please his friend before publication, but would not retouch his pieces afterwards; and I believe not one word of Cato, to which I made an objection, was suffered to stand.”

ADDISON'S HUMOROUS ACQUIESCENCE.

ONE slight lineament of the character of Addison Swift has preserved. It was his practice, when he found any man invincibly wrong, to flatter his opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeper in absurdity. This artifice of mischief was admired by Stella.

ADDISON'S KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN CHARACTER.

Ir appears, notwithstanding his bashfulness and timidity, that Addison had conversed with many distinct classes of men, had surveyed their ways with very diligent observation, and marked, with great acuteness, the effect of different

modes of life.

He was a man in whose presence nothing reprehensible was out of danger; quick in discerning whatever was wrong or ridiculous, and not unwilling to expose it. "There are, says Steele," in his writings many oblique strokes upon some of the wittiest men of the age.' His delight was more to excite merriment than detestation; and he detects follies

rather than crimes.

Dr. Johnson beautifully says of him, "He had read with critical eyes the important volume of Human Life, and knew the heart of man from the depths of stratagem to the surface of affectation."

ADDISON'S DEFINITION OF CONVERSATION.

EUSTACE Budgell reports of Addison that he used to say, "There was no such thing as real conversation between more than two persons." He defined a man's talking to a friend, in whom he had entire confidence, thinking aloud."

FASTIDIOUSNESS OF ADDISON, NEGLIGENCE OF STEELE.

THE fastidiousness of Addison, in regard to his literary compositions, is no less remarkable than the general negligence of his friend and coadjutor Steele.

Mr. Richard Nutt, one of the first printers of the Tatler,

remembered that the press was stopped, and not seldom; but not always by Addison, as has been affirmed, solely for the sake of inserting new prepositions or conjunctions; it was often stopped, he said, for want of copy. In these cases he had sometimes a hard task to find out Steele, who frequently furnished him with the needful supply, written hastily in a room adjoining to the printing-office. Mr. Nutt mentioned. one particular paper which he saw rapidly written by Steele, at midnight, and in bed, whilst he waited to carry it to the press.

LORD BOLINGBROKE'S PRINCIPLES.

OF Lord Bolingbroke Mr. Addison said to a friend for whom he had no secrets, that he was heartily sorry his principles forced him to oppose one of the greatest and most accomplished men he had ever seen; and in whose conversation he could have thought himself so truly happy.

COMPARISON OF ADDISON, BOLINGBROKE, AND SWIFT.

"THE triumvirate to whom we owe an elegance and propriety unknown to our forefathers are, (says Lord Orrery,) Swift, Addison, and Bolingbroke. At the sight of such names, no dispute can arise in preferring the English moderns to the English ancients. The present century, and indeed all future generations, may be congratulated upon the acquisition of three such men."

Speaking of the eminent writers in the reign of Queen Anne, his Lordship says, " Of these Dr. Tillotson and Mr. Addison (after his favourite, Swift) are to be numbered among the most eminent. Addison has all the powers that can captivate and improve: his diction is easy, his periods are well-turned, his expressions are flowing, and his humour is delicate. Tillotson is nervous, grave, majestic, and perspicuous. We must join both these characters together to form a true idea of Dr. Swift."

COWLEY.

MR. Addison observed of Cowley, that the redundancy of his wit had done him more harm than the deficiency of it

1 Bolingbroke was a Tory, and an adherent of the Pretender. His infidel principles were not much known before his death, except to his friends.

had done other poets. Nor was this the fault of Mr. Cowley alone, but of all the authors of that age. They were not only inspired but transported with the furor poeticus. They gave the reins to their imaginations, and swept all that could be said on a subject with a drag-net.

BAYLE'S DICTIONARY.

HOWEVER highly Mr. Addison disapproved the general sceptical tendency of the writings of Bayle, it is said he was very fond of his Critical Dictionary; and old Jacob Tonson used to tell, that he seldom called upon Addison when he did not see Bayle's Dictionary lying open upon his table.

ADDISON'S REBUKE TO A BAD POET.

THE following story is told by a gentleman of great veracity, who, a few years since, was well known at Gray's Inn. A certain author was introduced by a friend to Mr. Addison, who was desired to peruse and correct a copy of English verses, which were then presented to him. Addison took the verses, which he afterwards found very stupid; and observing that above twelve lines from Homer were prefixed to them by way of motto, he only erased the Greek lines, but did not make any amendments in the poem, and returned it. The author seeing this, desired his friend who had introduced him to inquire of Mr. Addison the reason of his doing it; expecting, however, to hear that his poem was so beautiful that it had no occasion for any foreign embellishment. But his friend putting the question to Addison, he said, "that whilst the statutes of Caligula remained all of a piece, they were little regarded by the people; but that when he fixed the heads of the gods upon unworthy shoulders he profaned them, and made himself ridiculous. I, therefore," says he, "made no more conscience to separate Homer's verses from this poem than the thief did who stole the silver head from the brazen body in Westminster Abbey."

FEES OF OFFICE.

WHEN Addison was appointed Keeper of the Records in Ireland, we are told by Swift that he resolved not to remit the regular fees in civility to his friends. "I may (said he)

have a hundred friends, and if my fee be two guineas, I shall, by relinquishing my right, lose two hundred guineas, and no friend gain more than the two. The evil suffered therefore exceeds, beyond all proportion, the benefit done."

ADDISON'S SINGULAR OPINION OF MONTAIGNE.

WHEN Addison lodged at Kensington Square, he had a particular occasion to read over some of Montaigne's Essays, but finding little or no information in the chapters of what their titles promised, he flung the book by, rather wearied and confused than satisfied. Upon which a gentleman present said, "Well, what think you of this famous French author?" "Think!" said he, smiling; "why, that a pair of manacles or a stone doublet would probably have been of some service to the author's infirmity."

How,

sir!" said the other; "what, imprison a man for a singularity in writing ?" "Why, let me tell you, sir," replied Addison, "if he had been a horse, he would have been pounded for straying; and why he ought to be more favoured because he's a man, I cannot understand."

ADDISON'S PROJECTED ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

IN the project which Addison had formed of composing an English dictionary, he considered Archbishop Tillotson's writings as the chief standard of our language; and accordingly marked, as the groundwork of his design, the particular phrases in the sermons published during his Grace's lifetime. "There was formerly sent to me," says Dr. Johnson, "by Mr. Locker, clerk of the Leather-sellers' Company, who was eminent for curiosity and literature, a collection of examples selected from Tillotson's works, as Locker said, by Addison. It came too late to be of use, so I inspected it but slightly, and remember it indistinctly. I thought the passages too short."

PHILIP YORKE, EARL OF HARDWICKE.

THE letter on "Travelling," Spectator, No. 364, was composed by the Earl of Hardwicke; who, at another time, on an occasional address to a friend upon the same subject, thus writes: "I cannot quit this head without paying my acknow.

ledgments to one of the most entertaining pieces this age has

produced, for the pleasure it gave me. You will easily guess that the book I have in my hand is Mr. Addison's 'Remarks upon Italy.' That ingenious gentleman has with so much art and judgment applied his exact knowledge of all the parts of classical learning to illustrate the several occurrences in his travels, that his work alone is a pregnant proof of what I have said. Nobody that has a taste this way can read him going from Rome to Naples, and making Horace and Silius Italicus his chart, but he must feel some uneasiness in himself to reflect that he was not in his retinue. I am sure I wished it ten times in every page; and that not without a secret vanity to think in what a state I should have travelled the Appian road with Horace for a guide, and in company with a countryman of my own, who, of all men living, know best how to follow his steps."

CHARACTER OF ADDISON'S HUMOROUS PIECES.

DR. Kippis summarily describes the character of Addison's humorous productions in these words: "There are none of his works in which his merit, as a graceful writer, more distinguishingly appears, than in his humorous pieces. His humour is so natural, so easy, so unaffected, that we never grow weary of it; and we shall find upon a diligent examination of the papers of this kind that it is prodigiously various and extensive. He scarcely ever descends to personal satire; and his ridicule of certain characters in life, while it is remarkably striking, is so gentle, that persons who answer to the characters must read him with pleasure. A wit which was so copious and inexhaustible, without trespassing against good nature, or offending against decency, is entitled to the highest admiration and applause."

ADDISON'S USE OF THE PRONOUN 66 ONE."

ADDISON is with justice esteemed the best model for the easy correct style of prose composition. He is, however, the last of the classical English authors who has made use of one, a man, as pronouns; as in these phrases, one sees, a man observes, the latter entirely obsolete, and the former nearly so. This phraseology prevails generally throughout his prose works. For example; in his travels he says, "If a man con