At length arrived at the highest honours of the State : The charm and ornament of Britain. Joseph Addison was born on the first of May, so weak and delicate that he was not expected to live, at Milston, near Ambrosbury in Wilts, of which place, his father, Dr. Launcelot Addison, was rector. Addison, the father, enjoyed other preferments in the church; he was one of the chaplains to Charles II. a prebendary in Salisbury Cathedral, and dean of Litchfield as an author he was also known, by a History of the Jews, and a Life of Mahomet. Removed, after the common course of domestic tuition, first to a school at Ambrosbury, then at Salisbury, and lastly, to the Charter House in London, Joseph Addison there began to cement that friendship with Sir Richard Steele, which was to conduce so shortly after, and so highly, to the improvement of English literature. Entering Queen's College, Oxford, at his fifteenth year, he took the degree of A.M. in 1693, and distinguished himself particularly while at this university by his compositions in Latin verse, of which the happiest efforts are to be found in the Musæ Anglicanæ. It was about his 22d year that he became acquainted with Dryden, and made his maiden effort in English poetry, in the form of a copy of verses, addressed to that immortal bard. Soon after, he made an attempt at criticism, and prefixed an anonymous discourse on Virgil's Georgics to Dryden's translation. He was next introduced, by Congreve, to Montague, Earl of Halifax, at that time Chancellor of the Exchequer and was patronized, in consequence of a poetical tribute, by the celebrated Lord Somers. Through that peer's influence he obtained a pension of 300l. a year, which enabled him to set out on his travels through Italy, where, according to his biographer, Tickell, he wrote his Dialogue upon Medals,-a treatise at once classical, delightful, and instructive,--and the four first acts of his tragedy of Cato. Returning from abroad in 1702, he dedicated a classical account of his travels to Lord Somers, though that nobleman and his party were then out of power, and the pension granted under them had ceased;-circumstances which, though they left him without any immediate prospect of advancing his fortune, gave him full leisure, which he does not seem to have neglected, of still farther cultivating his studies. Addison, however, had the singular felicity of always turning his poetical talents to a valuable account, and of having never been long neglected by men of merit and power. Lord Godolphin now invited him to celebrate the victory of Blenheim; and immediately appointed him, as a reward for his poem upon that subject, to be a Commissioner of Appeals, vacant by the death of Mr. Locke. He continued to rise in ministerial favour, and was chosen, two years afterwards, Under Secretary of State for the home department. From this post he was soon afterwards advanced to that of Secretary of State for Ireland, when the Marquis of Wharton was viceroy, where he was made Keeper of the records in Birmingham's Tower at an encreased salary of 300l. a year. It may be as well to mention here, before resuming the story of his literary productions, that the last and highest situation he filled under government, was in 1717, when after having been a Lord of Trade, he was created one of the principal Secretaries of State. The appointment, however, neither gave that satisfaction to his political friends, or his own conscience, which was naturally expected from a man, who, like Addison, had risen with all the gradual experience of state business, which promotion can confer; and who was, unquestionably, a man of the highest mental powers and acquirements. His personal admirers vindicated this failure, by claiming for him a purer honour, in asserting that the delicacies of classical study had so generously tempered his mind, that it could not be broken to those rude and undigested labours, which the hurry and complexity of public business render unavoidable. A stronger reason for his retirement, upon a pension of 15007. a year, perhaps was, that being altogether unused to public speaking, he could not summon resolution enough to harangue the House of Commons,—an admirable talent, without which no minister can ever be held of popular value in a representative government. Of Addison's poems, that one most known to the public is the Campaign, inscribed in 1704, to the first duke of Marlborough, upon the victory of Blenheim. One passage in it, the comparison of his Grace to a descending angel, is very well known, and has been as highly praised, as it is distantly drawn; for the rest, though certainly not deserving Warton's caustic definition of a Gazette in Rhyme, the Campaign is assuredly but a poor perfor mance, entitled to little commendation, and less reward. The poem most favoured by the critics, is the Epistle, equable and correct, addressed from Italy to Montague, earl of Halifax, in 1701*; but perhaps the one best liked by the few who now read Addison's verses, is the letter written, about the year 1716, to Sir Godfrey Kneller, upon his portrait of George I. There is an ease in the versification of this poem, a happiness in the incidents, an art in the illustrations, and a classical propriety in the compliments, which are not to be found in any other of his lucubrations in rhyme. The following passage, in which he so ingeniously adapts the mythology of the antients, to Kneller's pictures of the British sovereigns from Charles II. down to George I. may well exemplify these remarks: Wise Phidias thus, his skill to prove, 'Till Greece amazed and half afraid * The following lines from this letter expatiate upon an agreeable truth forcibly expressed. Oh, Liberty! thou goddess heavenly bright, We envy not the warmer clime that lies Nor at the coarseness of our heaven repine, And makes her barren rocks, and her bleak mountains smile. Great Pan*, who wont to chase the fair, And mighty Marst, for war renowned, Her twisted threads: the web she strung, Her short-lived darling son to mourn; That, his high genius to approve, Had drawn a George, or carved a Jove? It was during Addison's absence in Ireland, that Sir Richard Steele had the merit of projecting and publishing, without any other counsel, and almost without assistance, a series of essays upon the popular manners and feelings of the day, its decencies and duties, printed separately, under the title of the Tatler. In * Charles II. his amours and concealment in the oak after the battle of Worcester. + The exiled James II. King William. § His queen Mary, who died childless. Queen Anne, whose husband, Prince George of Denmark, being never admitted to the crown, was her inferior, somewhat in the same manner as was Peleus, a mortal, to the goddess Thetis.-Again, as the latter had to mourn for Achilles, so had Anne for her son George, who died prematurely, and left her without heir. ¶ George I. who had recently overthrown the Scotch rebellion in favour of the Pretender. D this labour, so congenial to his habits and studies, Addison quickly joined, and soon after the cessation of the Tatler, took a prominent part in conducting the Spectator, which was the happiest by far of the charming little periodicals produced by the same talents. Few publications could have surpassed them in popularity or merit: to this country they were original, and eminently serviceable; there was no order of society which was not likely to learn from them; and even to this day, the nation at large may be held to derive many a benefit from their composition; while their utility to the age in which they appeared, was amply attested by the translations which every polite nation in Europe were proud to obtain of them. The year 1713 was the completion of Addison's literary fame, upon the performance of his tragedy of Cato, a play which he had thought of for some years before he began it, and which remained unfinished for a still longer time after it had been commenced. These circumstances were publicly known and often regretted, until at length, importunities came so loud upon him from different quarters, that he was forced to conclude the undertaking, and give Cato to the stage. Its success was complete ; it was acted night after night, for thirty-five times—a longer period of continuity than ever was known before on an English stage, so that the admiration of the public seemed to burn with the fury of a flame. All this, however, was too eminently happy for duration; the popularity of Cato was mainly the work of many powerful friends, and fortunate circumstances; and, naturally enough, when the cause ceased, the effect was lost. Notwithstanding the beauties of the poetry, the construction of the plot is too strictly founded on the rules of the ancient drama, to excite any unprejudiced approbation from a people, who have been trained to a love of the theatre, by the free energies of Shakspeare. Hence comes the reluctant truth, that the tragedy of Cato, though read with pleasure in the study, is heard without emotion on the stage. The poetical beauties of Cato have generally been in current repute; the Senate scene is a piece of fine declamation, spouted by every school-boy; the contentious vigour of Juba and Syphax, and the pompous sustaining of sententious retort between |