"Gloucester, Sept. 10, 1770. "Your grammatical pleasures, which you enjoy in studying the most correct of our great writers, Mr. Addison, cannot be greater than the political ones I taste, in reading, over again, the most incorrect of all good writers (though not from his incorrectness, which is stupendous) Lord Clarendon, in the late published continuation of his History. "I charge you bring your Addison to town. Nothing is minutiæ to me which you write or think." See "Letters from a late eminent Prelate," &c.-Letter 227. 4. 1808. And in Letter 228, in the same collection, October 16, 1770, the BISHOF says "Your reflections on Lord Clarendon are the truth itself. The History of his Life and Administration I have just finished. Every thing is admirable in it but the style: in which your favourite and amiable author [Mr. Addison] has infinitely the advantage. Bring him with you to town. There, I own, your late amusements have the advantage of mine. It was an advantage I envied you;" Extract of a Letter from DR. HURD to the REVEREND sure. MR. MASON, Residentiary of Yorke. "Thurcaston, Oct. 26, 1770. "You will ask what I have done in this long lei Not much indeed, to any purpose. My lecture has slept But I found an amusement in turning over the works of Mr. Addison. I set out, many years ago, with a warm admiration of this amiable writer. I then took a surfeit of his natural, easy manner; and was taken, like my betters, with the raptures and high flights of Shakespeare. 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 tast is so pure, and his Virgilian prose (as Dr. Young styles it) so exquisite, that I have but now found:ont, at the close of a critical life, the full value of his writings: Inscription to Mr. Addison, written in 1805. EXIMIO VIRO, JOSEPHO ADDISON: GRATIA, FAMA, FORTUNA COMMENDATO; HUMANIORIBUS LITERIS UNICÈ INSTRUCTO; HAUD IGNOBILI POETÆ; IN ORATIONE SOLUTA CONTEXENDÅ SUMMO ARTIFICI; CENSORI MORUM GRAVI SANÈ, SED ET PERJUCUNDO, LEVIORIBUS IN ARGUMENTIS SUBRIDENTI SUAVITÈR, RES ETIAM SERIAS LEPORE QUODAM SUO CONTINGENTI; HOC EST, CHRISTIANÆ, STUDIOSISSIMO CULTORI : EXIMIO, PROINDÈ, VIRO, JOSEPHO ADDISON, HOC MONUMENTUM SACRUM ESTO. R. W. 1805, Sept. 5. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JAMES CRAGGS, Esq. HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE. DEAR SIR, I CANNOT wish that any of my writings should last longer than the memory of our friendship, and therefore I thus publickly bequeathe them to you, in return for the many valuable instances of your affection. That they may come to you with as little disadvantage as possible, I have left the care of them to one, whom, by the experience of some years, I know well qualified to answer my intentions. He has already the honour and happiness of being under your protection; and, as he will very much stand in need of it, I cannot wish him better, than that he may continue to deserve the favour and countenance of such a patron. |