wit at once blazed into faction. He was foon too hot for neutral topicks, and quitted the Guardian to write the Englishman. The papers of Addison are marked in the Spectator by one of the Letters in the name of Clio, and in the Guardian by a hand; whether it was, as Tickell pretends to think, that he was unwilling to ufurp the praise of others, or as Steele, with far greater likelihood, infinuates, that he could not without difcontent impart to others any of his own. I have heard that his avidity did not fatisfy itself with the air of renown, but that with great eagerness he laid hold on his proportion of the profits. Many of these papers were written with powers truly comick, with nice difcrimination of characters, and accurate obfervation of natural or accidental deviations from propriety; but it was not fuppofed that he had tried a comedy on the stage, till Steele, after his death, declared him the author of the Drummer; this however he did not know to be true by any cogent teftimony; for when Addifon put the play into his hands, he only told him it was the work of a Gentleman in the Company; and when it was received, as is confeffed, with cold difapprobation, he was probably lefs willing to claim it. Tickell omitted it in his collection; but the teftimony of Steele, and the total filence of any other claimant, has determined the publick to affign it to Addison, and it is now printed with his other poetry. Steele carried the Drummer to the playhouse, and afterwards to the prefs, and fold the copy for fifty guineas. To the opinion of Steele may be added the proof fupplied by the play itself, of which the characters are fuch as Addison would have delineated, and the tendency fuch as Addifon would have promoted. That it fhould have been ill received would raise wonder, did we not daily fee the capricious diftribution of theatrical praife. He was not all this time an indifferent fpectator of publick affairs. He wrote, as different exigencies required (in 1707), The prefent State of the War, and the Neceffity of an Augmentation; which, however judicious, being written on temporary topicks, and exhibiting no peculiar powers, has naturally funk funk by its own weight into neglect. This cannot be said of the few papers entitled The Whig Examiner, in which is exhibited all the force of gay malevolence and humorous fatire. Of this paper, which just appeared and expired, Swift remarks, with exultation, that it is now down among the dead men. He might well rejoice at the death of that which he could not have killed. Every reader of every party, fince perfonal malice is paft, and the papers which once inflamed the nation are read only as effufions of wit, must wish for more of the Whig Examiners; for on no occafion was the genius of Addison more vigorously exerted, and on none did the superiority of his wit more evidently appear. His Trial of Count Tariff, written to expose the Treaty of Commerce with France, lived no longer than the question that produced it. Not long afterwards an attempt was made to revive the Spectator, at a time indeed by no means favourable to literature, when the fucceffion of a new family to the throne filled the nation with anxiety, difcord, and confufion; and either the turbulence of the times, or the fatiety of the readers, put a stop to to the publication, after an experiment of eighty numbers, which were afterwards collected into an eighth volume, perhaps more valuable than any one of those that went before it: Addison produced more than a fourth part, and the other contributors are by no means unworthy of appearing as his affociates. The time that had paffed during the fufpenfion of the Spectator, though it had not leffened his power of humour, seems to have increased his difpofition to seriousness: the proportion of his religious to his comick papers is greater than in the former feries. The Spectator, from its recommencement, was published only three times a week; and no difcriminative marks were added to the papers. To Addison Tickell has ascribed twenty-three *. The Spectator had many contributors; and Steele, whofe negligence kept him always in a hurry, when it was his turn to furnish a paper, called loudly for the Letters, of which *Numb. 556. 557 558. 559. 561. 562. 565. 567. 568. 569.571. 574 575 579. 580. 582. 583. 584. 585. 590. 592. 598. 600. CJ Addison, Addison, whofe materials were more, made little ufe; having recourfe to sketches and hints, the product of his former ftudies, which he now reviewed and completed: among these are named by Tickell the Essays on Wit, thofe on the Pleasures of the Imagi nation, and the Criticifm on Milton. When the House of Hanover took poffeffion of the throne, it was reafonable to expect that the zeal of Addison would be fuitably rewarded. Before the arrival of king George, he was made fecretary to the regency, and was required by his office to fend notice to Hanover that the Queen was dead, and that the throne was vacant. To do this would not have been difficult to any man but Addison, who was fo overwhelmed with the greatnefs of the event, and fo distracted. by choice of expreffion, that the lords, who could not wait for the niceties of criticism, called Mr. Southwell, a clerk in the house, and ordered him to dispatch the meffage. Southwell readily told what was necessary, in the common ftyle of bufinefs, and valued himself upon having done what was too hard for Addison. :) He |