FROM THE DEATH OF DR. SWIFT. We had a hundred abler men, "Perhaps I may allow the Dean He lash'd the vice, but spared the name. Where thousands equally were meant. He neither knows you, nor your name. 281 The Irish senate if you named, And pitied those who meant the wound; Who still were true, to please his foes. He spent his life's declining part, "Alas, poor Dean! his only scope Was to be held a misanthrope. 'I hear they're of a different kind : A few in verse; but most in prose" 66 Some high-flown pamphlets, I suppose :— All scribbled in the worst of times, To palliate his friend Oxford's crimes ; To praise Queen Anne, nay more, defend her, Or libels yet conceal'd from sight, Against the court to show his spite: 1 In England for the publication of "The Public Spirit of the Whigs;" in Ireland for his "Proposal for the universal use of Irish Manufactures, etc;" and for the "Drapier's" fourth letter. FROM POETRY-A RHAPSODY. Perhaps his travels, part the third; But not one sermon, you may swear." And friends would let him have his way. The world must own it to their shame, 283 FROM POETRY-A RHAPSODY. 1 See Young's Satires on the Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. Hobbes clearly proves that every creature On you shall rail and criticise, And strive to tear you limb from limb; Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em, Thus every poet in his kind Is bit by him that comes behind: Who, though too little to be seen, Can tease, and gall, and give the spleen. JOSEPH ADDISON. (1672-1719.) ADDISON was the son of a clergyman, and was born in Milston parsonage, Wiltshire. His success at the University of Oxford, the friendships he had formed, and the purity of his character, brought him early into the sphere of fortunate patronage. He was marked out for public service, and as an intimate knowledge of French was deemed necessary, a pension of £300 a year was settled on him that he might travel and reside abroad. He was absent about three years. His epistle from Italy to Montague (then Lord Halifax) is an elegant descriptive poem, evincing the enthusiasm of a scholar and a poet. On the accession of Queen Anne his pension ceased, but, a year or two after, the victory of Blenheim afforded to his muse another opportunity of preferment. Halifax recommended Addison to the Lord Treasurer Godolphin, for the 1 See the "Leviathan," chap. xiii. FROM THE LETTER FROM ITALY. 285 celebration of Marlborough's triumph. His poem "the Campaign," was rewarded with the post of Commissioner of Appeals. He afterwards went to Ireland as Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquis of Wharton. While he was in Ireland the "Tatler" was started by his friend Steele. The publication of this periodical and its successors, the Spectator and the Guardian, stretches over the years between 1709 and 1714. Addison and Steele contributed the greater portion of the papers. The year 1713 was what Johnson calls the " 'grand climacteric of Addison's reputation," by the production of his tragedy of "Cato." This piece, a great part of which had been finished for several years, was reluctantly yielded to the stage by the author, in consequence of the party zeal of his Whig friends, during their exclusion from power in the latter years of Anne's reign. It was vehemently applauded by both political parties; and as vehemently abused, especially by the cynical critic John Dennis, who attacked every great reputation of his time. Shortly after the accession of George I., Addison gave his literary services to the new government in the conduct of a political periodical, the "Free-holder." In 1716 he married, after a long probation of courtship, the Countess Dowager of Warwick. Addison, like Dryden, is said to have been unhappy in his splendid marriage, but the report rests on no good evidence. In 1717 he became Secretary of State. His health, however, soon failed, and after holding the office for about a twelvemonth, he resigned on a pension of £1500 a year. From his natural timidity and total want of the power of public speaking, he could have been of little service to the government. He continued to aid them occasionally by his pen, but died June 10, 1719. On his death-bed he said to his son-in-law, the dissolute Lord Warwick, "I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian can die." To this his friend Tickell alludes"He taught us how to live and--oh, too high The price for knowledge !—taught us how to die." The only failing imputed to this great man is occasional excess in wine, and this, we suspect, has been exaggerated. As a prose writer, Addison holds the first rank for delicate humour, purity of style, and variety of illustration, didactic and picturesque. He was an admirable observer and describer of life, manners, and character. He and Steele may be called the fathers of our periodical literature, at least in the shape of general popular instruction. Addison may also be distinguished as the founder of popular literary criticism. As a poet he is deficient in energy and originality. But some of his descriptive passages and similes are fine, and his hymns possess great sweetness and beauty. Cato,” as a drama, abounds in faults of plot and character; it should be read simply as a poem embodying a series of elevated and noble sentiments, many of which have become familiar as household words. 66 Addison's Latin poetry is praised, and he indulged to a considerable extent in the taste of the age for classical translation. FROM THE LETTER FROM ITALY, ADDRESSED TO FOR wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes, N |