Churchill, first 
 Duke of Marlborough, (1650-1722). was one of the most noted 
 of English generals. In the war of the Spanish Succession he 
 held the chief command of the allied forces and won a series of 
 extraordinary victories, among which were Malplaquet, Oude- 
 narde, Blenheim, and many others. His daughter married 
 Godolphin. 
 
 1. 15. Dissenters are English Protestants who differ in their 
 views from the doctrines of the Established Church. In 1689,
 
 166 NOTES 
 
 by the Act of Toleration, they obtained legal security in cele- 
 brating their worship. 
 
 Page 45, line 17. Mr. Canning, (1770-1827), was a noted 
 statesman and orator. In 1826 he was Secretary of Foreign 
 Affairs in the cabinet of Lord Liverpool. " He advocated a 
 liberal and progressive policy and asserted the principle of non- 
 interference in the internal affairs of foreign states. ... At 
 home his influence was seen in the new strength gained by the 
 question of Catholic Emancipation." Greenls Shorter History, 
 p. 888. 
 
 His policy also inaugurated the movement which brought 
 about the repeal of the Corn Laws. 
 
 1. 19. Earl of Nottingham was Secretary of State under 
 William and Mary, and also under Anne. Earl of Jersey was 
 Secretary of State under William. 
 
 1. 20. Lord Eldon, (1761-1838), was Lord Chancellor of Eng- 
 land from 1801 to 1827, with the exception of one year. Lord 
 Westmoreland, (1759-1841), was Lord of the Privy Seal for many 
 years. 
 
 1. 23. Somers, John, (1651-1716), was successively Solicitor 
 General, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and Lord Chancellor 
 during the reign of William III. He was also chairman of the 
 committee which drew up the Declaration of Right. 
 
 1. 23. Halifax, Charle-fe Montague, Earl of, (1661-1715). 
 
 1. 23. Sunderland, Charles Spencer, third Earl of, C 1674- 
 1722), was Secretary of State from 1707 to 1710. 
 
 1. 23. Cowper, William, (1664-1723), was leader of the Whig 
 party in the House of Commons and was appointed Lord Chan- 
 cellor in 1705.
 
 NOTES 167 
 
 Page 46, line 5. Blenheim was a small village in Bavaria: 
 The allied armies under Marlborough and Prince Eugene, num- 
 bering about 52,000 men, attacked the French and Bavarians, 
 who slightly outnumbered them. The victory was a decisive 
 one. 
 
 1. 12. Act of Settlement was the act by which the crown 
 was limited to the House of Hanover, and all Roman Catholics 
 were excluded from the throne. 
 
 1. 20. Newmarket is the seat of the most famous race-courses 
 in England. Godolphin is said to have possessed an inordinate 
 fondness for racing and gambling. 
 
 Page 48, line 25. similitude of the Angel. The lines referred 
 to are the following : 
 
 ." 'Twas then great Marlbro's mighty soul was prov'd, 
 That, in the shock of charging hosts unmov'd, 
 Amidst confusion, horror, and despair, ^ 
 Examined all the dreadful scenes of war ; 
 In peaceful thought the field of death survey'd, 
 To fainting squadrons sent timely aid, 
 Inspir'd repuls'd battalions to engage, 
 And taught the doubtful battle where to rage. 
 So when an angel by divine command 
 "With rising tempests shakes a guilty land, 
 Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past, 
 Calm and serene he drives the furious blast, 
 And pleas'd tb' Almighty's orders to perform, 
 Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm." 
 
 Page 50, line 23. Lifeguardsman Shaw was a pugilist who 
 gained considerable renown for the bravery which he displayed 
 at the battle of ^Yaterloo. 
 
 4 
 
 Page 51, line 1. the Mamelukes formed the ruling power in
 
 1G8 NOTES 
 
 Egypt" the most of the time from 1250 to 1798. They were 
 originally Tartars and Turks who were bought by the Sultan of 
 Egypt from Genghis Khan and were held for a time as slaves, 
 but they soon overthrew the dominion of their masters and 
 formed a dynasty of their own. They considered themselves 
 invincible in war, but were defeated and nearly exterminated 
 by Napoleon in the battle of the Pyramids. Mourad Bey was 
 their leader. 
 
 1. 17. The characters mentioned here should be familiar 
 to every student. The incidents are taken from Silius's epic 
 on the I*U7iic Wa7\ 
 
 Page 52, line 4. William III. defeated James IL in the Battle 
 of the Boyne River, in eastern Ireland, July 1, 1690. 
 
 1. 5. John Philips, (1676-1708), was styled by Macaulay "the 
 poet of the English vintage." In all his poems save Blenheim 
 he celebrates the virtues of tobacco. He wrote a long poem, in 
 imitation of the Georgics, on " Cider." 
 
 1. 6. The Splendid Shilling was a mock-heroic poem in imita- 
 tion of the verse of Paradise Lost. He also sought to imitate 
 the same poem in Blenheim. Johnson says of this attempt : 
 
 " In Blenheim he imitates Milton's numbers, Indeed, but 
 imitates them very injudiciously. Deformity is easily copied ; 
 and whatever there is in Milton which the reader wishes away, 
 all that is obsolete, peculiar or licentious is accumulated with 
 great care by Philips." 
 
 1. 11. Tallard was the French marshal who commanded at 
 Blenheim. 
 
 Page 54, Jine 16. Victor Amadeus. See note to page 40, 
 line 15.
 
 NOTES 169 
 
 I 19. The Rutulians were a people of ancient Italy who 
 inhabited the coast of Latium. They were overcome by the 
 Trojans under Eneas. 
 
 1. 22. Empress Faustina was the daughter of Antoninus 
 Pius and the wife of Marcus Aurelius. She died 175 a.d. 
 
 Page 55, lines 14-16. Dante and Petrarch were world-re- 
 nowned poeta of Italy. Boccaccio was widely known as a poet 
 and novelist. Boiardo and Berni were somewhat obscure poets. 
 Lorenxo de' Medici was one of the greatest of the rulers of 
 Florence and raised that city to a great height of power and 
 opulence. He was the father of Pope Leo IX. and was himself 
 a poet. He was known as ''the Magnificent."' Machiavelli 
 was a Florentine of great ability and prominence, a contempo- 
 rary of Lorenzo. He is best known as the author of // Principe, 
 which has made his name a synonym of evil in politics. See 
 Macaulay^s essay on Ma-chiavelli. 
 
 1. 17. Ariosto was an Italian poet whose best-known work is 
 Orlando Furioso, which has for it^ subject the romantic history 
 of Charlemagne and his peers. 
 
 1. 18. Tasso was an Italian epic a"nd lyric poet. Ferrara 
 was the home of both Tasso and Ariosto. 
 
 1. 20. Valerius Flaccus was a Roman epic poet who flourished 
 in the reign of Vespasian. He wrote ArgonaiUica, which is a 
 poem on the adventures of the Argonauts. ' 
 
 1. 20. Sidonius ApoUinarius, (430-480), was a Latin poet 
 and ecclesiastic. 
 
 1. 21. Ticin. The river Ticinus which gave ite name to a 
 famous battle in the Second Punic TVar.
 
 170 NOTES 
 
 1. 23. Martial, Marcus Valerius, (40-104 [?]), was a Roman 
 poet and wit. About Jl 500 of his sliort poems are still extant. 
 
 1. 24. Santa Croce was a famous church of the Black Friars 
 in Florence. As a favorite place of interment for the Floren- 
 tines it has often been called the AVestminster Abbey of that city. 
 
 Page 56, line 1. Spectre Huntsman is the subject of a tale 
 in Boccaccio's Decameron. 
 
 1. 1. Francesca da Rimini lived at Rimini, and the house in 
 which she lived still stands. For her pathetic story, see Dante's 
 Infenio, Canto V. 
 
 1.7. VincenzioFilicaja, (1642-1707). The translation of one 
 of his sonnets U Italia was introduced by Byron into the fourth 
 canto of Childe Harold, which begins "Italia, 0, Italia 1 " It 
 is said of him that " he died deeply lamented by rich and poor 
 alike and beloved by God and man." 
 
 1. 16. Macaulay brings out very strikingly in this passage 
 Addison's devotion to classic literature and neglect of modern 
 Italian writers. The most of the classic authors enumerated are 
 of minor rank, while the Italian writers are world renowned. 
 
 1. 18. Opera of Rosamond was inscribed to the Duchess of 
 Marlborough. The scene was laid in Woodstock Park in the 
 reign of Henry II. 
 
 1. 25. Rowe, Nicholas, (1674-1718), was the author of a num- 
 ber of successful plays. He was made poet-laureate by George I. 
 
 Page 57, line 4. Dr. Arne, (1710-1778), was a celebrated 
 musical composer. He wrote the music for Milton's Comus, 
 and also for the well-known song, " Rule Britannia." 
 
 1. 19. The order of the garter was the most illustrious order
 
 NOTES 171 
 
 of English knighthood. It is supposed to have been founded by 
 Edward III. in 1344. The incident which led to its formation 
 is too well known to need repetition. Membership in the order 
 is restricted to the sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and such 
 other princes as may be chosen, and twenty-five regular 
 knights. Others may be admitted only by special statute. 
 
 1. 20. The Electoral Prince of Hanover, afterwards George 
 I. of England, was the great-grand§on, on his mother's side, of 
 James I. of England. 
 
 Page 58, line 5. • Harley, Kobert, Earl of Oxford, (1661-1724), 
 on his first entrance into Parliament was a radical Whig, but 
 gradually changed his view^s until he reached the opposite ex- 
 treme of Toryism. He was for a time a great favorite of Queen 
 Anne, and very powerful in political circles. He was, however, 
 regarded with suspicion by her successor, George I., and was 
 impeached of high treason, but was acquitted and afterwards 
 lived LQ retirement. He accumulated a large collection of 
 books and manuscripts, w^hich became known as the Harleian 
 collection. 
 
 1. 8. Duchess of Marlborough was an intimate friend of 
 Queen Anne, over whom she exerted a powerful influence. 
 
 1. 9. The Captain General. The Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 1. 15. Sacheverell, Henry, D.D., (1672-1724), was a pulpit 
 orator who denounced toleration to dissenters, attacked Low 
 Churchmen, and declared that the Church was in danger on 
 account of its leniency. He was impeached by the House of 
 Commons for these utterances, and was sentenced to three 
 years' suspension from preaching, and his offending sermons 
 were ordered burned by the common hangman. 
 
 1. 21. Wharton, Thomas, (1640-1715), was a Whig statesman,
 
 172 NOTES 
 
 who took a prominent part in opposition to Charles II., and was 
 one of the first to join the ranks of the Prince of Orange. He 
 held a number of important official positions, but was notorious 
 for his licentiousness. 
 
 Page 59, lines 16, 17. Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury ; Russell, 
 Duke of Bedford ; Bentinck, Duke of Portland. 
 
 1. 19. Chatham, Earl of, (William Pitt), (1708-1778), was 
 known as the Great Commoner. He was the leader of the 
 House of Commons, and held the positions of Secretary of 
 State, to which Macaulay refers, and Lord Privy Seal. The 
 student should read Macaulay 's essay on Chatham. 
 
 1. 19. Fox, Right Honorable Charles James, (1749-1806), was 
 a noted statesman and author. He was a Liberal leader, was 
 twice Secretary of State, and exerted a powerful influence in 
 shaping the policy of the government. He opposed the con- 
 tinental policy of Pitt, supported Wilberforce in his efforts to 
 secure the abolition of slavery, and was always broad and 
 progressive ui his political views. 
 
 Y. 25. Censorship of the Press. An aet licensing the publi- 
 cation of periodicals under certain restrictions had been passed 
 shortly after the Restoration, but had expired in 1679. There>» 
 after any person might print at his own risk anything he chose, 
 except that no man ha,d any right to print political news unless 
 authorized by the Crown. For a time this rule was violated, but 
 in the latter part of the reign of James II. no newspaper was 
 allowed to be printed without his permission ; and until Steele 
 and Addison began their publications political discussions were 
 generally avoided. In 1693 the licensing and censorship of 
 papers was forever abandoned. See Andrews' History of 
 British Journalism, Vol. I., p. 84.
 
 NOTES 173 
 
 Page 60, line 8. Conduct of the Allies was a political tract 
 written by Dean Swift in 1711. 
 
 1. 9. The Freeholder was a political periodical conducted by 
 Addison in support of the ministry,' from December 23, 1715, to 
 June 29, 1716. It included in all fifty-five numbers. In the 
 first number he says: "I shall, in the course of this paper, 
 endeavor to open the eyes of my countrymen to their own 
 interest, — to show them the privileges of an English freeholder, 
 which they enjoy in common with myself, and to make them 
 sensible how these blessings are secured to us by his majesty's 
 title, his administration, and his personal character." 
 
 11. 16, 17. Antrim and Aberdeen were counties m the extreme 
 northern part of Ireland and Scotland respectively. 
 
 Page 61 , line 3. Walpole, Sir Eobert, (1676-1745) , was Prime 
 Minister, and practically ruled England from 1721 to 1742. Eor 
 a most interesting discussion of his career, see McCarthy's Four 
 Georges, Vol. I. 
 
 1. 3. Pulteney, William, Earl of Bath, (1682-1764), was an 
 influential statesman and leader of the opposition party against 
 Walpole. He was the author of many political pamphlets. 
 
 1. 10. Grub Street, now known as Milton Street, was long 
 the residence of index-makers, translators, copyists, small 
 -^Titers, etc. Johnson says: "It was originally the name of 
 a street near Moorfields, much inhabited by authors of small 
 histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean 
 production is called Grub Street." 
 
 1. 14. The Craftsman was really edited by Bolingbroke, who 
 was assisted by Pulteney. This paper was made the medium 
 for bitter attacks upon Walpole, and was so popular that some- 
 times 10,000 to 12,000 copies were sold in a single day.
 
 174 NOTES 
 
 1. 19. St. John, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke, (1678-1751), 
 was a prominent Tory statesman. In the latter part of Anne's 
 reign he was Prime Minister, but became involved in schemes 
 to secure the return of the -Stuarts, for which he was attainted. 
 He fled to France in 1715, but was permitted to return to England 
 in 1724, but not to enter Parliament. He joined Pulteney in 
 his opposition to Walpole, and edited the Craftsman. 
 
 Page 63, line 5. Nemesis. From the Greek word v^fieiv, to 
 distribute or allot ; hence the divinity who allots to men, accord- 
 ing to their deserts, either good or evil fortune. In Greece, 
 however, this divinity came to be known as the avenger of evil 
 deeds. She avenged pride and chastised the wicked. 
 
 1. 13. Mary Montague, (1690-1762), was noted for the extern 
 of her knowledge, the brilliancy of her conversational powers, 
 the quickness of her wit, and the attractiveness of her person. 
 She was the author of a series of brilliant letters, some poems 
 and essays, and is noted as being the first to introduce inocula- 
 tion for smallpox into England. 
 
 1. 19. Stella was a Miss Esther Johnson, a lady of whom 
 Swift became enamoured, and it is generally supposed that he 
 was privately married to her. She was for many years his 
 friend and companion, but never appeared publicly as his wife. 
 The Journal to Stdla is made up of letters which were hastily 
 written to give pleasure to '* Stella" and a few of his friends in 
 Ireland. It is the most tender and pathetic of all his writings. 
 
 1. 21. Steele, Sir Richard, (1672-1729), was the friend and 
 associate of Addison. He was a brilliant writer, and was the 
 editor of the Tatter, which he established, as well as of several 
 other publications which succeeded it. 
 
 1. 24. Terence, (185-159 b.c), was a Roman slave, who 
 evinced so much talent that his master educated and finally
 
 NOTES 175 
 
 freed him. He became a writer of comedies, and enjoyed the 
 friendship of many of the best men in Rome. 
 
 Page 64, line 2. Young, Edward, (1681-1765), was the author 
 of Night Thoughts. 
 
 1. 19. Mr. Softly. A character in the Tatler. See Xo. 163. 
 
 Page 65, line 7. Covent Garden is a corruption of Convent 
 Garden^ so called because it was once the garden of Westminster 
 Abbey. It is a square in London famous for its fruit and flower 
 markets. 
 
 Page QQ, line 22. Boswell. James, (1740-1795), was a Scotch 
 lawyer who achieved fame by his servile devotion to Dr. John- 
 son and for the biography which he wrote, and which is com- 
 monly classed as the greatest work of the kind ever produced. 
 
 1. 23. Warburton, William, (1698-1779), was an eminent 
 English prelate. 
 
 1. 23. Hurd. Richard, D.D., (1720-1808), was the lifelong 
 friend of Bishop Warburton, whose biographer he was, He 
 also wrote numerous pamphlets in vindication of the views of 
 Warburton, who was a vigorous thinker and writer upon theo- 
 logical subjects. 
 
 Page 67, line 5. Budgell, Eustace, (168-5-1737), was a dis- 
 tant relative of Addison, and was largely dependent upon him 
 for his support. He had some ability as a writer, and cultivated 
 a style somewhat similar to that of his patron. He contributed 
 a number of papers to the Tatler and Spectator. 
 
 1. 22. Ambrose Philips, (1675-1749). Pope portrays him 
 as follows: 
 
 " The bard whom pilfered pastorals renown ; 
 Just writes to make his barrenness appear, 
 And strains from hard-bound brains eight lines a year."
 
 176 NOTES 
 
 Page 68, line 2. Thomas Tickell, (1686-1740). His only 
 well-known work is his " Elegy to Addison," of which Dr. John- 
 son declares that " there is not a more sublime or more eloquent 
 funeral poem to be found in the whole compass of English 
 literature. ' ' 
 
 1. 22. Spunging house was a house or tavern where people 
 who were arrested for debt were allowed to lodge twenty-four 
 hours before being taken to prison, in order to give their friends 
 an opportunity for settling the debt. 
 
 Page 69, line 21. Fielding, Henry, (1707-1754), was one of 
 the earliest of English novelists. His best-known works are : 
 The Adventures of Joseph Andrews^ Tom Jones, and Amelia. 
 
 Page 70, line 15. Bayle, Pierre, (1647-1706), was a celebrated 
 French philosopher and critic. His most important work was a 
 Historical and Critical Dictionary. 
 
 Page 72, line 16. Gerard Hamilton, (1729-1796). was known 
 as " Single Speech Hamilton," on account of a brilliant speech 
 which* he made in Parliament in 1755, and although he retained 
 his seat until his death he made only one more speech during his 
 whole career. 
 
 Page 73, line 20. Gazetteer was a person authorized by 
 government to publish news, and who was given some access to 
 official sources. Some one has said that his duties v^-ere to keep 
 the official newspaper very innocent and very insipid. 
 
 Page 75, line 1. Bickerstaff. '* This man, (John Partridge), 
 had for thii'ty years published prophetic almanacs of the kind 
 not yet w^hoUy extinct. Swift, under the pseudonym of Isaac 
 Bickerstaff, published Predictions for the Year 1708, which 
 were not vague like those of Partridge, but gave the exact dates 
 at which various interesting persons, among others Louis XIY.,
 
 NOTES 111 
 
 would die during that year. Bickerstaff declared himself a sin- 
 cere astrologer, bent on the exposure of such frauds as the Mer- 
 lins of the day. He prophesied, incidentally, that Partridge 
 would die on the 29th of March, at about eleven o'clock at 
 night. As soon as the date was past Swift issued another 
 pamphlet giving An Account of Partridge''s Death in very 
 pathetic terms. The poor astrologer hastened to assure the 
 world that he was still alive, upon which Swift promptly re- 
 proved him in a Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, (1709), and 
 in a black-letter, Jlei'lin^s Prophecy. Swift seems to have thrown 
 himself body and soul into this ludicrous and fantastic contro- 
 versy. ... It raged for two years, and Partridge was reduced 
 to despair ; he lived on, however, until 1715." — Edmund Gosse, 
 History of English Literature of the Eighteenth Century, page 
 151. 
 
 1.1-4. The Tatler. The first number of this paper was issued 
 April 12, 1709, and it continued to be published until January-, 
 1711. In all two hundred and seventy-one numbers were issued. 
 The division of its contents was announced by the editor as fol- 
 lows : "All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment 
 shall be under the article of White's Chocolate House ; Poetry 
 under that of Will's Coffee House ; Learning under the title of 
 Grecian ; foreign and domestic news you will have from St. 
 James' Coffee House ; and what else I shall on any other subject 
 ofier shall be dated from my own apartment. ' ' 
 
 Page 76, line 13. Temple, Sir William, (1628-1699), was an 
 eminent statesman and diplomatist, and was the author of 
 numerous essays and letters. Johnson says: "He* was the 
 first writer who gave cadence to English prose." 
 
 1. 17. Horace Walpole, (1717-1797), was the youngest son of 
 Robert Walpole, and was noted for his Letters.
 
 178 NOTES 
 
 1. 24, Menander, (342-291 b.c), was one of the greatest 
 masters of Greek comedy. Although he wrote more than one 
 hundred plays, not one has come down to us entire. Our whole 
 knowledge of his works, therefore, rests upon fragments and 
 quotations. 
 
 Page 77, line 1. Butler, Samuel, (1612-1080), was the author 
 of Hudihras^ a long, coarse, but witty poem in which the Puri- 
 tan is held up to ridicule, which frequently passes into indecency. 
 The general design is based upon that of Don Quixote. The 
 hero is a Presbyterian Justice of the Peace who, " in the confi- 
 dence of legal authority and the rage of zealous ignorance, 
 ranges the country to repress superstition and current abuses, 
 accompanied by an independent clerk, disputatious and obsti- 
 nate, with whom he often debates, but never conquers him." 
 
 1. 3. Sir Godfrey Kneller, (1648-1723), was a famous Ger- 
 man portrait painter, whose reputation seems to have exceetled 
 his ability. He was court painter to Charles II. , James II. , and 
 William. He also painted the portrait of Anne. 
 
 1. 17. Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, (1608-1674), was an 
 illustrious statesman and author. He was a prominent sup- 
 porter of Charles I., and was a companion of the young prince 
 in his exile. His most important literary work was the History 
 of the Behellion. Granger says of him : " He particularly ex- 
 cels in characters which, if drawn with precision and elegance, 
 are as difficult to the writers as they are agreeable to the readers 
 of history. He is in this particular as unrivalled among the 
 moderns as Tacitus among the ancients." 
 
 1. 21. Cervantes, (1547-1616), was the greatest of Spanish 
 authors. His most famous work was Don Quixote., which has 
 been translated into all the languages of Europe.
 
 NOTES 179 
 
 Page 78, line 9. Voltaire, (1694-1778), was a French poet, 
 dramatist, historian, and philosopher. 
 
 Page 79, line 8. Jack Pudding was a colloquial expression 
 denoting a coarse or vulgar person. Cynic was the name of a 
 school of Greek philosophy. It has become symbolical of an 
 ignorant and insolent self-righteousness. 
 
 1. 17. Abbe Coyer was a French Jesuit who devoted himself 
 to literature. 
 
 1.20. Arbuthnot, John, M.D., (1667-1735), was- a noted 
 physician and writer. Dr. Johnson, in speaking of the eminent 
 authors who flourished in Queen' Anne's reign, says : " I think 
 Dr. Arbuthnot the first man among them. He was the most 
 universal genius, being an excellent physician, a man of deep 
 learning, and a man of much humour. He joined with Pope, 
 Gray, Swift, and some others to form the Scribblers' Club, 
 whose object it was to ridicule all the false tastes in learning, 
 under the character of a man of capacity, who had dipped into 
 every art and science, but injudiciously in each. Among the 
 works produced by this club were : The First Book of Martinus 
 Scribblerus, by Arbuthnot ; GiLlUver''s Travels, by Swift ; and 
 the Art of Linking in Poetry, by Pope." 
 
 1. 25. The World, Connoisseur, etc., were contemporary 
 papers of low grade which the popularity of the Tatler and 
 Spectator called into existence. 
 
 Page 80, line 21. Mephistopheles was the name of a per- 
 sonification of the principle of evil, first appearing in the 
 popular books and puppet shows of the middle ages. Mephis- 
 topheles is the Satanic tempter of Faust in Goethe's Faust^ 
 and in Marlowe's drama of the same name, both of which the 
 student should read.
 
 180 NOTES 
 
 1. 22. Puck, an elf or sprite. See Midsiimmer Night's 
 Bream. 
 
 I. 22. Soame Jenyns, (1704-1787), was a poet and wit. chiefly 
 remembered for his View of the Internal Evidence of the 
 Christian Beligion. 
 
 II. 21, 22. Bettesworth, Franc de Pompignan, respectively 
 were- victims of the satire of Swift and Voltaire. 
 
 Page 82, line 8. Jeremy Collier, (1650-1726), was an English 
 bishop of great celebrity. In 1698 he published a Short Vieio of 
 the Immorality and Profanene$s of the English Stage, which was 
 an epoch-making book and effected a complete revolution in 
 public opinion regarding the stage. For a powerful picture of 
 the morals of the times, see the Essay on Milton, page 70. 
 
 1. 10. Etherege, Sir George, (1635-1691), and Wycherley, 
 William, (1640-1715), were both writers of immoral and licen- 
 tious dramas. 
 
 1. 17. Hale, Sir Matthew, (1609-1676), was an eminent 
 lawyer and writer. Cowper says of him : 
 
 *' Immortal Hale ! for deep discernment praised, 
 And sound integrity, not more than famed 
 For sanctity of manners undefiled." 
 
 — The Task, Bk. in. 
 
 1. 17. Tillotson. See sketch in Macaulay's Miscellaneous 
 
 1. 20. Vanbnigh, Sir John (1666-1726), was distinguished 
 both as an architect and a dramatic writer. His plays were 
 nearly all comedies. 
 
 Page 83, lines 8-11. These references are all to the Tatler, 
 and should be looked up.
 
 NOTES ' 181 
 
 " Tom Folio is a broker in learning, employed to get together 
 good editions and to stock the libraries of great men." — Tatler^ 
 No. 158. 
 
 "Ned Softly, a very pretty poet, and an admirer of easy 
 lines." — Taller, No. 163. 
 
 "Political Upholsterer, a great news-monger. "— Ta^er, 
 Nos. 155 and IGO. 
 
 Court of Honor. — Taller, Nos. 250, 253, 256, 259, 262, and 
 265. 
 
 Memoirs of a Shilling. — Taller, No. 249. 
 
 Frozen Words. — Taller, No. 254. 
 
 Thermometer of Zeal. — Taller, No. 220. 
 
 1. 14. The reference is possibly to Taller, No. 257! 
 
 1. 17. Smalridge, George, D.D., (1663-1719), was Dean of 
 Christ Church, and afterwards Bishop of Bristol. He was 
 noted as an eloquent preacher. 
 
 Page 84, line 5. Macaulay largely overestimates the value of 
 Addison's work on the Taller. Unprejudiced readers will find 
 there much from the pen of Steele which is nearly or quite as 
 good as much of that contributed by Addison. The Taller was 
 exceedingly popular throughout the entire series, yet Addison 
 contributed op.ly forty-two numbers, while Steele wrote one 
 hundred and eighty-eight, and thirty-six were written con- 
 jointly. 
 
 1. 12. By the Act of Settlement in 1689, Anne was recog- 
 nized as the legitimate successor of William of Orange, should 
 he outlive his wife, Mary, who was the eldest daughter of James 
 II. Anne was the second daughter of this king. After the 
 death of the mother of these princesses James married again,
 
 182 ♦ 2T0TF,S 
 
 and had a son, named James Francis Edward, who, upon the 
 death of his father, claimed the throne as liis by right. A Ithough 
 he had a strong following in England, his claim was not recognized, 
 and he was compelled to live in exile at the court of the king of 
 France, who became his champion. If the French had conquered 
 in the war of the Spanish Succession, they would undoubtedly 
 have attempted to seat the "Pretender" upon the English 
 throne. 
 
 1. 20. In 1820, and in 1831. The agitation in behalf of 
 Parliamentary reform. 
 
 Page 85, line 4. Versailles was a suburban village, eleven 
 miles from Paris, where Louis XIV. erected a magnificent 
 palace, which was used by the French kings as a residence 
 until 1792. It also contained one of the finest parks in the 
 world. 
 
 1. 5. Marli was located five miles north of Versailles, and 
 contained the country house and gardens of Louis XIV. 
 
 1. 6. St. James Palace was a residence of the British 
 sovereigns. 
 
 1. 15. White staff. The emblem of the office of Lord High 
 Treasurer. 
 
 Page 86, line 21. Walcheren was a small island off the shore 
 of the Netherlands. It is famous in military history for an 
 expedition undertaken by the British in 1809 against Antwerp. 
 The leaders were incompetent, necessary supplies were not 
 provided, and the expedition failed disastrously. Over 7,000 
 men lost their lives on this island. 
 
 Page 88, line 11. The Examiner. During the election 
 Addison contributed five numbers to this paper, which was 
 set up in opposition to a Tory paper of the same name.
 
 NOTES ' 183 
 
 Page 90, line 5. The Spectator was issued daily from March 
 1, 1711, until December 6, 1712, It consisted of five hundred 
 and fifty -five numbers, of which Addison wrote two hundred 
 and seventy-four, Steele two hundred and thirty-six, Hughea 
 nineteen, and Pope one. Eighty numbers were added in 1714. 
 
 Page 91, line 17. Richardson, Samuel, (1689-1761), was the 
 first of the modern English novelists. He worked as a printer 
 until he was fifty years of age. He then published Pamela, 
 and later Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison. He 
 has been called -'the inventor of the English novel." 
 
 1. 18. Smollett, Tobias George, (1721-1771), was the third 
 novelist of this epoch. Among his works are Boderick Ban- 
 dom and Humphrey Clinker. 
 
 Page 92, line 3. Mohawks, or Mohocks, were a class of 
 ruffians who at one time infested the streets of London. One 
 of their diversions was to roll hapless passers down Snow Hill 
 i:j. a tub ; another was to overturn coaches on rubbish heaps. 
 
 1. 5. The Distressed Mother was a tragedy written by Am- 
 brose Phillips, which was little more than a free translation of 
 Racine's Andromaque. It contained an epilogue written by 
 Addison. 
 
 1. 9. All these personages are characters in the Sir Roger 
 de Coverley Papers. 
 
 Page 93, line 10. nabob was originally the viceroy or gov- 
 ernor of a province in India. Later many of the nabobs be- 
 came independent mouarchs. 
 
 1. 14. Lucian, who lived in the second century a.d., was a 
 Greek wit, essayist, and satirist. 
 
 1. 16. Tales of Scheherazade : the Arabian Nights.
 
 184 NOTES 
 
 1. 18. La BruySre, Jean de, (1645-1696), was a distinguished 
 French writer and moralist. According to some critics he is 
 the greatest painter of manners and morals who has ever writ- 
 ten in French. 
 
 1. 24. Massillon, Jean Baptiste, (1663-1742), was a noted 
 French pulpit orator, whose sermons are models of artistic 
 beauty and are more largely concerned with morals and mo- 
 tives than with dogmas and doctrines. 
 
 Page 95, line 2. Chevy Chace was one of the most famous 
 of early English ballads. It takes for its subject matter an 
 affray between Lord Percy and the Douglas on the Scottish 
 border. 
 
 1. 8. Upon the imposition of the tax, which was a duty laid 
 upon newspapers, in the shape of a red stamp, the Spectator 
 doubled its price and said, "This is the day on which many 
 eminent writers will probably publish their last works. I am 
 afraid that few of our weekly historians, who are men that, 
 above others, delight in war, will be able to subsist under the 
 weight of a stamp and approaching peace." This act continued 
 in force for nearly a century and a half. 
 
 Page 96, line 13. The Guardian began to appear March 12, 
 1713, and ran through one hundred and seventy-six numbers, 
 the last appearing October 1, 1713. Steele wrote eighty-two 
 numbers, and other contributors were Addison, Berkeley, Pope, 
 Hughes, etc. It was during the publication of the Guardian 
 that Steele and Addison became finally estranged. 
 
 Macaulay in his zeal for Addison has probably drawn the 
 contrast far too strongly. It will be interesting to read in this 
 connection Johnson's summary of the relations existing be- 
 tween these two distinguished men :
 
 NO TES 185 
 
 "At the school of the Chartreux, to which he (Addison) 
 was removed, he pursued his juvenile studies under the care 
 of Dr. Ellis, and contracted that intimacy with Sir Richard 
 Steele which their joint labors have so effectually recorded. 
 
 "Of this memorable friendship the greater praise must be 
 ::iven to Steele. It is not hard to love those from whom noth- 
 ing can be feared ; and Addison never considered Steele as a 
 rival ; but Steele lived, as he confesses, under an habitual 
 subjection to the predominating genius of Addison, whom he 
 always mentioned with reverence and treated with obsequi- 
 oiLsness. 
 
 "Addison, who knew his own dignity, could not always for- 
 bear to show it by playing a little upon his admirer ; but he was 
 in no danger of retort ; his jests were endured without resist- 
 ance or resentment. But the sneer of jocularity was not the 
 worst. Steele, whose imprudence of generosity, or vanity of 
 profusion, kept him always incurably necessitous, upon some 
 pressing exigence, in an evil hour borrowed a hundred pounds 
 of his friend, probably without much purpose of repayment, 
 but Addison, who seems to have had other notions of a hun- 
 dred pounds, grew impatient of delay, and reclaimed his loan 
 by an execution. Steele felt with great sensibility the ob- 
 duracy of his creditor, but with emotions of sorrow rather 
 than of anger.'' 
 
 The following passage from the "Dedication of the Drum- 
 mer," written by Steele, is also significant : 
 
 "All the papers marked with a C, L., I., or 0., that is to 
 say, all the papers which I have distinguished by any letter in 
 the name of the muse Clio, were given me by the gentleman 
 of whose assistance I formerly boasted in the preface and con- 
 cluding leaf of the Tatler. I am much more proud of his 
 long-continued friendship than I should be of the fame of
 
 186 NOTES 
 
 being thought the author of any writings of which he himself 
 is capable of producing." 
 
 Page 97, line 3. Cato. Tickell says : " He took up a design 
 of writing a play upon this subject when he was at the uni- 
 versity, and even attempted something in it then, though not a 
 line as it now stands. The work was performed by him in his 
 travels, and retouched in England, without any formed de- 
 sign of bringing it out upon the stage." 
 
 Page 98, line 1. Macready, William Charles, (1793-1873), 
 was one of the last great Shakespearian actors, and was ranked 
 as one of the most illustrious of his profession. 
 
 1. 3. Cato, Sempronius, Juba, and Marcia were all historic 
 characters. 
 
 1. 7. Booth, Barton, (1681-1733), was a prominent actor, a 
 good classical schcrtar, and a poet of some renown. 
 
 1. 11. Sir Gilbert Heathcote was a wealthy merchant and a 
 stanch Whig. 
 
 Page 99, line 12. Sir Gibby refers to Heathcote. 
 
 1. 24. Garth, Sir Samuel, (1660-1719), was a poet and phy- 
 sician. He was a. prominent member of the Kit Cat Club. 
 
 Page 100, line 11. Dictator. Marlborough was at that time 
 suspected of an ambitious aim to obtain the post of general-in- 
 chief for life. 
 
 1. 22. the Act at Oxford. In English universities an act is 
 an exercise, such as the thesis publicly maintained, performed 
 by a student before he receives a degree. Here reference is 
 made to the time at which the theses were discussed and the 
 degrees were given, corresponding, to some extent, to our Com- 
 mencement season. (See Murray'' s Dictionary^ under " Act.")
 
 NOTES 187 
 
 ' Page 101, line 8. Schiller, (1759-1806), was a German his- 
 torian, dramatist, and poet. Among his greatest works are a 
 History of the Thirty Years'' War, WallenitUn, Marie Stuart, 
 William Tell, and the Jlaid of Orleans. Next to Goethe, he 
 ranks as Germany's greatest poet. 
 
 11. 11-12. Athalie, by Racine. Saul, by Alfieri, an Italian 
 jjoet. Cinna, by Corneilie, a French dramatist. 
 
 1. 25. John Dennis, (1657-1734), was a dramatic and polit- 
 ical writer and critic. He criticised Pope's Essay on Criticism, 
 but not as severely as the Cato. In return Pope held him up 
 to ridicule in the Dunciad. However much Macaulay may 
 have exaggerated Pope's failings, he certainly did not possess 
 Addison's gentle and forgiving spirit. 
 
 Page 104, line 1. the lampoon on Atticus was first printed 
 in 1723, then included by Pope in his Miscellanies in 1727, and 
 finally, after undergoing revision, was engrafted into the Epis- 
 tle to Arbuthnot, and published in 1735. In its first printed 
 form it was as follows : 
 
 " If Dennis writes and rails in furious pet, 
 
 I'll answer D when I am in debt. 
 
 If meager Gildon draws his meager quill, 
 I wish the man a dinner and sit still. 
 But should there one whose better stars conspire 
 To form a bard and raise a genius higher, 
 Blest with each talent and each art to please, 
 And born to live, converse, and write with ease ; 
 Should such a one, resolved to reign alone, 
 Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne, 
 View him with jealous, yet with scornful eyes; 
 Hate him for arts that caused himself to rise, 
 Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 
 And without sneer teach the rest to sneer,
 
 188 NOTES 
 
 Alike reserved to blame or to commend, 
 A timorous foe and a suspicious friend, 
 Fearing ev'n fools, by flatterers besieged, 
 And so obliging tbat he ne'er obliged ; 
 Willing to wound, yet afraid to strike, 
 Just hit the fault and hesitate dislike. 
 Who, when two wits on rival themes contest, 
 Approves of both, but likes the w^orse the best: 
 Like Cato gives his little senate laws, 
 And sits attentive to his own applause ; 
 While wits and templars every sentence raise, 
 And wonder with a foolish face of praise. 
 Who would not laugh if such a man there be? 
 Who would not laugh if Atticus w^ere he? " 
 
 1. 1. Sporus. In Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arhuthnot this 
 name was used for Lord John Hervey, the son of the Earl of 
 Bristol, to whom Pope made several slighting allusions in his 
 Miscellanies and the Danciad, for what reason is not knovm. 
 In 1734 appeared the Imitation of the First Book of Horace, 
 where Lord Henry was twice attacked under the sobriquet of 
 "Lord Fanny," and his friend Lady Mary Wortley Montague 
 was still more scandalously aspersed. The Character of Sporus 
 followed soon after, and he was again attacked in a subsequent 
 work. 
 
 1. 11. peripetia : the sudden disclosure of circumstances 
 upon which the plot of the play hinges. 
 
 Page 106, line 3. The Englishman was a continuation of 
 the Guardian. It was published through fifty-seven numbers, 
 and was mainly political. Steele was expelled from the House 
 on account of certain "scandalous and seditious libels" which 
 were published in this paper.
 
 NOTES 189 
 
 Page 108, line 4. Sir James Mackintosh, (1765-1832), was 
 one of the most distinguished of modern philosophers. 
 
 1. 20. Lord John Russell, (1792-1878), was an influential 
 Whig statesman. He was prime minister from 184G to 1852, 
 and again from 1865 to 1806. 
 
 1. 20. Sir Robert Peel, (1788-1850), was one of the leading 
 statesmen of the present century, first a Tory axid then a Whig. 
 He was prime minister from 1841 to 1846. 
 
 1. 20. Lord Palmerston, (1784-1865), was another prominent 
 statesman of the Liberal party. He was prime minister from 
 1855 to 1858, and again from 1859 to 1865. These three men 
 were among the most noted figures in the political world in 
 Macaulay's time. 
 
 Page 109, line 14. Sunderland, Charles Spencer, third Earl 
 of, (1674-1722), was highly honored by George I., who made 
 him successively Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Privy Seal, 
 and Prime Minister. 
 
 Page 110, line 17. the Tale of a Tub is a powerful satire on 
 the superstitions, fanaticism, and abuses of the times. It proved 
 a serious hindrance to its author's advancement in both religious 
 and political circles. 
 
 Page 111, lines 12-15. 
 
 " And let us in the tumult of the fray 
 Avoid each other's spears, for there will he 
 Of Trojans and their renowned 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 and I 
 Canst overcome." 
 
 Iliad, VI., 226-229. Bryant's Trans.
 
 190 NOTES 
 
 Page 113, line 6. the Board of Trade in England is a branch 
 of the government which deals with commerce and statistics. 
 
 1. 17. the Rebellion was a rising of the Jacobites, under the 
 leadership of the Earl of Mar, who was defeated and the insur- 
 rection was put down by the Duke of Argyle. 
 
 1. 18. The Freeholder was first issued in 1715, and continued 
 through fifty-five numbers to June, 1716. This paper was de- 
 voted almost exclusively to the discussion of political questions. 
 
 Page 115, line 2. Town Talk ran from December 17, 1714, , 
 to February 13, 1716. The Reader appeared in 1714, but only 
 nine numbers were issued. The Letter to a Bailiff was pub- 
 lished in 1713, and the Crisis in 1714. It is hardly necessary 
 to call attention to Macaulay's spirit of partisanship as dis- 
 played in this sentence. 
 
 1. 19. Rosicrucians were a secret society reported to 
 have been founded in the fourteenth century by Christian 
 Kosenkreuz, who had resided for many years among Arabian 
 and Egyptian magicians. Wonderful stories are told about the 
 magical deeds wrought by the Rosicrucians and the strange 
 spirits who did their bidding, some of whom are named in the 
 text. It seems to be quite certain, however, that no such 
 society ever existed and that the whole story was simply a 
 satire. 
 
 Page 116, line 23. Akenside, Mark, (1721-1770), was a 
 physician and poet. Bucke says of the poem referred to, "he 
 has united the grace of Vergil, the colouring of Milton, the 
 incidental expression of Shakespeare, to paint the finest feat- 
 ures of the human mind and the most lovely forms of morality 
 and religion."
 
 NOTES 191 
 
 Page 117, line 10. Herder, Johann Gottfried, (1744-1803), 
 was one of the founders of modern German literature. He 
 was Goethe's friend and teacher. 
 
 1. 10. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, (1749-1832), was the great- 
 est of German poets and authors. Among his works are : Wil- 
 hebn Meister, Faust, Hermann and Dorothea, and Tasso. 
 
 1. 11. Hume. David, (1711-1776), was the most noted of 
 modern skeptical philosophers, and a distinguished essayist and 
 historian. 
 
 Page 122, lines 1-2. The Satirist and the Age were low- 
 lived publications of that day. 
 
 1. 13. In an epistle to the Earl of Burlington, published in 
 1731, and entitled, Of the Use of Biches, he gave a description 
 of Simon's Villa, designed to illustrate the false taste of mag- 
 nificence, in which he was accused of attacking a benefactor by 
 ridiculing the house, grounds, and ostentatious hospitality of the 
 Duke of Chandos. 
 
 1. 15. Aaron Hill was a dramatic waiter of some celebrity, 
 though without much merit. In the treatise on Bathos Pope 
 classed him with the geniuses called "Flying Fishes, who now 
 and then rise on their fins and fly out of the profound : but their 
 wings are soon dry and they drop down to the bottom." 
 
 1. 17. Lady Mary Wortley Montague was sarcastically 
 alluded to in the Dunciad, Bk. II., 1. 135. 
 
 Page 123, line 8. gross perfidy to Bolingbroke. Pope is 
 accused of a serious breach of trust in this case, in printing 
 certain letters of Bolingbroke 's. 
 
 Page 124, line 12. Earl of Warwick was the son of the 
 Countess of Warwick, whom Addison afterwards married.
 
 192 NOTES 
 
 Page 125, line 18. Sir Peter Teazle and Joseph Surface are 
 characters in Sheridan's School for Scandal. 
 
 Page 126, line 24. The Countess Dowager was the head of 
 the house which was descended from the famous Richard 
 Neville, Earl of Warwick, who made and deposed kings during 
 the Wars of the Roses. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Middleton. 
 
 Page 127, line 2, Holland House is a picturesque Elizabethan 
 mansion near London. It was built in 1607 and descended to 
 Henry Rich, first Earl of Holland, for whom it was named. 
 For nearly two centuries and a half it was the favorite resort of 
 wits and beauties, of painters and poets, of scholars, philoso- 
 phers, and statesmen. 
 
 1. 4. Nell Gwynn was an actress, born in London about 
 1650. She was a favorite of Charles II. 
 
 Page 128, line 6. Lycidas. The reference is to Milton's 
 memorial poem, which was written upon the death of his friend, 
 Edward Iving, who was drowned in St. George's Channel, in 
 1637. 
 
 1. 16. William Somerville, (1675-1742), made his literary 
 reputation by a long poem entitled llie Chase. 
 
 Page 130, line 9. Joseph Hume, (1777-1855), was a political 
 reformer, who, as a member of Parliament, sought to check 
 unnecessary expenditures, and to secure the passage of measures 
 favorable to the working classes. 
 
 Page 131, line 11. House of Rich. Holland House was so 
 called because the family name of its founder was Rich. Many 
 anecdotes are on record relating to Addison's tavern resorts 
 when Holland House was rendered disagreeable by the haughty
 
 NOTES 193 
 
 caprices of his aristocratic bride. Wlien he had suffered any 
 vexation from her he would propose to withdraw the club from 
 Button's, who had been a servant in the countess's family. 
 
 Page 134, line 4. The Plebeian. 1. 7. The Old Whig. In 
 1718 a bill was introduced into Parliament proposing to tix the 
 number of peers, and restraining the king from any new creation 
 of nobility. This bill was the cause of much acrimonious dis- 
 cussion, in the course of which Steele attacked it bitterly in a 
 pamphlet called The Plebeian, which was answered in a pam- 
 phlet called the Old Whig, by Addison. Steele replied in a 
 second Plebeian, which was followed by another Old miig. In 
 all there were four issues of the former and two of the latter. 
 
 Page 135, line 2. "Little Dicky." This matter is referred 
 to by Macaulay in a letter written to the editor of the Edinburgh 
 Peview, July 22, 1843, as follows: 
 
 " I hear generally favorable opinions about my article. I am 
 much pleased with one thing: You may remember how con- 
 fidently I asserted that ' little Dicky ' in the Old Wliig was the 
 nickname of some comic actor. Several people thought I risked 
 too much in assuming this so strongly on mere internal evidence. 
 I have now, by an odd accident, found out who the actor was. 
 An old prompter in Drury Lane Theatre, named Chetwood, 
 published, in 1749, a small volume containing an account of all 
 the famous performers whom he remembers, arranged in alpha- 
 betical order. This little volume I picked up yesterday, for a 
 sixpence, at a bookstore in Holborn, and the first name on wfiich 
 I opened was that of Henry Xorris, a favorite comedian, who 
 was nicknamed ' Dicky,' because he first obtained celebrity by 
 acting the part of 'Dicky' in the Trip to the Jubilee. ... I 
 am a little vain of my sagacity, which I really think would have 
 dubbed me a '-vir clarissimus^ if it had been shown in a point 
 o
 
 194 NOTES 
 
 of Greek or Latin learning ; but I am still more pleased that the 
 vindication of Addison from an unjust charge, which has been 
 universally believed since the publication of the Lives of the 
 Foets, should thus be complete. Should you have any objection 
 to inserting a short note at the end of the next number ? Ten 
 lines would suffice, and the matter is really interesting to all 
 lovers of literary history." 
 
 The note was inserted in the Edinburgh Beview, Vol. CLVIII., 
 Ch. VIII., 550, as follows : 
 
 " In our review of Miss Aiken's Life of Addison we remarked 
 that the 'little Dicky' mentioned in the Old Whig could not 
 possibly be Sir Kichard Steele. We expressed our opinion that, 
 in all probability, ' little Dicky ' was the nickname of some 
 comic actor who played the part of Gomez in Dryden's Spanish 
 Friar. 
 
 " We have since ascertained that our conjecture was correct. 
 The performer to whom Addison alluded was Henry Norris, a 
 man of remarkably small stature, but of great native humour, 
 whose strength lay in such characters as that of Gomez. Norris 
 had greatly distinguished himself by his ludicrous performance 
 of the part of Dicky, the serving man, in Farquhar''s Trip to the 
 Jubilee, and had thus earned the nickname of 'little Dicky.' 
 He was at the height of his popularity in the year 1719, when 
 the Old Whig appeared. An account of him will be found in 
 the General History of the Stage, published about a century 
 ago by one Chetwood, who had been, during twenty years, 
 prompter at Drury Lane Theatre." 
 
 1. 10. The Duenna was a play written by Sheridan and first 
 produced in 1775. 
 
 Page 137, line 5. Gay, John, (1685-1732), was a poet and
 
 NOTES 195 
 
 play- writer. He had considerable merit as a poet, but as a man 
 was indolent and irresolute, though amiable. 
 
 Page 139, line 20. Jerusalem Chamber was an apartment in 
 the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, where Henry IV. is said to 
 have been buried. It derived its name from the fact that it was 
 hung with tapestries representing the history of Jerusalem, 
 
 1. 21. the Abbey. "Westminster Abbey, as it now exists, 
 was rebuilt on the site of an older abbey, built by Edward the 
 Confessor in 1245, by Henry III. It is shaped like a cros.s and 
 contains, besides nave, choir, and transepts, twelve chapels, of 
 which ten are nearly filled with monumental tombs. Seventeen 
 English kings and ten queens lie within the Abbey amid states- 
 men, poets, divines, scholars, and artists. Dean Stanley says : 
 ''The Abbey of "Westminster owes its traditions and its present 
 name, revered in the bosoms of the people of England, to the 
 fact that the early English kings were interred within its walls 
 and that through its associations the Norman rulers learnt to 
 forget their foreign paternity and to unite in fellowship and 
 affection with their vSaxon fellow-citizens. There is no other 
 church in the world, except, perhaps, the Kremlin in Moscow, 
 with which royalty is so intimately associated."
 
 INDEX TO. NOTES 
 
 Aaron Hill, 191. 
 
 Abbe Coyer, 179, 
 
 Abbey, The, 195. 
 
 Aberdeen, 173. 
 
 Absalom and Ahitophel, 159. 
 
 Academy, The, 158. 
 
 Act at Oxford, 186. 
 
 Act of Settlement, 167, 181. 
 
 " After his bees," 155. 
 
 Agbarus, 150. 
 
 Age, 191. 
 
 Ambrose Phillips, 175. 
 
 Antrim, 17.3. 
 
 Ariosto, 169. 
 
 Athalie, 187. 
 
 Atticus, 149. ' 
 
 Ausonius, 148. 
 
 Barometer, Lines on, 151. 
 Bayle, 176. 
 Bentinck, 172. 
 Bentley, 150. 
 Berni, 169. 
 Bettesworth, 180. 
 Bickerstaff, 176. 
 Biographia Britannica, 145. 
 
 Blackmore, 150. 
 
 Blair, Dr., 145. 
 
 Blenheim, 167. 
 
 Blois, 157. 
 
 Board of Trade, 190. 
 
 Boccaccio, 169. 
 
 Boiardo, 169. 
 
 Boileau, 157. 
 
 Book of Gold, 162. 
 
 Booth, 186. 
 
 Boswell, 175. 
 
 '' Both the great chiefs of the 
 
 ministry," 156. 
 Bowling Green, Lines on, 151. 
 Bourne, Vincent, 160. 
 Boyle, 150. 
 Boyne River, 168. 
 Bradamante, 144. 
 Brunell, 154. 
 Buchanan, George, 148. 
 Budgell, 175. 
 Butler, 178. 
 Button's, 145, 152. 
 
 Callimachus, 149. 
 Canning, Mr., 166. 
 197
 
 108 
 
 INDEX TO NOTES 
 
 Capreae, 163. 
 
 Captain General Marlborough, 
 
 165. 
 Cato, 186. 
 Catullus, U7. 
 
 Censorship of the Press, 172. 
 Cervantes, 178. 
 Chancellor, His, 147. 
 Charter House, 146. 
 Chatham, 172. 
 Chevy Chace, 184. 
 Childs, 152. 
 Cinna, 187. 
 Clarendpn, 178. 
 Claudian, 147. 
 Cock-Lane Ghost, 149. 
 Coffee-Houses, 151. 
 Conduct of the Allies, 173. 
 Congreve, 144, 152. 
 Connoisseur, The, 179. 
 Countess Dowager, 192. 
 Court of Honor, 181. 
 Cowper, William, 166. 
 Craftsman, The, 173. 
 Crisis, The, 190. 
 
 Dacier, 156. 
 
 Dante, 169. 
 
 Dauphin, 161. 
 
 Demies, 147. 
 
 Dictator, 186. 
 
 Dissenters, 165. 
 
 Dissertation on the Epistles of 
 
 Phalaris, 151. 
 Distressed Mother, The, 183. 
 
 Dr. Arne, 170. 
 
 Dorset, 155. 
 
 Dryden, 152. 
 
 Duchess of Marlborough, 171. 
 
 Duenna, The, 194. 
 
 Duke, 154. 
 
 Duke of Shrewsbury, 164. 
 
 Dunkirk, 146. 
 
 Earl of Nottingham, 166. 
 Electoral Prince of Hanover, 171. 
 Elegiacs, 160. 
 Empress Faustina, 169. 
 Euglisliman, The, 188. • 
 
 Epistles of Phalaris, 151. 
 Erasmus, 159. 
 Etherege, 180. 
 Examiner, The, 182. 
 
 Faithless Ruler of Savoy, 165. 
 
 Ferrara, 169. 
 
 Fielding, 176. 
 
 Fiercer Conflict, 164. 
 
 Fox, 172. 
 
 Fracastorius, 159. 
 
 Francesca da Rimini, 170. 
 
 Franchises, 144. 
 
 Freeholder, The, 163, 173, 190. 
 
 Frozen Words, 181. 
 
 Garraway's, 152. 
 
 Garth, 186. 
 
 Gay, 194. 
 
 Gazetteer, 176. 
 
 Genoa, 162. 
 
 Gerano-Pygmseomachia, 160.
 
 INDEX TO NOTES 
 
 199 
 
 Gilbert Heatlicote, Sir, 18G. 
 
 Godfrey Kueller, Sir, 178. 
 
 Godolphin, Kio. 
 
 Goethe, 191. 
 
 Grand Alliance, 165. 
 
 Granville, 155. 
 
 Gray, Thomas, 160. 
 
 Grecian, The, 152. 
 
 Gross Perfidy to Bolingbroke, 191. 
 
 Grub Street, 173. 
 
 Guardian, 181. 
 
 Hale, 180. 
 
 Halifax, 166. 
 
 Hampton Court, 145. 
 
 Harley, 171. 
 
 Herder, 191. 
 
 Heroic Couplet, 153. 
 
 Hobbes, 158. 
 
 Holland House, 192. 
 
 Holy Week, 163. 
 
 Hoole, 154. 
 
 Horace AValpole, 177. 
 
 Horace, 149. 
 
 "Hot and sickly months," 164. 
 
 House of Rich, 192. 
 
 Hume, 191. 
 
 Hurd, 175. 
 
 Hymn, 161. 
 
 Infanta, 146. 
 
 Ireland's Vortigern, 150. 
 
 Italicus, Silius, 148. 
 
 Jack Pudding, 179. 
 Jacobitism, 163. 
 
 ' James Mcintosh, Sir, 189. 
 
 ; Jeremy Collier, 180. 
 
 ' Jerusalem Chamber, 195. 
 
 John Dennis, 187. 
 
 John Philips, 168. 
 
 John Russell, Lord, 189. 
 
 Johnson's, Dr., tragedy, 145. 
 
 Jonathan's, 152. 
 
 Jonson, Ben, 153. 
 
 Joseph Hume, 192. 
 
 Joseph Surface, 192. 
 
 Juba, 186. 
 
 Juvenal, 149. 
 
 • 
 
 Kit Cat Club, 156. 
 Knight, 144. 
 
 La Bruyere, 184. 
 Lake Benacus, 162. 
 Lampoon on Atticus, 187. 
 Laputan Flapper, 144. 
 Lessing, 159. 
 Letter to a Bailiff, 190. 
 Lifeguardsman Sha-^, 167. 
 Little Dicky, 193. 
 lA\j, 148. 
 Lord Eldon, 166. 
 Lorenzo de' Medici, 169. 
 Lucan, 149. 
 Luc i an, 183. 
 Lucretius, 147. 
 Lycidas, 192. 
 
 Machiavelli, 169. 
 Machinse-Gesticulantes, 160.
 
 200 
 
 INDEX TO NOTES 
 
 Macready, 186. 
 
 Magdalene College, 147. 
 
 Malbranche, 157. 
 
 Mamelukes, 167. 
 
 Marcia, 186. 
 
 Marli, 182. 
 
 Martial, 170. 
 
 Marvel, 153. 
 
 Mary Wortley Montague, 174, 191. 
 
 Massillon, 184. 
 
 Memoirs of a Shilling, 181. 
 
 Menander, 178. 
 
 Mephistopheles, 179. 
 
 Metam(wphoses, 148. 
 
 Mohawks, 183. 
 
 Mont Cenis, 165. 
 
 Montague, Charles, 152. 
 
 Musewm, 164. 
 
 Nabob, 183. 
 Ned Softly, 181. 
 Nell Gvvynn, 192. 
 Nemesis, 174. 
 Newdigate prize, 153. 
 Newmarket, 167. 
 Newton, 157. 
 
 October Club, The, 152. 
 Oldham, 153. 
 Old Whig, 193. 
 Opera of Rosamond, 170^ 
 Order of the Garter, 170. 
 
 Paestum, 163. 
 Palmerston, Lord, 189. 
 Pantheon, 162. 
 
 Papist, A, 147. 
 Parnell, Thomas, 145. 
 Peace of Ryswick, 156. 
 Pentheus, 148. 
 Pere Fraguier, 160. 
 Peripetia, 188. 
 Peter Teazle, Sir, 192. 
 Petrarch, 169. 
 Philip v., 163. 
 Pindar, 149. 
 Plebeian, The, 193. 
 Plutarch, 149. 
 Political Upholsterer, 181. 
 Pollio, 159. 
 Polybius, 148. 
 Posilipo, 163. 
 President, A, 147. 
 Prior, Matthew, 144, 156. 
 Prince Eugene, 164. 
 Prudentius, 148. 
 Puck, 180. 
 Pulteney, 173. 
 
 Queen's College, 146. 
 
 Racine, 156. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 144. 
 Rasselas, 155. 
 Reader, The, 190. 
 Rebellion, The, 190. 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 158. 
 Richardson, 183. 
 Robert Peel, Sir, 189. 
 Robertson, 159. 
 Rochester, 153,
 
 INDEX TO NOTES 
 
 201 
 
 Rusicrucians, 190. 
 Rowe, 170. 
 Rutuliaus, The, 169. 
 
 Sacheverell, 171. 
 
 St. James', 152. 
 
 St. James Palace, 182. 
 
 St. John, 174. 
 
 St. Peter's, 162. 
 
 Salvator Rosa, 1G3. 
 
 San Marino, 162. 
 
 Santa Croce, 170. 
 
 Satirist, 191. 
 
 Saul, 187. 
 
 Schiller, 187. 
 
 Seatonian Prize, 153. 
 
 Sempronius, 186. 
 
 Seymour, Charles, 155. 
 
 Sidonius Apollinarius, 169. 
 
 Similitude of the Angel, 167. 
 
 Sir Gibby, 186. 
 
 Smalridge, 181. 
 
 Smollett, 183. 
 
 Soame Jenyns, 180. 
 
 Softly, Mr,", 175. 
 
 Somers, 15.^, 166. 
 
 Spectator, 160, 183. 
 
 Spectre Huntsman, 170. 
 
 Splendid Shilling, The, 168, 
 
 Sporus, 188. 
 
 Spunging House, 176. 
 
 States-General, 161. 
 
 Statius. 148. 
 
 Steele, 174. 
 
 Steenkirks, 144. 
 
 Stella, 174. 
 Stepney, 154. 
 Sunderland, 166, 189. 
 
 Talbot, 155, 172. 
 Tale of a Tub, 189. 
 Tales of Scheherazade, 183. 
 Tallard, 168, 
 Tangier, 146. 
 Tasso, 154, 162, 169. 
 Tatler, The, 177, 181. 
 Tax on Newspapers, 184. 
 Temple, 177, 
 Terence, 174. 
 Theobald's, 144, 
 Theocritus, 148, 
 Thermometer of Zeal, 181. 
 Thomas Tickell, 176. 
 Thrale, Mrs., 158. 
 Thundering Legion, 150. 
 Ticin, 169. 
 Tillotson, 146, 180. 
 Toast, A, 156. 
 Tom Folio, 181. 
 Tomb of Misenus, 164. 
 Torj' Fox-hunter, 163. 
 Town Talk, 190. 
 
 Vatican, 164. 
 Versailles, 182. 
 Vico, 163, 
 
 Victor Amadeus, 165. 
 Vincenzio Filicaja, 170, 
 Voltaire, 179,
 
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