Addison has never been surpassed; but on the stage of active politics he was scarce a match for the passionate ardour, the withering irony, of Swift.-STANHOPE, EARL, 1870, History of England, Comprising the Reign of Queen Anne Until the Peace of Utrecht, p. 565.

His writings are conversations, masterpieces of English urbanity and reason; nearly all the details of his character and life have contributed to nourish this urbanity and this reasonableness. . . . His writings are the pure source of classical style; men never spoke in England better. Ornaments abound, and rhetoric has no part in them. Throughout we have just contrasts, which serve only for clearness, and are not too much prolonged; happy expressions, easily discovered, which give things a new and ingenious turn; harmonious periods, in which the sounds flow into one another with the diversity and sweetness of a quiet stream; a fertile vein of inventions and images, through which runs the most amiable irony.-TAINE, H. A., 1871, History of English Literature, tr. Van Laun, vol. II, bk. iii, ch. iv, pp. 90, 104.

He made all that he wrote luminous with piety and fragrant with virtue. Writing in a day when blasphemy was accounted a high kind of wit, and obscenity a high kind of humour, he has transmitted almost nothing to which the most rigid female purist of our own most moral epoch could take the smallest exception. You will appreciate the amazing vigour of his mind which enabled him to leap so effectually and so far from the gutter in which the turgid and noisome dialect of that era flowed into the sewers, by comparing him with his contemporaries. Swift, who was exceptionally bad, may be omitted; but compare him with Wycherley, Congreve, Gay, Garth, Prior, Dryden (who was still recent), and the noble rhymesters, such as Buckingham, Halifax, and Granville.-RUSSELL, WILLIAM CLARK, 1871, Book of Authors, p. 153, note.

The clouded fame of Marlborough has sensibly decayed; few now care to pursue the devious intrigues of Bolingbroke and Oxford; but from the successful reign of Queen Anne still gaze down upon us a cluster of thoughtful faces whose lineaments the world will never cease to trace with interest, and to whom mankind must ever

turn with grateful regard. One fair, soft countenance alone is always serene. No lines of fierce struggles or of bitter discontent, of brooding madness or of envious. rage, disturb that gentle aspect. A delicate taste, a tranquil disposition, a clear sense of the vanity of human passions and of all earthly aims, have softened and subdued the mental supremacy of Addison. To some he has seemed feeble; for many he wants the fire of genius. But multitudes in every age have been held willing captives by the lively play of his unwearied fancy, his melodious periods, his tenderness and truth; have yielded to a power that is never asserted, and to an art that is hidden in the simplicity of a master.— LAWRENCE, EUGENE, 1872, The Days of Queen Anne, Harper's Magazine, vol. 44.

The crowning quality of these papers, as work of literature, is their elegance. This made of prose a fine art, and ranked its best productions, with those of poetry, among the permanent products of taste. This excellence was fully achieved, for the first time in our literature, by Addison; and since his day elegant culture has found constant expression in prose. The art of Addison is far less cold and critical than that of Pope. It preserves its freedom, and moves with a simplicity and ease, that are open indeed to error, but are also able to make that error seem slight and unimportant. There is in his style no opposition between nature and art; the substance and form remain inseparable, the thought lifting itself into light and being at once, rising in a single creative act out of the chaos of material.—BASCOM, JOHN, 1874, Philosophy of English Literature, p. 175.

Greater energy of character, or a more determined hatred of vice and tyranny, would have curtailed his usefulness as a public censor. He led the nation gently and insensibly to a love of virtue and constitutional freedom, to a purer taste in morals and literature, and to the importance of those everlasting truths which so warmly engaged his heart and imagination. The national taste and circumstances have so much changed during the last century and a half, that these essays, inimitable as they are, have become antiquated, and are little read.-CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Carruthers 281.

Little as the people had previously read English books, there is no evidence that Addison's numerous papers on "Paradise Lost," in which he taught the readers of the "Spectator" how to enjoy and appreciate a poem which few newspaper readers of the present day are capable of enjoying, were less popular than those on higher subjects. Steele made his subscribers acquainted with Pope, Dryden, Swift, and other writers who had previously been read by few but schoolmen; while it is not improbable, even, that Addison did. more than the clergy to persuade men to read the Bible for other purposes than that of quieting conscience.-HABBERTON, JOHN, 1876, ed., The Spectator, Selected Papers, p. xxiii.

His style, with its free, unaffected movement, its clear distinctness, its graceful transitions, its delicate harmonies, its appropriateness of tone; the temperance and moderation of his treatment, the effortless self-mastery, the sense of quiet power, the absence of exaggeration or extravagance, the perfect keeping with which he deals with his subjects; or again the exquisite reserve, the subtle tenderness, the geniality, the pathos of his humour-what are these but the literary reflection of Addison himself, of that temper so pure and lofty yet so sympathetic, so strong yet so lovable.-GREEN, JOHN RICHARD, 1880, ed., Essays of Joseph Addison, Introduction, p. xxiv.

Accustomed as we are to the pungent and the drastic, we yawn over the stingless, self-effacing irony of the gentle Addison; the colors seem pale, the bouquet imperceptible. Is it possible that time has bleached the page of Addison, until it has become like a faded fresco by some old master who worked in inferior colors? Can it be that there are now scores of writers his equals in point of style, his superiors in intellectual resources? Must then this stylist, whose primacy no contemporary dared question, who made the term "Addisonian" signify for prose what “Virgilian” singifies for verse, of whom Thackeray so lately said, "We owe as much pleasure to him as to any human being that ever wrote, "-must he who has charmed, consoled, instructed, formed, so many generations, now become an emeritus? It is safe to assume that those who would answer these questions affirmatively have

never lived with Addison; that they have, at best, but a bowing acquaintance with him. Perhaps there has never been a time since the immediate objects of the "Spectator" were accomplished when its satire and instruction were more applicable than here and now. ANDERSON, MELVILLE B., 1884. The Dial, vol. 4, p. 283.

Addison was welcome for the same reason for which Butler and Swift were unwelcome. He knew as they did not the more sympathetic side of human nature and how to address himself to it. He was in this respect the Washington Irving of English Prose. . . So particular was he in composition, that, according to Warton, he would often stop the press to insert a new preposition or conjunction. He was as fastidious in prose as Pope and Dryden were in poetry. Verbal

precision overreaches itself in Addison. It was, indeed, the error of the age. HUNT, THEODORE W., 1887, Representative English Prose and Prose Writers, pp. 294, 296, 297.

It is difficult in a short summary of facts to give any impression of the influence. exercised on the mind and feelings of his country by Addison. It was out of proposition with the mere outcome of his literary genius. It was the result of character almost more than of intellect, of goodness and reasonableness almost more than of wit. His qualities of mind, however, if not of the very loftiest order, were relatively harmonised to an astonishing degree, so that the general impression of Addison is of a larger man than the close contemplation of any one side of his genius reveals him as being. He has all the moral ornaments of the literary character; as a writer he is urbane, cheerful, charming, and well-mannered to a degree which has scarcely been surpassed in the history of the world. His wit is as penetrating as a perfume; his irony presupposes a little circle of the best and most cultivated listeners; his fancy is so well tempered by judgment and observation that it passes with us for imagination. We delight in his company so greatly that we do not pause to reflect that the inventor of Sir Roger de Coverley and Will Honeycomb had not half of the real comic force of Farquhar or Vanbrugh, nor so much as that of the flashing wit of Congreve.

Human nature, however, is superior to the rules, and Addison stands higher than those more original writers by merit of the reasonableness, the good sense, the wholesome humanity that animates his work. He is classic, while they are always a little way over on the barbaric side of perfection. The style of Addison is superior to his matter, and holds a good many flies in its exquisite amber. It did not reach its highest quality until Addison had become acquainted with "A Tale of a Tub," but it grew to be a finer thing, though not a greater, than the style of Swift.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 193.

Nobody nowadays reads his verse, which was so loudly applauded by his contemporaries; and only those among us who are curious in tracing the history of English prose affect to find any pleasure in his contributions to the "Tatler" and the "Spectator."-STODDARD, RICHARD HENRY, 1891, A Box of Autographs, Scribner's Magazine, vol. 9, p. 215.

The finest critic, the finest gentleman, the most tender humorist of his age. Of the humorists we may venture to say that Addison is the first, as well as the most refined and complete. Swift draws a heavier shaft, which lacerates and kills, and Pope sends his needle-pointed arrows, all touched with poisonous venom, to the most vulnerable points; but Addison has no heart to slay. He transfixes the veil of folly with light, shining, irresistible darts, and pins it aloft in triumph, but he lets the fool go free-perhaps lets you see even, by some reflection from his swift-flying polished spear, a gleam of human meaning in the poor wretch's face which touches your heart.-OLIPHANT, MRS. M. O. W., 1894, Historical Characters of the Reign of Queen Anne, pp. 167, 169.

The alliance between Addison and Steele was so intimate, that to judge of one apart from the other, would be fair to neither. . . That while Steele might, under very inferior conditions, have produced the "Tatler" and "Spectator" without Addison, it is highly improbable that Addison, as an essayist, would have existed without Steele.-DENNIS, JOHN, 1894, The Age of Pope, p. 125.

It is the supreme distinction of Addison, as the chief founder of English essaywriting, to have created in England a

school of literary taste which, without sacrificing any of the advantages derived from liberty, has raised our language almost to a level with the French in elegance and precision. . . . These characteristics of Addison's thought are reproduced in his style, which reflects in the most refined and beautiful form the conversational idiom of his period. He is, indeed, far from attaining that faultless accuracy which has been sometimes ascribed to him. ascribed to him. It was his aim to make philosophy popular, and always to discourse with his readers in familiar language; but it is observable that, when writing on abstract subjects, he frequently becomes involved and obscure. In a word, it may be said that the essay in the hands of Addison acquired that perfection of well-bred ease which arises from a complete understanding between an author and his audience.-COURTHOPE, W. J., 1894, English Prose, ed. Craik, vol. III, pp. 491, 493, 496.

Addison's unity is usually faultless. His coherence depends largely upon wordorder and sentence-structure; of 300 sentences only 13 begin with and, 16 with but. His massing, when compared with Swift's, is defective. In brief, the paragraph structure is easy and flowing, correct in unity, defective in emphasis. Addison's favorite paragraph is loose, with one or two introductory sentences. Deductive specimens are not infrequent. The topic is often developed by repetition from changing points of view,-what Scott and Denney have termed the alternating method. The method is frequently overdone.

Addison had little sense of the value of the short sentence, either as a means of emphasis, or as a way of varying paragraph rhythm. His rhythm remained a somewhat monotonous sentencerhythm.-LEWIS, EDWIN HERBERT, 1894, The History of the English Paragraph, p.

yet wholly individual: this seems to be more likely to be attained by the reading of Addison than by that of Stevenson. BESANT, WALTER, 1898, The Pen and the Book, p. 45.

In graphic portraiture and genial humor, in sweet temper and moral purity, combined with a courtly grace and tender sympathy, Addison stands surpassingly great. He is a great poet using the form of prose. His imagination is associative, penetrative, and reflective. GEORGE, ANDREW J., 1898, From Chaucer to Arnold.

Of his English verse nothing has survived, except his really beautiful hymns, where the combination of sincere religious feelings (of the sincerity of Addison's religion there is absolutely no doubt, though it was of a kind now out of fashion) and of critical restraint produced things of real, though modest and quiet, excellence. "The Lord my pasture shall prepare," "The spacious firmament on high," and "How are Thy servants blest! O Lord," may lack the mystical inspiration of the greatest hymns, but their cheerful piety, their graceful use of images, which, though common, are never mean, their finish and even, for the time, their fervour make them singularly pleasant. The man who wrote them may have had foibles and shortcomings, but he can have had no very grave faults, as the authors of more hysterical and glowing compositions easily might. The two principal prose works are little read now, but they are worth reading. They exhibit, in the opening of the "Medals" and in all the descriptive passages of the "Italy," the curious insensibility of the time to natural beauty, or else its almost more curious inability to express what it felt, save in the merest generalities and commonplaces. -SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature.

As a rule his epistolary style has the defect of his essays: it is too finished, formal, and self-conscious. He is so desperately afraid of betraying the least emotion, that he appears more frigid than he really was. Suaviter subridens he dares not break into a hearty laugh. "Elegant" to the point of exasperation, he conveys an unfortunate, and indeed erroneous, impression of insincerity.-POOLE, STANLEY LANE-1898, Eighteenth Century Letters, ed. Johnson, Introduction, p. xxvii.

Occasionally a writer may even gain deserved eminence chiefly by the excellence of his style. Joseph Addison was regarded for nearly a century as our first master of English prose. And not unjustly. Few writers ever have been able to render themselves with greater nicety. His style is flexible, graceful, urbane; it is Mr. Addison in speech. As we read it we see the very man as he was. As far as style goes, our grandfathers were right in their praise. But Addison never added much to the stock of human thought, never stirs our feelings very deeply. We see that there is not much in the man after all-no profound or original ideas, no deep passions.-WINCHESTER, C. T., 1899, Some Principles of Literary Criticism.

Excellent and devout spirit as Addison was, he escaped the dangers of zeal, and to him party-spirit appeared to be a deplorable form of madness. He could not understand why multitudes of honest gentlemen, who entirely agree in their lives, should take it in their heads to differ in their religion.-DOWDEN, EDWARD, 1900, Puritan and Anglican, p. 337.

We read his writings with a refined and soothing pleasure. They possess a genial humor and unvarying cheerfulness that are contagious and delightful. There is not other writer who has greater power to dispel gloominess. As seen through his pages, the world appears wrapped in a mellow light. We learn to think more kindly of men, to smile at human foibles, to entertain ennobling sentiments, to trust in an overruling providence. He does not indeed usually treat of the deeper interests of human life; he is never profound; he does not try to exhaust a subject-to write it to the dregs. His sphere is rather that of minor morals, social foibles, and small philosophy. But if he is not deep, he is not trifling; and if he is not exhaustive, he is always interesting.-PAINTER, F. V. N., 1899, A History of English Literature, p. 229.

Addison's prose is simple and intelligible, and, although he undoubtedly took great pains to make it finished, and was about the first to regard prose writing as an art, it always appears natural and unaffected. JOHNSON, CHARLES F., 1900, Outline History of English and American Literature, p. 253.

PERSONAL

Mr. John Flamsteed, the King's astronomer at Greenwich, was formerly my constant correspondent for many years, but upon publication of my "Dioptrics," he took such offence at my placing a solution of his, of the 16, 17, and 18 propositions thereof, after, and not before, the solution I myself gave of the said proposition, that he broke his friendship with me, and that, too, with so much inveteracy, that I could never bring him to a reconciliation, though I have often endeavoured it, so that at last 1 slighted the friendship of a man of so much ill nature and irreligion, how ingenious and learned soever. MOLYNEUX, WILLIAM, 1694, Life: An Account of the Family and Descendants of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Bart.

Mr. John Flamsteed, the astronomer, was born at Darby. His father was a wealthy maltster, and this gentleman being deformed, and therefore the outcast of the family, was imployed by his father to carry out maly with the brewing pan; but finding this way of carrying very tiresome, he invented and made with his own hands a wheel-barrow, by which he thought to have eased the trouble and pains of carrying it on his back; but instead of ease, he found greater trouble, the burthen now being more considerable than before, by reason he had a much larger quantity to convey away at a time. This inconvenience made him repent that ever he had made a wheel-barrow, the thought of which he could never afterwards endure. At leisure times he studied the art of astronomy, and became eminent in it, insomuch that at last he sent to Mr. William Lilly, the famous figure-flinger, and took occasion to correct many of his errors and mistakes. Upon which Lilly, sir Jonas More, and sir George Wharton agreed to

give him a meeting, appointing the place for the conference to be the middle way between London and Derby. Upon this conference the said gentlemen were so well satisfied with Flamsteed's skill in the art of astronomy, that at their return to London they recommended him to king Charles the IId. as a man of great abilities in the foresaid profession. Whereupon the king erected him an observatory at Greenwich, upon the hill, where he hath continued ever since to make observations, and hath promised to publish a very large book in folio, containing the remarks he hath made in astronomy from the first beginning of his observations at Greenwich which book is all, or at least most of it, already printed by the encouragement of prince George of Denmark. It hath been revised by Dr. Halley, and many mistakes found in it; but I do not hear that 'tis to come out as yet, Mr. Flamsteed endeavouring as much as he can to hinder it's publication, being not thoroughly pleased that Dr. Halley should discover his errours; and withall he thinks that he ought to have more and better rewards than he hath yet met with, before his works appear, tho' 'tis very certain that the encouragement he hath already found is much beyond his merits, if we may credit divers ingenious persons that know the man, and his principles, (which are republican), and his sniveling, covetous temper.-HEARNE, THOMAS, 1715, Reliquia Hearnianæ, ed. Bliss, Oct. 31, vol. II, p. 26.

Attainments in science have certainly nothing to do with the present question; but after Flamsteed has charged Newton with illegal, unjust, and immoral acts, upon no evidence but his own, and has sullied that venerable name with vulgar and offensive abuse, it is a strange