won the hand of the Countess-Dowager of Warwick and Holland, to whom he was married August 2, 1716, becoming thus the nominal master of the famous Holland House, where he died in peace June 17, 1719. An infant daughter survived him. The marriage proved uncongenial, and drove him into indulgences which probably shortened his life. Tickell, to whom was entrusted the publication of his "Works," celebrated his praise in an elegy addressed to his step-son, the Earl of Warwick. In this ode occur the following lines: "Of just and good he reasoned strong, Cleared some great truth, or raised some serious song; A candid censor and a friend severe; There taught us how to live, and-oh! too high The price for knowledge-taught us how to die." The allusion in the last line is thought to refer to his last interview with the gay young earl,—“I have sent for you,” he said, "that you may see how a Christian can die." The son and grandson of clergymen, Addison had been designed for the Church, but the prospect of political preferment and power drew him into another line of life. He never, however, forswore his faith in Christ. The savor of divine truth, and oft of godliness, pervades both his poetry and prose. The five well-known hymns, by which he has endeared himself so greatly to the Christian world, appeared at intervals in The Spectator. The paper (No. 441) for Saturday, July 26, 1712, treats of Man's Dependence on the Care of the Almighty, and closes in these words: "David has very beautifully represented this reliance on God Almighty in his Twenty-third Psalm, which is a kind of Pastoral Hymn, and filled with those allusions which are used in that kind of writing. As the poetry is very exquisite, I shall present my readers with the following translation of it: prepare, ," etc. 'The Lord my pasture shall Refreshed in spirit, doubtless, by these sweet utterances, he gave his readers, a fortnight later-Saturday, August 9, 1712 (No. 453)-another specimen of his familiarity with the sacred Muse. His theme is "Gratitude," and he says at the close: "I have already communicated to the public some pieces of divine poetry, and, as they have met with a very favorable reception, I shall from time to time publish any work of the same nature which has not yet appeared in print and may be acceptable to my readers." Then follows that precious testimony to the loving-kindness and grace of the Almighty: "When all thy mercies, O my God," etc., in thirteen stanzas. It is worthy of note that ten days after-August 19, 1712 -Addison published a communication from the Rev. Isaac Watts with his version of the 114th Psalm: "When Israel freed from Pharaoh's hand," etc. Addison was but two years older than Watts, and may have been led into the writing of hymns by the publication of Watts' hymns, 1707-1709, with which he had undoubtedly been made acquainted. Again, at the close of another fortnight-August 23, 1712 -he discoursed (No. 465) of the Means of Confirming One's Faith in God, and, as conducive to it, advises "Retirement from the World," and "Religious Meditation." "The Supreme Being," he says, "has made the best arguments for his own existence in the formation of the heavens and the earth, and these are arguments which a man of sense can not forbear attending to who is out of the noise and hurry of human affairs." "The Psalmist has very beautiful strokes of poetry to this purpose in that exalted strain,-"The heavens declare the glory of God," etc. "As such a bold and sublime manner of thinking furnishes very noble matter for an ode, the reader may see it wrought into the following one: 'The spacious firmament on high,'" etc. Such was the origin of that ode-so grand, noble, and ma jestic, known and sung everywhere throughout the Englishspeaking world. Thackeray, referring particularly to the stanza beginning with, "Soon as the evening shades prevail," remarks: "It seems to me those verses shine like the stars. They shine out of a great, deep calm. When he turns to heaven a Sabbath comes over that man's mind, and his face lights up from it with a glory of thanks and prayer.” A period of four weeks now intervened, and on Saturday, September 20, 1712, he treated (No. 489) of the Grandeur of the Ocean, as suggestive of the greater Grandeur of the Creation; alludes to the fact that he had made several voyages upon the sea," and often been tossed in storms; refers to Ps. cvii. 23–30 as giving a better description of a ship in a storm than any he had ever met with; and then says of his essay: "I shall accompany it with a divine ode made by a gentleman upon the conclusion of his travels: 'How are thy servants blessed, O Lord!'" etc. It is in ten stanzas. The hymn may have been written in 1703, when Addison returned from his travels abroad. A month passed, and on Saturday, October 18th (No. 512), he published an essay on the Apprehension of Death and Judgment, as experienced on a bed of severe illness, and appended to it a hymn that he had composed while thus afflicted: "When rising from the bed of death," etc. In the fifth of his six stanzas Addison wrote, "And hear my Saviour's dying groans, To give those sorrows weight"; a plea that needs to be considerably qualified to meet the demands of Scriptural orthodoxy. Thackeray well observes: "If Swift's life was the most wretched, I think Addison's was one of the most enviable -a life prosperous and beautiful, a calm death, an immense fame, and affection afterward for his happy and spotless name." CECIL FRANCES [HUMPHREYS] ALEXANDER. MRS. ALEXANDER is an Irish lady, the daughter of Major Humphreys, Strabane, County Tyrone, where she was born and educated. At an early age she gave evidence of superior intellectual gifts. In 1846 she became known to the world of song by her "Verses for Holy Seasons for the Use of School-rooms," edited by the Rev. Walter Farquhar Hook, D.D., Vicar of Leeds. Two years afterward (1848) she published, with the imprimatur of the Rev. John Keble, her "Hymns for Little Children," of which more than 250,000 copies have been sold. The "Hymns" are a series of short poems on the clauses of the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. The same year she gave to the press "The Baron's Little Daughter." Miss Humphreys in 1850 became the wife of the Rev. William Alexander, a native of Londonderry, the son of an Irish clergyman and a cousin of the late Earl of Caledon. Having served for years as rector of several important parishes, in 1864 he was made Dean of Emly, and, in 1807, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. In the midst of her domestic and parochial cares Mrs. Alexander found time to cultivate her poetic gifts. In 1857 she published her "Narrative Hymns"; in 1858, "Hymns Descriptive and Devotional"; and, in 1859, "The Legend of the Golden Prayer, and other Poems." She has also published "Moral Songs," "Poems on Subjects in the Old Testament," and "The Lord of the Forest and his Vassals: an Allegory." In 1865 she edited "The Sunday Book of Poetry," one of the "Golden Treasury Series." She resides at Londonderry, Ireland, and devotes the proceeds of her publications to the support of a deaf-mute school in her neighborhood. She has ever taken a deep interest in the welfare of the poor, and especially of the young, for whom nearly all her books and poems have been written. A lovely spirit-devout and heavenly, meek and gentle-pervades all her writings. "May this volume," she says in the Preface to her "Sunday Book of Poetry," "in some measure tend to make Sunday a pleasant day to children. May it help to teach them to praise God, the Father, Son, and Spirit; to contemplate life and death and their own hearts as Christians should; to understand the spirit of the Bible; and, through this fair creation, to look up to Him who is its Creator." JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER. 1804-1859. THIS accomplished scholar and divine was of ScotchIrish descent. The home of the Alexanders was the beautiful and romantic valley of Virginia. The father of James, afterward the celebrated theologian of Princeton Seminary-Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. [1772-1851]— in 1802 married Janetta, daughter of James Waddel, the eloquent "Blind Preacher" of Wirt's "British Spy." At the residence of her father, on an estate called Hopewell, at the junction of Louisa, Orange, and Albemarle Counties, Virginia, she gave birth, March 13, 1804, to her eldest son, to whom she gave her father's honored name. In his fourth year, his parents became residents of Philadelphia, Pa.; and in his ninth year, of Princeton, N. J. At the early age of thirteen, he entered the College of New Jersey, and, having distinguished himself for his scholarship, graduated September, 1820; entered the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1821; was appointed in April, 1824, Mathematical Tutor in the College of New Jersey; |