From Germany Addison repaired to But, whatever be the literary merits Holland, where he learned the melanor defects of the Epistle, it undoubt- choly news of his father's death. After edly does honour to the principles and passing some months in the United spirit of the author. Halifax had now Provinces, he returned about the close nothing to give. He had fallen from of the year 1703 to England. He was power, had been held up to obloquy, there cordially received by his friends, had been impeached by the House of and introduced by them into the Kit Commons, and, though his Peers had Cat Club, a society in which were coldismissed the impeachment, had, as it lected all the various talents and acseemed, little chance of ever again fill-complishments which then gave lustre ing high office. The Epistle, written to the Whig party.

In

At the beginning of the year 1704, the state of parties bore a close analogy to the state of parties in 1826. 1826, as in 1704, there was a Tory ministry divided into two hostile sections. The position of Mr. Canning and his friends in 1826 corresponded to that which Marlborough and Godolphin occupied in 1704. Notting

Addison was, during some months only by further concessions; and furafter his return from the Continent, ther concessions the Queen was induced hard pressed by pecuniary difficulties. to make. But it was soon in the power of his noble patrons to serve him effectually. A political change, silent and gradual, but of the highest importance, was in daily progress. The accession of Anne had been hailed by the Tories with transports of joy and hope; and for a time it seemed that the Whigs had fallen never to rise again. The throne was surrounded by men supposed to be at-ham and Jersey were, in 1704, what tached to the prerogative and to the Church; and among these none stood so high in the favour of the sovereign as the Lord Treasurer Godolphin and the Captain General Marlborough.

Lord Eldon and Lord Westmoreland were in 1826. The Whigs of 1704 were in a situation resembling that in which the Whigs of 1826 stood. In 1704, Somers, Halifax, Sunderland, The country gentlemen and country Cowper, were not in office. There was clergymen had fully expected that the no avowed coalition between them and policy of these ministers would be di- the moderate Tories. It is probable rectly opposed to that which had been that no direct communication tending almost constantly followed by William; to such a coalition had yet taken place; that the landed interest would be fa- yet all men saw that such a coalition voured at the expense of trade; that was inevitable, nay, that it was already no addition would be made to the half formed. Such, or nearly such, funded debt; that the privileges con- was the state of things when tidings ceded to Dissenters by the late King arrived of the great battle fought at would be curtailed, if not withdrawn; Blenheim on the 13th August, 1704. that the war with France, if there must By the Whigs the news was hailed be such a war, would, on our part, be with transports of joy and pride. No almost entirely naval; and that the fault, no cause of quarrel, could be reGovernment would avoid close con-membered by them against the Comnections with foreign powers, and, above all, with Holland.

mander whose genius had, in one day, changed the face of Europe, saved the Imperial throne, humbled the House of Bourbon, and secured the Act of Settlement against foreign hostility. The feeling of the Tories was very different. They could not indeed, without im

event so glorious to their country; but their congratulations were so cold and sullen as to give deep disgust to the victorious general and his friends.

But the country gentlemen and country clergymen were fated to be deceived, not for the last time. The prejudices and passions which raged without control in vicarages, in cathedral closes, and in the manor-houses of fox-prudence, openly express regret at an hunting squires, were not shared by the chiefs of the ministry. Those statesmen saw that it was both for the public interest, and for their own interest, to adopt a Whig policy, at least as respected the alliances of the country and the conduct of the war. But, if the foreign policy of the Whigs were adopted, it was impossible to abstain from adopting also their financial policy. The natural consequences followed. The rigid Tories were alienated from the Government. The votes of the Whigs became necessary to it. The votes of the Whigs could be secured

Godolphin was not a reading man. Whatever time he could spare from business he was in the habit of spending at Newmarket or at the cardtable. But he was not absolutely indifferent to poetry; and he was too intelligent an observer not to perceive that literature was a formidable engine of political warfare, and that the great Whig leaders had strengthened their party, and raised their character, by extend

ing a liberal and judicious patronage | Right Honourable Henry Boyle, then to good writers. He was mortified, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and and not without reason, by the ex- afterwards Lord Carleton. This highceeding badness of the poems which born minister had been sent by the appeared in honour of the battle of Lord Treasurer as ambassador to the Blenheim. One of these poems has needy poet. Addison readily underbeen rescued from oblivion by the ex- took the proposed task, a task which, quisite absurdity of three lines. to so good a Whig, was probably a "Think of two thousand gentlemen at least, pleasure. When the poem was little And each man mounted on his capering more than half finished, he showed it beast; to Godolphin, who was delighted with it, and particularly with the famous similitude of the Angel. Addison was instantly appointed to a Commissionership worth about two hundred pounds a year, and was assured that this appointment was only an earnest of

Into the Danube they were pushed by

shoals."

Where to procure better verses the Treasurer did not know. He understood how to negotiate a loan, or remit a subsidy he was also well versed in the history of running horses and fight-greater favours. ing cocks; but his acquaintance among The Campaign came forth, and was the poets was very small. He con- as much admired by the public as by sulted Halifax; but Halifax affected to the Minister. It pleases us less on the decline the office of adviser. He had, whole than the Epistle to Halifax. Yet he said, done his best, when he had it undoubtedly ranks high among the power, to encourage men whose abili- poems which appeared during the ties and acquirements might do honour interval between the death of Dryto their country. Those times were den and the dawn of Pope's geover. Other maxims had prevailed. nius. The chief merit of the CamMerit was suffered to pine in obscurity; paign, we think, is that which was and the public money was squandered noticed by Johnson, the manly and on the undeserving. "I do know," he rational rejection of fiction. The first added, "a gentleman who would cele- great poet whose works have come brate the battle in a manner worthy of down to us sang of war long before the subject; but I will not name him." war became a science or a trade. If, Godolphin, who was expert at the soft in his time, there was enmity between answer which turneth away wrath, and two little Greek towns, each poured who was under the necessity of paying forth its crowd of citizens, ignorant of court to the Whigs, gently replied that discipline, and armed with implements there was too much ground for Hali- of labour rudely turned into weapons. fax's complaints, but that what was On each side appeared conspicuous a amiss should in time be rectified, and few chiefs, whose wealth had enabled that in the meantime the services of a them to procure good armour, horses, man such as Halifax had described and chariots, and whose leisure had should be liberally rewarded. Halifax enabled them to practise military exerthen mentioned Addison, but, mindful cises. One such chief, if he were a of the dignity as well as of the pecu-man of great strength, agility, and niary interest of his friend, insisted that the Minister should apply in the most courteous manner to Addison himself; and this Godolphin promised to do.

Addison then occupied a garret up three pair of stairs, over a small shop in the Haymarket. In this humble lodging he was surprised, on the morning which followed the conversation between Godolphin and Halifax, by a visit from no less a person than the

courage, would probably be more for-
midable than twenty common men ;
and the force and dexterity with which
he flung his spear might have no in-
considerable share in deciding the
event of the day.
Such were pro-
bably the battles with which Homer
was familiar. But Homer related the
actions of men of a former generation,
of men who sprang from the Gods, and
communed with the Gods face to face,

of men, one of whom could with ease | and Monæsus, and the trumpeter Mohurl rocks which two sturdy hinds of a rinus. Hannibal runs Perusinus through later period would be unable even to the groin with a stake, and breaks the lift. He therefore naturally represented backbone of Telesinus with a huge their martial exploits as resembling in stone. This detestable fashion was kind, but far surpassing in magnitude, copied in modern times, and continued those of the stoutest and most expert to prevail down to the age of Addison. combatants of his own age. Achilles, Several versifiers had described Wilclad in celestial armour, drawn by liam turning thousands to flight by celestial coursers, grasping the spear his single prowess, and dyeing the which none but himself could raise, Boyne with Irish blood. Nay, so estidriving all Troy and Lycia before him, mable a writer as John Philips, the and choking Scamander with dead, author of the Splendid Shilling, reprewas only a magnificent exaggeration sented Marlborough as having won the of the real hero, who, strong, fearless, battle of Blenheim merely by strength accustomed to the use of weapons, of muscle and skill in fence. The folguarded by a shield and helmet of the lowing lines may serve as an example : best Sidonian fabric, and whirled along "Churchill, viewing where by horses of Thessalian breed, struck The violence of Tallard most prevailed, down with his own right arm foe after Came to oppose his slaughtering arm. With speed foe. In all rude societies similar notions are found. There are at this day countries where the Lifeguardsman Shaw would be considered as a much greater warrior than the Duke of Wellington. Buonaparte loved to describe the astonishment with which the Mamelukes looked at his diminutive figure. Mourad Bey, distinguished above all his fellows by his bodily strength, and by the skill with which he managed his horse and his sabre, could not believe that a man who was scarcely five feet high, and rode like a butcher, could be the greatest soldier in Europe.

Homer's descriptions of war had therefore as much truth as poetry requires. But truth was altogether wanting to the performances of those who, writing about battles which had scarcely any thing in common with the battles of his times, servilely imitated his man

ner.

Precipitate he rode, urging his way

O'er hills of gasping heroes, and fallen steeds

Rolling in death. Destruction, grim with blood,

Attends his furious course. Around his head

The glowing balls play innocent, while he With dire impetuous sway deals fatal blows

Among the flying Gauls. In Gallic blood
He dyes his reeking sword, and strews the
ground

With headless ranks. What can they do?
Or how

Withstand his wide-destroying sword?"

Addison, with excellent sense and taste, departed from this ridiculous fashion. He reserved his praise for the qualities which made Marlborough truly great, energy, sagacity, military science. But, above all, the poet extolled the firmness of that mind which, in the midst of confusion, uproar, and slaughter, examined and disposed every thing with the serene wisdom of a higher intelligence.

The folly of Silius Italicus, in particular, is positively nauseous. He undertook to record in verse the vicis- Here it was that he introduced the situdes of a great struggle between famous comparison of Marlborough to generals of the first order: and his an Angel guiding the whirlwind. We narrative is made up of the hideous will not dispute the general justice of wounds which these generals inflicted Johnson's remarks on this passage. with their own hands. Asdrubal flings But we must point out one circuma spear which grazes the shoulder of stance which appears to have escaped the consul Nero; but Nero sends his all the critics. The extraordinary spear into Asdrubal's side. Fabius effect which this simile produced when slays Thuris and Butes and Maris and it first appeared, and which to the folArses, and the longhaired Adherbes, lowing generation seemed inexplicable, and the gigantic Thylis, and Sapharus is doubtless to be chiefly attributed to

a line which most readers now regard | charmed by that singularly humane as a feeble parenthesis, and delicate humour in which Addison Yet this agreeable "Such as, of late, o'er pale Britannia pass'd." excelled all men. work, even when considered merely as Addison spoke, not of a storm, but of the history of a literary tour, may the storm. The great tempest of No- justly be censured on account of its vember 1703, the only tempest which faults of omission. We have already in our latitude has equalled the rage of said that, though rich in extracts from a tropical hurricane, had left a dread- the Latin poets, it contains scarcely ful recollection in the minds of all any references to the Latin orators and men. No other tempest was ever in historians. We must add, that it conthis country the occasion of a parlia-tains little, or rather no information, mentary address or of a public fast. respecting the history and literature of Whole fleets had been cast away. modern Italy. To the best of our reLarge mansions had been blown down. membrance, Addison does not mention One Prelate had been buried beneath Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Boiardo, the ruins of his palace. London and Berni, Lorenzo de' Medici, or MachiaBristol had presented the appearance velli. He coldly tells us, that at Ferof cities just sacked. Hundreds of rara he saw the tomb of Ariosto, and families were still in mourning. The that at Venice he heard the gondoliers prostrate trunks of large trees, and the sing verses of Tasso. But for Tasso ruins of houses, still attested, in all and Ariosto he cared far less than for the southern counties, the fury of the Valerius Flaccus and Sidonius Apolblast. The popularity which the simile linaris. The gentle flow of the Ticin of the angel enjoyed among Addison's brings a line of Silius to his mind. The contemporaries, has always seemed to sulphurous steam of Albula suggests us to be a remarkable instance of the to him several passages of Martial. advantage which, in rhetoric and But he has not a word to say of the poetry, the particular has over the illustrious dead of Santa Croce; he general. crosses the wood of Ravenna without Soon after the Campaign, was pub-recollecting the Spectre Huntsman, lished Addison's Narrative of his Travels in Italy. The first effect produced by this Narrative was disappointment. The crowd of readers who expected politics and scandal, speculations on the projects of Victor Amadeus, and anecdotes about the jollities of convents and the amours of cardinals and nuns, were confounded by finding that the writer's mind was much more occupied by the war between the Trojans and Rutulians than by the war between France and Austria; and that he seemed to have heard no scandal of later date than the gallantries of the Empress Faustina. In time, however, the judgment of the many was overruled by that of the few; and, before the book was reprinted, it was so eagerly sought that it sold for five times the original price. It is still read with pleasure: the style is pure and flowing; the classical quotations and allusions are numerous and happy; and we are now and then

and wanders up and down Rimini without one thought of Francesca. At Paris, he had eagerly sought an introduction to Boileau; but he seems not to have been at all aware that at Florence he was in the vicinity of a poet with whom Boileau could not sustain a comparison, of the greatest lyric poet of modern times, Vincenzio Filicaja. This is the more remarkable, because Filicaja was the favourite poet of the accomplished Somers, under whose protection Addison travelled, and to whom the account of the Travels is dedicated. The truth is, that Addison knew little, and cared less, about the literature of modern Italy. His favourite models were Latin. His favourite critics were French. Half the Tuscan poetry that he had read seemed to him monstrous, and the other half tawdry.

His Travels were followed by the lively Opera of Rosamond. This piece was ill set to music, and therefore failed on the stage, but it completely succeed