that he will live to complete the one half of it on the scale by which it has been begun. Meanwhile let him but continue to finish and put forth, from time to time, such exquisite cabinet-pieces as his four Biographies in this volume, and the world will wait more patiently while he is filling up his larger canvas with the grand historic groups.

BOSTON, March, 1857.

S. C. E.

NEW BIOGRAPHIES.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

William Shaidings

JOSEPH ADDISON was the eldest son of Dean Addison. He was born at his father's rectory of Milston in Wiltshire, on the first day of May, 1672. After having passed through several schools, the last of which was the Charter-house, he went to Oxford, when he was about fifteen years old. He was first entered of Queen's College, but after two years was elected a scholar of Magdalen College, having, it is said, been recommended by his skill in Latin versification. He took his master's degree in 1693, and held a fellowship from 1699 to 1711.

The eleven years extending from 1693, or his twentyfirst year, to 1704, when he was in his thirty-second, may be set down as the first stage of his life as a man of letters. During this period, embracing no profession, and not as yet entangled in official business, he was a student, an observer, and an author; and though the literary works which he then produced are not those on which his permanent celebrity rests, they gained for him in his own day a high reputation. He had at first intended to become a clergyman; but his talents having attracted the attention of leading statesmen belonging to the Whig party, he was speedily diverted from

his earlier views by the countenance which these men bestowed on him. His first patron (to whom he seems to have been introduced by Congreve) was Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax, who was himself a dabbler in literature, and a protector of literary men; and he became known afterwards to the accomplished and excellent Somers. While both of them were quite able to estimate justly his literary merits, they had regard mainly to the services which they believed him capable of rendering to the nation or the party; and accordingly they encouraged him to regulate his pursuits with a view to public and official employment. For a considerable time, however, he was left to his own resources, which cannot have been otherwise than scanty.

His first literary efforts were poetical. In 1693, a short poem of his, addressed to Dryden, was inserted in the third volume of that veteran writer's Miscellanies. The next volume of this collection contained his translation, in tolerable heroic couplets, of "all Virgil's Fourth Georgic, except the story of Aristæus." Two and a half books of Ovid were afterwards attempted; and to his years of early manhood belonged also his prose Essay on Virgil's Georgics, a performance which hardly deserved, either for its style or for its critical excellence, the compliment paid it by Dryden, in prefixing it to his own translation of the poem. The most ambitious of those poetical assay-pieces is the “Account of the Greatest English Poets," dated April, 1694, and addressed affectionately to Sacheverell, the poet's fellow collegian, who afterwards became so notorious in the party quarrels of the time. This piece, spirited both in language and in versification, is chiefly noticeable as showing that ignorance of old English poetry which was then universal. Addison next, in 1695, published one of those compositions, celebrating contemporary events, and lauding contemporary great men, on which, during the half century that succeeded the Revolution, there was wasted so much of good writing

and of fair poetic ability. His piece, not very meritorious even in its own class, was addressed "To the King," and commemorates the campaign which was distinguished by William's taking of Namur. Much better than the poem itself are the introductory verses to Somers, then lord keeper. This production, perhaps intended as a remembrancer to the writer's patrons, did not at once produce any obvious effect; and we are left in considerable uncertainty as to the manner in which about this time Addison contrived

to support himself. He corresponded with Tonson the bookseller about projected works, one of these being a Translation of Herodotus. It was probably at some later time that he purposed compiling a Dictionary of the English language. In 1699 a considerable collection of his Latin verses was published at Oxford, in the "Musæ Anglicanæ.” These appear to have interested some foreign scholars; and several of them show curious symptoms of his characteristic humor.

In the same year, his patrons, either having still no office to spare for him, or desiring him to gain peculiarly high qualifications for diplomatic or other important business, provided for him temporarily by a grant, which, though bestowed on a man of great merit and promise, would not pass unquestioned in the present century. He obtained, on the recommendation of Lord Somers, a pension of three hundred pounds a year, designed (as Addison himself afterwards said in a memorial addressed to the crown) to enable him “to travel, and otherwise qualify himself to serve His Majesty." In the summer of 1699 he crossed into France, where, chiefly for the purpose of learning the language, he remained till the end of 1700; and after this he spent a year in Italy. In Switzerland, on his way home, he was stopped by receiving notice that he was to be appointed envoy to Prince Eugene, then engaged in the war in Italy. But his Whig friends were already tottering in their places; and, in March,

1702, the death of King William at once drove them from power and put an end to the pension. Indeed, Addison asserted that he never received but one year's payment of it, and that all the other expenses of his travels were defrayed by himself. He was able, however, to visit a great part of Germany, and did not reach Holland till the spring of 1703. His prospects were now sufficiently gloomy; he entered into treaty, oftener than once, for an engagement as a travelling tutor; and the correspondence in one of these negotiations has been preserved. Tonson had recommended him as the best person to attend in this character the son of the Duke of Somerset, commonly called "The Proud." The Duke, a profuse man in matters of pomp, was economical in questions of education. He wished Addison to name the salary he expected; this being declined, he announced, with great dignity, that he would give a hundred guineas a year; Addison accepted the munificent offer, saying, however, that he could not find his account in it otherwise than by relying on his Grace's future patronage; and his Grace immediately intimated that he would look out for some one else. Towards the end of 1703 Addison returned to England.

Works which he composed during his residence on the continent, were the earliest that showed him to have attained maturity of skill and genius. There is good reason for believing that his tragedy of Cato, whatever changes it may afterwards have suffered, was in great part written while he lived in France, that is, when he was about twentyeight years of age. In the winter of 1701, amidst the stoppages and discomforts of a journey across the Mount Cenis, he composed, wholly or partly, his Letter from Italy, which is by far the best of his poems, if it is not rather the only oné among them that at all justifies his claim to the poetical character. It contains some fine touches of description, and is animated by a noble tone of classical enthusiasm. While in Germany, he wrote his Dialogues on Medals, which, how