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own mind left him little need of adventitious fentiments; his wit always could suggest what the · occafion demanded. He had read with critical eyes the important volume of human life, and knew the heart of man from the depths of stratato the furface of affectation.

Pope declares that he wrote very fluently, but was flow and fcrupulous in correcting; that many of the Spectators were written very faft, and fent immediately to the prefs; and that it feemed for his advantage not to have time for much perufal.

Of the course of Addison's familiar day, before his marriage, Pope has given a detail. He had in his houfe with him Budgell, and perhaps Philips. His chief companions were Steele, Budgell, Philips, Carey, Davenant, and colonel Brett. With one or other of these he always breakfasted. He studied all morning; then dined at a tavern, and went afterwards to Button's.

Button had been a fervant in the countess of Warwick's family, who under the patronage of Addifon, kept a coffee-house on the fouth fide of Ruffel-street about two doors from Covent-garden. Here it was that the wits of that time ufed to affemble. It is faid, that when Addison had fuffered any vexation from the countefs, he withdrew the company from Button's house.

From the coffee-house he went again to a tavern, where he often fat late, and drank too much wine. In the bottle, difcontent feeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence. It is not unlikely that Addison was first seduced to excefs by the manumiffion which he obtained from the fervile timidity of his fober hours. He that feels oppreffion from the prefence of those to whom

he knows himself superior, will defire to set loofe his powers of converfation; and who, that ever afked fuccour from Bacchus, was able to preferve himself from being enflaved by his auxiliary?

If any judgment may be made, from his books of his moral character, nothing will be found but purity and excellence. Knowledge of mankind indeed, less extensive than that of Addison, will fhew that to write and to live are very different. Many who praise virtue do no more than praile it. Yet it is reasonable to believe that Addison's profeffions and practice were at no great variance, fince, amiḍft that storm of faction in which most of his life was paffed, tho' his station made him confpicuous, and his activity made him formidable, the character given him by his friends was never contradicted by his enemies. Of those with whom intereft or opinion united him, he had not only the esteem but the kindnefs; and of others, whom the violence of oppofition drove against him, though he might lofe the love, he retained the

reverence.

He has employed wit on the fide of virtue and religion. He not only made the proper ufe of wit himself, but taught it to others; and from his time it has been generally fubfervient to the cause of reafon and of truth. He has diffipated the prejudice that had long connected gaiety with vice, and eafinefs of manners with laxity of principles. He has restored virtue to its dignity, and taught innocence not to be ashamed. This is an elevation of literary character, above all Greek, above all Roman fame. No greater felicity can genius attain than that of having purified intellectual pleafure, feparated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentioufnefs; of having taught a fucceffion of

writers

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writers to bring elegance and gaiety to the end of
goodness; and, 10 ufe expreffions yet more awful,
of having turned many to righteousness.

THE poetry of Addifon is polifhed and pure; the product of a mind two judicious to commit faults, but not fufficiently vigorous to attain excellence. He has fometimes a ftriking line, or a fhining paragraph, but in the whole he is warm rather than fervid, and fhews more dextirity than ftrength. He was however one of our earliest examples of correctness.

The prefent generation is fcarcely willing to allow him the name of a critic; his criticism is condemned as tentative or experimental, rather than scientific; and he is confidered as deciding by taste rather than by principles.

It is not uncommon for those who have grown
wife by the labour of others, to add a little of their
own, and overlook their masters. Addison is now
defpifed by fome who perhaps would never have
feen his defects, but by the lights which he afford-
ed them. But before the profound obfervers of
the prefent race repofe too fecurely on their fupe-
riority to Addison, let them confider his remarks
on Ovid, in which may be found fpecimens of cri-
ticifm fufficiently subtle and refined; let them pe-
rufe likewife his Effays on Wit, and on the Pleafures
of the Imagination, in which he founds art on the
bafe of nature, and draws the principles of inven-
tion from difpofitions inherent in the mind of
man, with skill and elegance, fuch as his contem-
ners will not eafily attain.

As a defcriber of life and manners, he must be
allowed

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allowed to ftand perhaps the firft of the first rank. His humour, which is peculiar to himself, is fo happily diffused as to give the grace of novelty to domeftic scenes and daily occurrences. He never o'erfteps the modefty of nature, nor raises merriment or wonder by the violation of truth. His figures neither divert by diftortion, nor amafe by aggravation. He copies life with fo much fidelity, that he can be hardly faid to invent; yet his exhibitions have an air fo much original, that it is difficult to fuppose them not merely the product of imagi

nation.

As a teacher of wifdom he may be confidently followed. His religion has nothing in it enthufiaftic or fuperftitious; he appears neither weakly credulous nor wantonly fceptical: his morality is neither dangeroufly lax, nor impracticably rigid. All the enchantment of fancy and all the cogency of argument are employed to recommend to the reader his real interefts, the care of pleafing the Author of his being. Truth is fhewn fometimes as the phantom of a vifion, fometimes appears halfveiled in an allegory; fometimes attracts regard in the robes of fancy, and fometimes steps forth in the confidence of reason. She wears a thousand dreffes and in all is pleafing.

Mille babet ornatus, mille decenter habet.

His profe is the model of the middle ftyle; on grave fubjects not formal, on light occafions not grovelling; pure without fcrupulofity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equal, and always eafy, without giving words or pointed fentences. Addison never devivates from his track to fnatch a grace; he feeks no

ambitious

ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected fplendour.

It seems to have been his principal endeavour to avoid all harfhnefs and feverity of diction, he is therefore fometimes verbose in his tranfitions and connections, and fometimes defcends too much to the language of converfation; yet if his language had been lefs idiomatical, it might have loft fomewhat of its genuine Anglicifm. What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His fentences have neither ftudied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and eafy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarfe, and elegant but not oftentations, must give his days and nights to the volumes of ADDISON.

DEDICATION

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