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HIS CHARACTER AS A CRITIC.

175

for the most part, smooth and easy; and what is the first excellence of a translator, such as may be read with pleasure by those who do not know the originals.

His poetry is polished and pure; the product of a mind too judicious to commit faults, but not sufficiently vigorous to attain excellence. He has sometimes a striking line, or a shining paragraph; but in the whole he is warm rather than fervid, and shows more dexterity than strength. He was, however, one of our earliest examples of correctness.

The versification which he had learned from Dryden he debased rather than refined. His rhymes are often dissonant; in his Georgic' he admits broken lines. He uses both triplets and alexandrines, but triplets more frequently in his translation than his other works. The mere structure of verses seems never

to have engaged much of his care. But his lines are very

smooth in Rosamond,' and too smooth in Cato.'

Addison is now to be considered as a critic; a name which the present generation is scarcely willing to allow him. His criticism is condemned as tentative or experimental, rather than scientific; and he is considered as deciding by taste rather than by principles.

It is not uncommon for those who have grown wise by the labour of others, to add a little of their own, and overlook their masters. Addison is now despised by some who perhaps would never have seen his defects but by the lights which he afforded them. That he always wrote as he would think it necessary to write now, cannot be affirmed; his instructions were such as the characters of his readers made proper. That general knowledge which now circulates in common talk, was in his time rarely to be found. Men not professing learning were not ashamed of ignorance; and, in the female world, any acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured. His purpose was to infuse literary curiosity by gentle and unsuspected conveyance into the gay, the idle, and the wealthy: he therefore presented knowledge in the most alluring form, not lofty and austere, but accessible and familiar. When he showed them their defects, he showed them likewise that they

might be easily supplied. His attempt succeeded; inquiry was awakened, and comprehension expanded. An emulation of intellectual elegance was excited, and from this time to our own, life has been gradually exalted, and conversation purified and enlarged.

Dryden had, not many years before, scattered criticism over his prefaces with very little parsimony; but though he sometimes condescended to be somewhat familiar, his manner was in general too scholastic for those who had yet their rudiments to learn, and found it not easy to understand their master. His observations were framed rather for those that were learning to write, than for those that read only to talk.

An instructor like Addison was now wanting, whose remarks being superficial might be easily understood, and being just might prepare the mind for more attainments. Had he presented Paradise Lost' to the public with all the pomp of system and severity of science, the criticism would perhaps have been admired, and the poem still have been neglected; but by the blandishments of gentleness and facility, he has made Milton an universal favourite, with whom readers of every class think it necessary to be pleased.

He descended now and then to lower disquisitions; and by a serious display of the beauties of Chevy-Chase' exposed himself to the ridicule of Wagstaff, who bestowed a like pompous character on Tom Thumb;' and to the contempt of Dennis, who, considering the fundamental position of his criticism, that 'Chevy-Chase' pleases, and ought to please, because it is natural, observes, "that there is a way of deviating from nature, by bombast or tumour, which soars above nature, and enlarges images beyond their real bulk; by affectation, which forsakes nature in quest of something unsuitable; and by imbecility, which degrades nature by faintness and diminution, by obscuring its appearances, and weakening its effects." In Chevy-Chase' there is not much of either bombast or affectation, but there is chill and lifeless imbecility. The story cannot possibly be told in a manner that shall make less impression on the mind.

Before the profound observers of the present race repose too

1672-1719.

HIS CHARACTER AS AN ESSAYIST.

177

securely on the consciousness of their superiority to Addison, let them consider his Remarks on Ovid,' in which may be found specimens of criticism sufficiently subtle and refined; let them peruse likewise his essays on Wit, and on the Pleasures of Imagination, in which he founds art on the base of nature, and draws the principles of invention from dispositions inherent in the mind of man with skill and elegance, such as his contemners will not easily attain.

As a describer of life and manners, he must be allowed to stand perhaps the first of the first rank. His humour, which, as Steele observes, is peculiar to himself, is so happily diffused as to give the grace of novelty to domestic scenes and daily occurrences. He never "outsteps the modesty of nature," nor raises merriment or wonder by the violation of truth. His figures neither divert by distortion, nor amaze by aggravation. He copies life with so much fidelity, that he can be hardly said to invent; yet his exhibitions have an air so much original, that it is difficult to suppose them not merely the product of imagination.

As a teacher of wisdom, he may be confidently followed. His religion has nothing in it enthusiastic or superstitious: he appears neither weakly credulous, nor wantonly sceptical; his morality is neither dangerously lax, nor impracticably rigid. All the enchantment of fancy, and all the cogency of argument, are employed to recommend to the reader his real interest, the care of pleasing the Author of his being. Truth is shown sometimes as the phantom of a vision; sometimes appears half veiled in an allegory; sometimes attracts regard in the robes of fancy; and sometimes steps forth in the confidence of reason. She wears a thousand dresses, and in all is pleasing.

"Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet."

His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not grovelling; pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always

117 HAMLET.-Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.—Hamlet, Act iii. sc. ii.

VOL. II.

N

equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed sentences. Addison never deviates from his track to snatch a grace; he seeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected splendour.

It was apparently his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity of diction; he is therefore sometimes verbose in his transitions and connections, and sometimes descends too much to the language of conversation; yet if his language had been less idiomatical, it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism. 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 sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious,118 must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

118 Nothing [in Cowley's prose] is far-sought or hard-laboured; but all is easy without feebleness, and familiar without grossness.-JOHNSON: Life of Cowley.

1672-1719. ADDISON'S MEMORIAL TO GEORGE I.

APPENDIX.

179

ADDISON'S MEMORIAL TO GEORGE I.

From a much-worn and somewhat mutilated copy in Addison's own handwriting, in the possession of Edward Tickell, Esq., Q.C., and first printed in the Appendix to Miss Aikin's Life of Addison, 2 vols., 8vo. 1843.

"THAT Your Memorialist was sent from y University by K. William, in order to travail and qualify himself to serve H. M., by which means he was diverted from making his Fortune in any other way.

"That y King allowed him an annual Pension for this end, but H. M. dying in yR first year of this his allowance, and y Pension being discontinued, your Memorialist pursued his travels upon his own Expense for above three years.

"That upon his Return to England, after having published an Account of his Travails, ye Lord Godolphin recommended him to be Under Secretary to her Majesty's principal Sec' of State, which Place he enjoyed under Sir C. Hedges and y° E. of Sunderland.

"That my Lord H[alifax upon going to Hanover, desired him to accompany him thither, at which time, tho' he had not ye Title of his Secretary, he officiated as such without any other Reward than y° Satisfaction of shewing his zeal for that illustrious Family.

"That upon his Return to England he took all occasions, both by his writings and conversation, to promote y cause, which, God be thank'd, has so wonderfully prevail'd, and to publish those Royal virtues which the nation sees at present in your Majesty.

'That your Mem" was afterwards Sec' to ye E. of W[harton in y Government of Ireland, and endeavoured to behave himself with that Diligence and Integrity that he has gain'd y friendship of all y' most considerable Persons in that Kingdom.

"That when Baron Groet was your Majesty's Minister in these Kingdoms your Mems was employed to meet and discourse with him upon such Points as might be thought conducive to y' Interest of y Protestant Succession, y sd Baron Groet having proposed to my L Halifax] this method (as) y means to avoid giving any umbrage to * * * *

"That at this time your Mem" was employed to draw a new Credential Letter from that Excellent Princess, y late Electress Dowager of Brunswick, with o' Instruments of y' same nature, for which he thought himself amply satisfied by y Pleasure he took in doing anything which might promote your Majesty's Cause.

66

That, upon y Queen's Demise, without any previous Solicitation, your Mem" was, in that critical conjuncture, appointed Sec' to y' Regency.