he understood his authors cannot be doubted; but his verfions will not teach others to underftand them, being too licentiously paraphraftical. They are, however, for the most part, smooth and easy; and, what is the first excellence of a tranflator, fuch as may be read with pleasure by those who do not know the originals.

His poetry is polished and pure; the product of a mind too judicious to commit faults, but not fufficiently vigorous to attain excellence. He has fometimes a ftriking line, or a fhining paragraph; but in the whole he is warm rather than fervid, and fhews more dexterity than ftrength. He was however one of our earliest examples of correctness.

The verfification which he had learned from Dryden he debased rather than refined. His rhymes are often diffonant; in his Georgick he admits broken lines. He ufes both triplets and alexandrines, but triplets more frequently in his tranflation than his other works. The mere ftructure of verfes feems never to have engaged much of his

care. But his lines are very smooth in Rofamond, and too smooth in Cato.

Addifon is now to be confidered as a critick; a name which the prefent generation is fcarcely willing to allow him. His criticifm is condemned as tentative or experimental, rather than scientifick; and he is confidered as deciding by taste rather than by principles.

It is not uncommon, for those who have grown wife by the labour of others, to add a little of their own, and overlook their masters. Addison is now despised by some who perhaps would never have feen his defects, but by the lights which he afforded them. That he al

ways wrote as he would think it

neceffary to

write now, cannot be affirmed; his inftructions were fuch as the characters of his readers made proper. That general knowledge which now circulates in common talk, was in his time rarely to be found. Men not profeffing learning were not ashamed of ignorance; and, in the female world, any acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be cenfured. His purpose was to infufe literary curiofity by gentle and unfufpected conveyance, into

the

the gay, the idle, and the wealthy: he therefore prefented knowledge in the most alluring form, not lofty and auftere, but acceffible and familiar. When he fhewed them their defects, he fhewed them likewife that they might be eafily fupplied. His attempt fucceeded; enquiry was awakened, and comprehenfion expanded. An emulation of intellectual elegance was excited, and from this time to our own life has been gradually exalted, and converfation purified and enlarged.

Dryden had, not many years before, fcat, tered criticism over his Prefaces with very lit tle parfimony; but though he sometimes condefcended to be fomewhat familiar, his manner was in general too fcholaftick for those who had yet their rudiments to learn, and found it not easy to understand their mafter. His obfervations were framed rather for those that were learning to write, than for thofe that read only to talk,

An inftructor like Addifon was now wanting, whofe remarks being fuperficial might be eafily understood, and being juft might prepare the mind for more attainments. Had

he

he prefented Paradife Loft to the publick with all the pomp of fyftem and severity of science, the criticism would perhaps have been admired, and the poem ftill have been neglected; but by the blandishments of gentlenefs and facility, he has made Milton an univerfal favourite with whom readers of clafs think it neceffary to be pleafed.

every

He defcended now and then to lower difquifitions; and by a ferious difplay of the beauties of Chevy-Chafe expofed himself to the ridicule of Wagstaff, who bestowed a like pompous character on Tom Thumb; and to the contempt of Dennis, who, confidering the fundamental pofition of his criticism, that Chevy-Chafe pleafes, and ought to please, because it is natural, obferves, "that there is a "way of deviating from nature, by bombaft "or tumour, which foars above nature, and enlarges images beyond their real bulk; by affectation, which forfakes nature in "queft of fomething unfuitable; and by imbecillity, which degrades nature by faintnefs and diminution, by obfcuring its appearances, and weakening its effects.' In Chevy-Chafe there is not much of either bom

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baft

baft or affectation; but there is chill and lifelefs imbecillity. The ftory cannot poffibly be told in a manner that fhall make lefs impreffion on the mind,

Before the profound obfervers of the prefent race repofe too fecurely on the confciouf nefs of their fuperiority to Addison, let them confider his Remarks on Ovid, in which may be found fpecimens of criticism fufficiently fubtle and refined: let them perufe likewife his Effays on Wit, and on the Pleafures of Imagination, in which he founds art on the base of nature, and draws the principles of invention from difpofitions inherent in the mind of man with skill and elegance, fuch as his contemners will not eafily attain.

As a defcriber of life and manners, he must be allowed to ftand perhaps the first of the first rank. His humour, which, as Steele pbferves, is peculiar to himself, is fo happily diffused as to give the grace of novelty to domeftick scenes and daily occurrences. He never outsteps the modefty of nature," nor raifes merriment or wonder by the violation of truth. His figures neither divert by dif

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tortion,