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XXVII.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

1672-1719.

JOSEPH ADDISON was born at Milstone in 1672. He learned his rudiments at schools in the neighbourhood of his home, and was then sent to the Charterhouse. At fifteen he was entered at Queen's College, Oxford, but he had not been there many months, when a copy of Latin Verses, which attracted the notice of Dr. Lancaster, gained him admittance at Magdalen College. As Demy and afterwards as Fellow he resided for ten years at Magdalen, and his College is still proud of his name. During his residence at the University he appears to have concentrated his attention on the study of the Latin poets, and to have had some thought of devoting himself to poetry; his position as Fellow of a College, rich in preferment, would naturally have led him to the Church as a profession, but the influence of the Lord Chancellor Somers and of Montague determined his choice otherwise. In 1699, he left Oxford and remained on the Continent for more than four years, in Paris studying French and enjoying the society of philosophers and poets, and in Italy making himself familiar with the monuments of ancient and modern art, and strengthening himself by the observation of superstition and misrule in the love which he had early conceived for truth and freedom.

On his return to England, at the end of 1703, Addison's prospects of employment were for a while clouded by the fall of the Whigs and rise of the Tories at the accession of Anne. But this cloud did not last long, and in 1705 he was made Under Secretary and employed on a foreign mission. He became afterwards Chief Secretary for Ireland-an office which he

filled twice,-Secretary to the Lords Justices, and finally in 1717 Secretary of State. This completes the tale of Addison's public career. It was like his private life-unblemished and stainless in its integrity. He married in 1716 the Countess of Warwick, and died in 1719, having just completed his fortyseventh year.

As an author, Addison has left poems, among which was the Campaign, written to celebrate Marlborough's victory at Blenheim; plays, of which the most successful was Cato; his Italian Travels; and lastly, the immortal papers which have given enduring fame to the Tatler, Spectator, Guardian, and one or two other short-lived periodicals.

Addison's style has always been looked upon as the model of classical English. In delicacy of wit, fertility of imagination, and grace of expression, his best essays, Lord Macaulay truly says, approach near to absolute perfection. Mr. Thackeray holds Addison to have been one of the most enviable of mankind. A life prosperous and beautiful-a calm death-an immense fame and affection afterwards for his happy and spotless name.'

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The extent and variety of his powers is such that it is impossible to give an adequate idea of them in the following brief extracts.

1. The Papal States at the close of the 17th Century.

IN my way from Rome to Naples I found nothing so remarkable as the beauty of the country, and the extreme poverty of its inhabitants. It is indeed an amazing thing to see the present desolation of Italy, when one considers what incredible multitudes of people it abounded with during the reigns of the Roman Emperors: and notwithstanding the removal of the Imperial seat, the irruptions of the barbarous nations, the civil wars of this country, with the hardships of its several governments, one can scarce imagine how so

plentiful a soil should become so miserably unpeopled in comparison of what it once was. We may reckon, by a very moderate computation, more inhabitants in the Campania of old Rome than are now in all Italy. And if we could number up those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of this delightful country, I question not but that they would amount to more than can be found, at present, in any six parts of Europe of the same extent. This desolation appears nowhere greater than in the Pope's territories, and yet there are several reasons would make a man expect to see these dominions the best regulated and most flourishing of any other in Europe. Their Prince is generally a man of learning and virtue, mature in years and experience, who has seldom any vanity or pleasure to gratify at his people's expense, and is neither encumbered with wife, children or mistresses; not to mention the supposed sanctity of his character, which obliges him in a more particular manner to consult the good and happiness of mankind. The direction of church and state are lodged entirely in his own hands, so that his government is naturally free from those principles of faction and division which are mixed in the very composition of most others. His subjects are always ready to fall in with his designs, and are more at his disposal than any others of the most absolute government, as they have a greater veneration for his person, and not only court his favour but his blessing. His country is extremely fruitful, and has good havens both for the Adriatic and Mediterranean, which is an advantage peculiar to himself and the Neapolitans above the rest of the Italians. There is still a benefit the Pope enjoys above all other sovereigns, in drawing great sums out of Spain, Germany, and other countries that belong to foreign Princes, which one would fancy might be no small ease to his own subjects. We may

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here add, that there is no place in Europe so much frequented by strangers, whether they are such as come out of curiosity, or such who are obliged to attend the court of Rome on several occasions, as are many of the cardinals and prelates, that bring considerable sums into the Pope's dominions. But notwithstanding all these promising circumstances, and the long peace that has reigned so many years in Italy, there is not a more miserable people in Europe than the Pope's subjects. His state is thin of inhabitants, and a great part of his soil uncultivated. His subjects are wretchedly poor and idle, and have neither sufficient manufactures, nor traffic to employ them. These ill effects may arise, in a great measure, out of the arbitrariness of the government, but I think they are chiefly to be ascribed to the very genius of the Roman Catholic religion, which here shews itself in its perfection. It is not strange to find a country half unpeopled, where so great a proportion of the inhabitants of both sexes is tied under such vows of chastity, and where at the same time an inquisition forbids all recruits out of any other religion. Nor is it less easy to account for the great poverty and want that are to be met with in a country which invites into it such swarms of vagabonds, under the title of Pilgrims, and shuts up in cloisters such an incredible multitude of young and lusty beggars, who, instead of increasing the common stock by their labour and industry, lie as a dead weight on their fellow-subjects, and consume the charity that ought to support the sickly, old and decrepid. The many hospitals, that are everywhere erected, serve rather to encourage idleness in the people, than to set them at work; not to mention the great riches which lie useless in churches and religious houses, with the multitude of festivals that must never be violated by trade or business. To speak truly, they are here so wholly taken up with men's souls, that they

neglect the good of their bodies; and when, to these natural evils in the government and religion, there arises among them an avaricious Pope, who is for making a family, it is no wonder if the people sink under such a complication of distempers. Yet it is to this humour of nepotism that Rome owes its present splendour and magnificence; for it would have been impossible to have furnished out so many glorious palaces with such a profusion of pictures, statues, and the like ornaments, had not the riches of the people at several times fallen into the hands of many different families, and of particular persons; as we may observe, though the bulk of the Roman people was more rich and happy in the times of the commonwealth, the city of Rome received all its beauties and embellishments under the Emperors. It is probable the Campania of Rome, as well as other parts of the Pope's territories, would be cultivated much better than it is, were there not such an exorbitant tax on corn, which makes them plough up only such spots of ground as turn to the most advantage: whereas were the money to be raised on lands, with an exception to some of the more barren parts, that might be tax free for a certain term of years, every one would turn his ground to the best account, and in a little time perhaps bring more money into the Pope's treasury.

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I was this morning awaked by a sudden shake of the house; and as soon as I had got a little out of my consternation, I felt another, which was followed by two or three repetitions of the same convulsion. I got up as fast as possible, girt on my rapier, and snatched up my hat, when my landlady came up to me, and told me, that the gentlewoman of the next house begged me to step thither, for

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