EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
61!)
coUe^e,Oxford, but afterwards was elected demy at Magdalen. In 1693, be tuok bis degree of M.A., and became eminent for his Latin poetry. At the age of twenty-two, he addres.sea some verses to Dryden, in English, and not long after published a translation of part of Virgil's fourth Georgic. About this time he wrote the argu- ments prefixed to the several books of Dryden's Virpl, and composed the essay on the Georgiet. In 1695 he wrote a poem to king William, with a kind of rhyming introduction, addressed to lord Somers. In 1697 he wrote his poem on the peace of Ryswick, which be dedicated to Mr. Montague, (then chancellor of the exchequer) and which was called by Smith, " the best Latin poem since the ^neid. Having yet no public employment, he obtained, in 1699, a pension of £300 a year, that he might be enabled to travel. While he was travelling at leisure in Italy, he was far from being idle; for he not only col- lected his observations on that country, but found time to write his Dialoffues on Medalt. Here also he wrote the Letter to Lord Halifax, which is justly considered as the most elegant, if not the most sublime of his poetical productions. At his return he published his Trateli, with a dedication to lord Somers. This work, Uiough a while neglected, is said in time to become so much the favourite of the public, that before it was reprinted it rose to five times its price. The victory of Blenheim, in 1704, spread triumph and confidence over the nation, and lord Godol- phin, lamenting to lord Halifax that it hcrl not been celebrated in a manner equal to the sub- ject, desired him to propose it to some better poet Halifax nameid Addison; who, having undertaken the work, communicated it to the treasurer, while it was yet advanced no farther than the simile of the angel, and was rewarded with the place of commissioner of appeals. In the following year he was at Hanover with lord Halifax ; and the year afier he was made under secretary of state. VVhen the marquis of Wharton was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, Addi- son attended him as his secretary, and was made keeper of the records in Bermingham's tower, with a salary of £300 a year. When he was in office he made a law to himself, as Swift has recorded, never to remit his 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, loose two hundred guineas, and no friend gain more than two." His tragedy of Cato, and his con- nection with the Taller, Spectator, Guardian, and Freeholder, has already been noticed. His papers in the Spectator are marked by one of the letters in the name CLio,and in the Guardian by a fS"- It was not known that Addison had tried a comedy for the stage, till Steele, after his death, declareil him the author of the Drummer; this play Steele carried to the theatre, and after- waros to the press, and sold the copy for fifty guineas. In the midst of these agreeable em- ployments, Addison was nut an indiflercnt spec- tator of public affairs. When the house of
Hanover took possession of the throne, it was reasonable to expect that the zeal of Addison would be suitably rewarded. Before the arrival of king George, he was made secretary to the regency, and was required by his office to send notice to Hanover that the queen was dead, and that the throne was vacant. To do this would not have been difficult to any man but Addison, who was so overwhelmed with the greatness of the event, and so distracted by choice of expres- sions, that the lords, who could not wait for the niceties of criticism, called Mr. Southwell, a clerk in the house, and ordered him to dispatch the message. Southwell readily told what was necessary, in the common style of business, and valued himself upon having done what was too hard for Addison. On the 2nd of August, 1716, he married the countess dowager of Warwick, whom he is said to have first known by becoming tutor to her son. This marriage, however, made no addition to his happiness; it neither found them or made them equal. She always remem- bered her own rank, and thought herself entitled to treat with little ceremony the tutor of her son. The year after, 1717, he rose to his highest elevation, being made secretary of state ; but it is universally confessed that he was unequal to the duties of the office. In the house of com- mons he could not speak, and therefore was use- less to the defence of the government. In the office he could not issue an order witboutlosing his time in quest of fine expressions. What he gained in rank he lost in credit; and finding by experience his own inability, was forced tosolicit his dismission, with a pension of £1500 a year. He now eng^aged in a laudable and excellent work, A Defence of the Chrittian Religion ;* of which part was published after his death. Addison had for some time been oppressed by shortness of breath, which was now aggravated by a dropsy; and, finding bis danger pressing, he prepared to die conformably to his own pre- cepts and professions.
The death-bed of Addison was the triumph of religion and virtue. Conscious of a life well- spent in the service of his fellow-creatures, he waited with tranquillity and resignation the moment of departure. The dying accents of the virtuous man have frequently, when other means have failed, produced the happiest effect; aud Addison, anxious that a scene so awful might make its due impression, demanded the attendance of his son-in-law, lord Warwick. The young nobleman was amiable, but dis- sipated ; and Addison, for whom be still retained a high respect, bad often, though in vain, en- deavoured to correct his principles, and to curb the impetuosity of his passions. He now re- quired his attendance to behold the reward of him who had obeyed his God. " He came,"
- Jacob TonsoD, the bookseller, did not like Addison.
He had a qaaxrel with him ; and, after quitting tlie Rccrc- taryship. used frequently to say of liim.. " one day or other you will see that man a bishop t I am Hure he looks that wayi and, indeed, I ever thought him a priest in his heart."— Syjcncf.
VjOOQ IC
