"Mr. Addison is generally allowed to be the most correct and elegant of all our writers; yet some inaccuracies of style have escaped him, which it is the chief design of the following notes to point out. A work of this sort, well executed, would be of use to foreigners who study our language; and even to such of our countrymen as wish to write it in perfect purity."-R. Worcester [Bp. Hurd]. "I set out many years ago with a warm admiration of this amiable writer [Addison]. I then took a surfeit of his natural, easy manner; and was taken, like my betters, with the raptures and high rights of Shakspeare. My maturer judgment, or lenient age, (call it which you will,) has now led me back to the favourite of my youth. And here, I think, I shall stick; for such useful sense, in so charming words, I find not elsewhere. His taste is so pure, and his Virgilian prose (as Dr. Young styles it) so exquisite, that I have but now found out, at the close of a critical life, the full value of his writings."—Ibid. "Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."-Dr. Johnson. "It was not till three generations had laughed and wept over the pages of Addison that the omission [of a monument to his memory] was supplied by public veneration. At length, in our own time, his image, skilfully graven, appeared in Poets' Corner.-Such a mark of national respect was due to the unsullied statesman, to the accomplished scholar, to the master of pure English eloquence, to the consummate painter of life and manners. It was due, above all, to the great satirist, who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it, who, without inflicting a wound, effected a great social reform, and who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy, and virtue by fanaticism. -Macaulay. THE WORKS OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOSEPH ADDISON. WITH NOTES BY RICHARD HURD, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF WORCESTER. A New Edition, WITH LARGE ADDITIONS, CHIEFLY UNPUBLISHED, COLLECTED AND EDITED BY HENRY G. BOHN. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. IV. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLVI. CONTENTS. VOL. IV. THE SPECTATOR. No. 487. Essay on Dreams 483. On the Price and Success of the Spectator 489. Meditations on the Wonders of the Deep, with a Hymn 494. On Religious Melancholy PAGE 1 495. On the Number, Dispersion, and Religion of the Jews 499. Will. Honeycomb's Account of the Siege of Hersberg, and his Dream 500. Defence and Happiness of a married Life 505. On Conjurors and Revealers of Dreams 507. On Party-Lies 511. Will. Honeycomb's Proposal of a Fair for Marriage -Sale of unmarried Women 523. Poetry too often mixed with Mythology-Edict on that Subject 529. Rules of Precedency among Authors and Actors 530. Account of the Marriage of Will. Honeycomb 531. On the Idea of the Supreme Being 535. On vain Hopes of temporal Objects-Story of Alnaschar. 536. The Author's Interview with a Lady-her Letter on proper Employment for Beaux Character of a Shoeing-Horn. 60 SPECTATOR. 538. On Extravagance in Story-telling-Epitaph in Pan cras Church-yard 542. Criticism on the Spectator-Letter on the Decay of the Club. 543. Meditation on the Frame of the Human Body 547. Cures performed by the Spectator 549. On Reluctance to leave the World-Letter from Sir Andrew Freeport on his retiring 550. Proposal for a new Club 556. Account of the Spectator opening his Mouth 557. On Conversation—Letter by the Ambassador of Ban 559. The same concluded 561. Account of the Widows' Club rid of their Burdens, 562. On Egotism-Retailers of old Jokes . 565. On the Nature of Man-of the Supreme Being 567. Method of political Writers affecting Secrecy-Specimen 568. Coffee-house Conversation on the preceding PaperThe Whole Duty of Man turned into a Libel 569. On Drunkenness 571. Advantages of seeking the Protection of the Supreme Being 574. Advantages of Consent 575. The present Life preparatory to the Happiness of Eternity. 576. On Singularity; the Dread and Affectation of it 579. On Adultery-Dogs which guarded the Temple of Vulcan 580. On the Glories of Heaven. 582. On the Itch of Writing 583. Duty of being usefully employed-on Planting 584. Story of Hilpa 585. The same concluded 134 590. On Eternity 143 592. Dramatic Improvements-Criticisms 148 598. On a merry and serious cast of Temper 600. Various Opinions of future Happiness THE GUARDIAN. 67. Fate of Poets-Recommendation of Tom D'Urfey 159 162 96. A Proposal for Honorary Rewards Coins and Medals 166 |