the high post in which he was placed has not served to remove the prejudice usually entertained by men of business against men of letters. He was slow, irresolute, and timid; and, having no talents as a public speaker, was unable to fill the part of secretary of state in the debates of the house of commons. A consciousness of this inability, and declining health, induced him the next year to resign his office to Mr. Craggs, and to retire from public business upon a pension of 15001. per annum. The decline of health, unfortunately, was not a mere pretext; for an asthmatic disorder, to which he had been long subject, was fast tending to dropsy. Nor ought it to be concealed, that his constitution suffered injury from an habitual excess in wine. He had always been fond of a tavern life; and nothing seemed to give him so much enjoyment as unbending from fatigue, and warming the natural reserve and bashfulness of his temper with a select party of friends over an evening bottle. How dangerous the Circæan cup, when parts and virtue like those of Addison fell victims to it! He employed, however, the leisure of his closing life in supporting those religious principles which had accompanied the whole course of it

He drew up a "Defence of the Christian Re ligion," published in an unfinished state after his death. This contains more marks of historical credulity than a friend to his memory and to the cause would have wished; yet, as the voluntary offering of a layman, and one so high in reputation, it has been gratefully accepted.

When all hopes of prolongation of life were at an end, Addison sent for a young man, nearly related to him, who wanted such a lesson (supposed to have been his step-son, the earl of Warwick), and grasping his hand, said to him with tender emphasis, "see in what peace a Christian can die." He expired at Hollandhouse, Kensington, on June the 17th, 1719, when entering the 48th year of his age; leaving an only daughter by the countess of Warwick.

An edition of his works was published soon after his decease by Mr. Tickell, to whom he had given his papers, with directions concerning them. This contains, besides the pieces already noticed, several poetical translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses; and "Dialogues on the Usefulness of Ancient Medals, especially in Relation to the Latin and Greek Poets." This last work, for which he began to collect materials

when on his travels, is a most delightful performance, not only highly gratifying to one of classical taste, by its easy and elegant illustrations of passages in the finest ancient writers (in which, however, he is not original); but affording, perhaps, the happiest specimen in the English language of the true mode of dialogue-writing, in which the characters of the speakers are supported with a dramatic propriety, and the dryness of didactic subject is enlivened with strokes of didactic humour and vivacity of remark. Pope contributed to it a prefatory copy of verses, highly elegant and complimentary. In this edition was omitted, greatly to the offence of Steele, a comedy called "The Drummer, or Haunted House," which had been written some years before by Addison, and fitted and recommended to the stage by Steele, but met with little success in the acting. It is now printed with Addison's works; and some late critics of note have bestowed high commendations upon it. Without doubt, it contains several scenes of genuine humour, but rather over-wrought, and belonging to low life; and its pretensions to the higher rank of comedy are very small It gives some pain to find, that one of the last of Addison's literary exertions was the carrying on an

angry and contemptuous political controversy with his old friend and constant associate Steele. This was on occasion of the celebrated bill for limitting the number of the peerage; which measure was attacked by Steele, and defended by Addison in two papers, entitled, "The Old Whig." They were not inserted in Tickell's edition," but have been published in a separate pamphlet.

To what has already been said of the moral and literary character of Addison, not much needs be added. It is universally agreed, that the former was highly estimable; and few men couldboast a larger list of friends and admirers of the first rank for station and understanding. Even the bitterness of party did not dissolve some of his most valuable friendships; and with the acrimonious Swift he maintained a mutual intercourse of kindness and respect, though occasionally obscured by political clouds. With Pope he had a longer and more serious difference; and his conduct towards this great poet, but irritable man, has subjected him to more censure than almost any other circumstance of his life. It is unnecessary to canvass the particulars of what, after all, amounts to little more than a squabble between two of the genus irrita

bile. Its principal occasion seems to have been the patronage Addison gave to Tickell's translation of the first book of the Iliad; and perhaps there was some want of openness and candour in his fluctuation between two persons, one of whom he wished to serve as an humble friend, and the other of whom he was in awe of as a rising genius. Some jealousy in one arrived to the chair in polite literature towards a dangerous competitor is credible, and, in the imperfect state of humanity, excusable. Pope, however, considered himself as deeply injured; and he has left the tokens of his resentment in some lines, which their exquisite polish renders only more cutting. They are in his "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," and were sent to Addison in manuscript, but not printed till after his death. Though they bear undoubted marks of exaggeration, yet it is probable that there was a just foundation for the satire on this eminent person's leading foibles, literary jealousy, and a love of flattery.

It may be mentioned, to the honour of Addison, that, though warmly attached to the church of England, and to the orthodox system of faith, he shewed much friendship to Whiston, and pro