Category: Biographies
Of the four English men of letters whose writings most fully embody the spirit of the eighteenth century, the one who provides the biographer with the scantiest materials is Addison. In his _Journal to Stella_, his social verses, and his letters to his friends, we have a vivid...
Of the four English men of letters whose writings most fully embody the spirit of the eighteenth century, the one who provides the biographer with the scantiest materials is Add...
3. CHAPTER II.Joseph Addison was born on the 1st of May, 1672. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison, at the time of his birth rector of Milston, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, and afterwar...
4. CHAPTER III.Travelling in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries involved an amount of thought and precaution which would have seemed inconvenient to the tourist accustomed to abandon him...
5. CHAPTER IV.Addison's fortunes were now at their lowest ebb. The party from which he had looked for preferment was out of office; his chief political patron was in particular discredit at C...
6. CHAPTER V.The career of Addison, as described in the preceding chapters, has exemplified the great change effected in the position of men of letters in England by the Restoration and the...
7. CHAPTER VI.It is a peculiarity in Addison's life that Fortune, as if conspiring with the happiness of his genius, constantly furnished him with favourable opportunities for the exercise of...
8. CHAPTER VII.It has been said that with _Cato_ the good fortune of Addison reached its climax. After his triumph in the theatre, though he filled great offices in the State and wedded "a nob...
9. CHAPTER VIII.The representation of _Cato_ on the stage was a turning point in the political fortunes of the Whigs. In the same month the Queen announced, on the meeting of Parliament, the si...
10. CHAPTER IX.Such is Addison's history, which, scanty as it is, goes far towards justifying the glowing panegyric bestowed by Macaulay on "the unsullied statesman, the accomplished scholar,...