INTRODUCTION.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

(1672-1719.)

OF Joseph Addison's mother, unfortunately, we know very little. His father, Rev. Lancelot Addison, was a man of scholarly tastes, high principles, and independence of character. When, during the Puritan ascendancy, his Royalist and Church-of-England sympathies brought him into disfavor, he sacrificed his comfort rather than his conscience. After the Restoration he enjoyed several preferments, the last and most considerable being the Deanery of Lichfield. The little rectory at Milston, Wiltshire, was the birthplace of Joseph, his two brothers, and three sisters.

At the age of fourteen Joseph entered Charterhouse School, London, then second in reputation only to Westminster, among English schools. Here he distinguished himself in his classical studies, which were, indeed, the foundation stones of his later literary work. It was here, too, that he formed the most intimate and lasting friendship of his life- that with 66 Dick" Steele.

From Charterhouse, Addison went to Oxford and continued his studies first at Queen's College and later at Magdalen, where in 1698 he became a Fellow. During this time his translations from the Latin won him a name and brought him to the notice of that czar of English letters, John Dryden. It was during these years also that Addison formed an acquaintance with Charles Montagu, afterwards Lord Halifax. When the time came for Addison to choose his life-work, Montagu helped him to a decision, for it was through Montagu's influence that Addison was granted a pension in order that he might fit himself for diplomatic service by travel on the Continent.

The years 1699-1703 Addison spent in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Holland, perfecting his knowledge of foreign tongues, profiting by his contact with such men as Boileau and Malebranche, and everywhere observing with The Spectator's eye, men, manners, institutions.

Before Addison returned to England, the death of William III. put an end to the hope of any immediate political advancement. Anne, upon coming to the throne, gave evidence of her Stuart blood by overturning the Whig ministry (including Addison's patrons, Halifax and Somers) and replacing it with men who she thought would uphold the prerogative of the crown. Circumstances, however, made it impossible for the ministry to follow a rigid Tory policy, and Godolphin, Lord Treasurer, soon saw the necessity of allying to the government the Whig influence, both political and literary. We must

realize that in Addison's time the mutual dependence of literature and politics was still very great. Literature was only just beginning to seek its support in the demand of the reading public, rather than in the patronage of the great; and, on the other hand, the government needed the weapon which the pamphleteer and occasional poet wielded. Thus it was that Addison, who was living in obscurity in the Haymarket, was sought out to celebrate in verse the great victory of Blenheim, and we have as a result The Campaign. This poem Warton calls "a gazette in rhyme."

It is true that it is remembered chiefly as marking Addison's rise and likewise the rise of the Whig party. Addison was made successively Under-Secretary of State, member of Parliament, secretary to the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In 1710 the Whig power was again overthrown with the downfall of Godolphin and Marlborough, and Addison was deprived of his official position. So popular was he, however, that he was returned to Parliament without contest. At this time Swift wrote to Stella of Addison, “I believe if he had a mind to be king he would hardly be refused."

One more revolution in party government, at the time of Anne's death, placed Addison on the crest of the wave, and in 1717 he became Secretary of State. The year before he had married the Countess Dowager of Warwick and taken up his residence in the famous Holland House.

During these years Addison had been a man of letters,

as well as a man of affairs. His literary work outside his contributions to periodicals took the dramatic form. Rosamond, an unsuccessful opera, appeared in 1706; Cato, a tragedy, in 1713. Though Cato contains some fine lines and elicited from Voltaire the eulogium that Addison was "the first English writer who composed a regular tragedy," it is now thought to have little merit. The interest which it aroused upon its appearance was largely due to Addison's personal popularity and to the allusion to contemporary political conditions which the play was supposed to contain. Addison's third dramatic attempt was The Drummer, acted in 1716.

Addison's genius was, however, not dramatic or poetic. We remember him not for his Cato, his Campaign, or even his beautiful paraphrase of the Twenty-third Psalm. It is as the delightful essayist that he occupies a high place in our literature. His essays are valued not for the matter so much as for the manner. The thought contained in them is not profound nor often original; he does not sound the depths of our nature, but he has no rival in perfection of form correctness, absolute transparency, easy and unaffected grace. We do not care what he says so long as he says it. value his essays for the charming breathes through them. That personality which drew all men to him in his lifetime; whose power exacted tribute from Swift while he scoffed, and from Pope while he sneered, still holds sway over us. Its elements, so far as

Hardly less do we personality which

we can analyze them, are evenness of temper, moderation, reason, and justice as guiding principles in the conduct of life; refinement of feeling, a high moral sense; and, not least, a delicate, subtle, all-pervading humor, which never becomes coarse or malicious. In a word, he has perfect poise of character. Macaulay says his tone is that of a gentleman, in whom the quickest sense of the ridiculous is constantly tempered by good-nature and good-breeding."

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To turn from the man to his work, it is significant that both Addison's and Steele's best writing was done during their literary partnership. This association began in Steele's first venture in periodical literature, The Tatler. Shortly after this paper appeared, and Addison recognized Steele's hand, he offered to contribute to the paper, an offer Steele was not slow to accept. Thus began the cooperation which bore such rich fruit in The Spectator. The papers which Addison and Steele later published alone, Addison's Freeholder and Steele's Englishman, though affording us excellent examples of the power of the men as political writers, do not show either genius at its best.

The years 1716-17 mark the height of Addison's prosperity, but though still a young man, he did not live long to enjoy his success. Ill health forced him to give up his Secretaryship after holding it less than a year, and a few months later, June 17, 1719, he died. His last days were saddened by the estrangement of his old friend, an