L to employ the basest means for the supposed sanctity or importance of the end in view. The two papers that he has written on these subjects' exhibit his knowledge of mankind, his good sense and purity of principle, in a full and very striking light. Without a certain species of enthusiasm or zeal, indeed, it is probable nothing great or good can be effected in society; but when this passes beyond due bounds, owing either to vicious motives or a mistaken sense of virtue, it is productive of great and incalculable mischief. "I love to see a man zealous in a good matter," says our amiable author, "and especially when his zeal shows itself for advancing morality, and promoting the happiness of mankind. But when I find the instruments he works with are racks and gibbets, galleys and dungeons; when he imprisons men's persons, confiscates their estates, ruins their families, and burns the body to save the soul, I cannot stick to pronounce of such a one that (whatever he may think of his faith and religion) his faith is vain, and his religion unprofitable." On education and the domestic virtues, and on the duties incumbent on father, husband, wife, and child, the precepts of our author are numerous, just, and cogent, and delivered in that sweet, insinuating style and manner which have rendered him beyond comparison the most useful moralist this country ever possessed. The imagery by which he indicates the effect and force of education is singularly happy and appropriate; the hint is taken from Aristotle, who affirms that in a block of marble, the statue which the sculptor ultimately produces is merely concealed, and that the effect of his art is only to remove the surrounding matter which hides the beauteous figure from the view. "What sculpture is to a block of marble," says Addison, "education is to a human soul. We see it sometimes only begun to be chipped; sometimes roughhewn, and but just sketched into an human figure; sometimes we see the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs and features, sometimes we find the figure wrought up to a great elegancy; but seldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidias or Praxiteles could not give several nice touches and finishings." * * The sweetness and placidity of Addison's disposition happily led him to expatiate on topics intimately connected with, and productive of, the temper and frame of mind of which he himself exhibited so delightful an example. Hence his essays on "Contentment," on "Cheerfulness," and on "Hope," are some of the most interesting and pleasing of his productions. "Spectator," vol. iii. No. 185, and vol. vii. No. 507. He well knew that the best ingredients in the cup of human life were regulated desires and subdued expectations; and that he would be little liable to disappointment, and most able to bear up under affliction, who looked forward not to this, but to a future life for what is usually called happiness. "The utmost we can hope for in this world," he observes, "is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief and disappointment.' A man should direct all his studies and endeavors at making himself easy now and happy hereafter; a truth which cannot be too strongly or frequently impressed upon the mind; and to which, in addition to what I have already said upon the same subject, in my observations on Steele, I am now willing to add the authority and experience of Addison. Another very consolatory resource under adversity, and which might often reconcile us to apparent evils, has been very properly brought forward by our author as a powerful motive to contentment. "Possibly," says he, "what we now look upon as the greatest misfortune is not really such in itself. For my own part, I question not but our souls in a separate state will look back on their lives in quite another view than what they had of them in the body; and that what they now consider as misfortunes and disappointments, will very often appear to have been escapes and blessings." The essays on "Cheerfulness" present us with a most pleasing view of the author's habitual temper of mind, and are written with great perspicuity of argument, and in a strain of the most persuasive eloquence. The definitions of mirth and cheerfulness with which the first essay opens are uncommonly just and beautiful. "Mirth," says he, "is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity." He considers cheerfulness in three points of view, as it regards ourselves, or those we converse with, or the Author of our being; and affirms that nothing but guilt or infidelity ought reasonably to deprive us of its blessings. He details its salutary effects both upon the health of the body and mind, delivers observations on the goodness of the Deity in rendering Spectator, No. 163. Ibid., Nos. 381, 387, 393. creation in all its parts subservient to the promotion of this desirable state, and concludes by recommending a taste for natural history, and by inculcating a religious sense of obligation to the Creator of all that is good and beautiful. "The cheerfulness of heart," he observes, "which springs up in us from the survey of nature's works is an admirable preparation for gratitude. The mind has gone a great way towards praise and thanksgiving that is filled with such secret gladness. A grateful reflection on the Supreme Cause who produces it sanctifies it in the soul, and gives it its proper value. Such an habitual disposition of mind consecrates every field and wood, turns an ordinary walk into a morning or evening sacrifice, and will improve those transient gleams of joy which naturally brighten up and refresh the soul on such occasions, into an inviolable and perpetual state of bliss and happiness." The piety of Addison was founded on a clear and rational view of the attributes of the Deity, and of the doctrines of Christianity; and in the "Spectator" more especially, he has seized every opportunity of supporting and illustrating the great and momentous truths of natural and revealed religion. His essays on "the Supreme Being," on the "Omnipresence of the Deity," and on the "Immortality of the Soul," exhibit the power and goodness of the Creator in a manner at once sublime and philosophic. I consider, indeed, the paper on "Omnipresence and Omniscience" as one of the most perfect, impressive, and instructive pieces of composition that ever flowed from the pen of an uninspired moralist. Of the literary character of Addison, the preceding essays have attempted to delineate the leading features, and will, it is probable, impress upon the mind of the reader a very high idea of its excellence and utility. To him, in the first place, may we ascribe the formation of a style truly classical and pure, whose simplicity and grace have not yet been surpassed, and which, presenting a model of unprecedented elegance, laid the foundation for a general and increasing attention to the beauty and harmony of composition. His critical powers were admirably adapted to awaken and inform the public mind; to teach the general principles by which excellence may be attained; and, above all, to infuse a relish for the noblest productions of taste and genius. In humor, no man in this country, save Shakspeare, has excelled him; he possessed the faculty of an almost intuitive discri 1.66 Spectator," vol. vii. No. 531. 2 Ibid. vol. iii. No. 565. 3 Ibid. vol. • See "Compendium of English Literature," p. 361. ii. No. 111. mination of what was ludicrous and characteristic in each individual, and, at the same time, the most happy facility in so tinting and grouping his paintings that, whilst he never overstepped the modesty of nature, the result was alike rich in comic effect, in warmth of coloring, and in originality of design. Though his poetry, it must be confessed, is not remarkable for the energies of fancy, the tales, visions, and allegories dispersed through his periodical writings make abundant recompense for the defect, and very amply prove that, in the conception and execution of these exquisite pieces, no talent of the genuine bard, except that of versification, lay dormant or unemployed. It is, however, the appropriate, the transcendent praise of Addison that he steadily and uniformly, and in a manner peculiarly his own, exerted these great qualities in teaching and disseminating a love for morality and religion. He it was who, following the example of the divine Socrates, first stripped philosophy in this island of her scholastic garb, and bade her, clothed in the robes of elegant simplicity, allure and charm the multitude. He saw his countrymen become better as they became wiser; he saw them, through his instructions, feel and own the beauty of holiness and virtue; and for this we may affirm, posterity, however distant or refined, shall revere and bless his memory. INFLUENCE OF THE TATLER, GUARDIAN, AND SPECTATOR. To the periodical writings of Steele and Addison we are indebted for a most faithful and masterly delineation of the taste, the manners, and morals which prevailed during the eventful reign of Queen Anne; a portrait, indeed, by many degrees more highly finished than any which can be produced of preceding or subsequent periods. * * That it was the constant endeavor of Steele and Addison to correct the vices, ridicule the follies, and dissipate the ignorance which too generally prevailed at the commencement of the eighteenth century, equally appears from their professions, and the tendency of their productions. This great, this noble object, the "Spectator" ever holds in view; and he has taken an early opportunity of expressing, in the most clear and decided language, what were his views and wishes, and what were the means which he had adopted for the purpose of carrying his intentions into execution. "I shall endeavor," he observes, "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my readers may, if possible, both ways find their account in the speculation of the day. And to the end that their virtue and discretion may not be short, transient, intermitting starts of thought, I have resolved to refresh their memories from day to day, till I have recovered them out of that desperate state of vice and folly into which the age is fallen. The mind that lies fallow but a single day sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous culture. It was said of Socrates that he brought philosophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men; I shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that I have brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses."1 Of the success which attended the efforts of Steele and Addison, in the reformation and improvement of their own immediate age, nothing can afford so decisive a proof as the opinions of contemporaries competent to form a just estimate of the result of their labors.1 "Spectator," No. 10. "It is incredible to conceive the effect his writings have had on the town; how many thousand follies they have either quite banished, or given a very great check to; how much countenance they have added to virtue and religion; how many people they have rendered happy, by showing them it was their own fault if they were not so; and lastly, how entirely they have convinced our fops and young fellows of the value and advantages of learning. He has, indeed, rescued it out of the hands of pedants and fools, and discovered the true method of making it amiable and lovely to all mankind. In the dress he gives it, it is a most welcome guest at tea-tables and assemblies, and is relished and caressed by the merchants on the Change. Lastly, his writings have set all our wits and men of letters upon a new way of thinking, of which they had little or no notion before; and though we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the beauties of the original, I think we may venture to affirm that every one of them writes and thinks much more justly than they did some time since."-The Present State of Wit; in a Letter to a Friend in the Country, by the poet Gay. First printed in May, 1711. "All the pulpit discourses of a year scarce produced half the good as flowed from the Spectator' of a day. They who were tired and lulled to sleep by a long and labored harangue, or terrified at the appearance of large and weighty volumes, could cheerfully attend to a single half-sheet, where they found the images of virtue so lively and amiable, where vice was so agreeably ridiculed, that it grew painful to no man to part with his beloved follies; nor was he easy till he had practised those qualities which charmed so much in speculaThus good nature and good sense became habitual to their readers. Every morning they were instructed in some new principle of duty, which was endeared to them by the beauties of description, and thereby impressed on their minds in the most indelible characters. tion. "Such a work as this, in a Roman age, would have been more glorious than a public triumph: statues would have been raised, and medals have been struck in honor of the authors. Antiquity had so high a sense of gratitude for the communication of knowledge, that they worshipped their lawgivers, and deified the fathers of science. How then must they have acknowledged services like these, where every man grew wiser and better by the fine instruction."-See "An Essay, sacred to the memory of Sir Richard Steele," originally printed, immediately after his death, in the "British Journal, or the Censor," Sept. 13th, 1729. |