The Spectator

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Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012 - Počet stran: 386
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: January that are as agreeable as any in the fineft Months. At fuch times, therefore, I think there could not be a greater Pleafure, than to walk in fuch a Winter-Garden as I have propofed. In the Summer-Seafon the whole Country blooms, and is a kind of Garden, for which reafon we are not fo fen- fible of thofe Beauties that at this time may be every where met with; but when Nature is in her Defolation, and prefents us with nothing but bleak and barren Profpecls, there is fomething unfpeakably chearful in a Spot of Ground which is cover'd with Trees that fmile amidft all the Rigour of Winter, and give us a view of the moft gay Seafon in the midft of that which is the moft dead and melancholy. I have fo far indulged myfelf in this Thought, that I have fet apart a whole Acre of Ground for the executing of it. The Walls are covered with Ivy inftead of Vines. The Laurel, the Horn-beam, and the Holly, with many other Trees and Plants of the fame nature, grow fo thick in it, that you cannot imagine a more lively Scene. The glowing Rcdnefs of the Berries with which they are hung at this time, vies with the Verdure of their Leaves, and are apt to infpire the Heart of the Beholder, with that vernal Delight which you have fomewhere taken notice of in your former Papers. It is very pleafant, at the fame time, to fee the feveral kinds of Birds retiring into this little green Spot, and enjoy ing themfelves among the Branches and Foliage, when my great Garden, which I have before mention'd to you, does not afford a fingle Leaf for their Shelter. YOU muft know, Sir, that I look upon the Pleafure which we take in a Garden, as one of the moft innocent Delights in human Life. A Garden was the Habitation of our firft Parents before the Fall. It is naturally apt to fill the Mind with Calmnefs an...

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O autorovi (2012)

Addison, son of the Dean of Litchfield, took high honors at Oxford University and then joined the British army. He first came to literary fame by writing a poem, "The Campaign" (1704), to celebrate the Battle of Blenheim. When Richard Steele, whom he had known in his public school Charterhouse, started The Tatler in 1709, Addison became a regular contributor. But his contributions to a later venture The Spectator (generally considered the zenith of the periodical essay), were fundamental. While Steele can be credited with the editorial direction of the journal, Addison's essays, ranging from gently satiric to genuinely funny, secured the journal's success. In The Spectator, No. 10, Addison declared that the journal aimed "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." His brilliant character of Sir Roger de Coverley (followed from rake to reformation) distinguishes the most popular essays. Addison died in 1719. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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