Art. 13. THE PROSE WORKS OF JOSEPH ADDISON. 1. The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq. London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head, over-against Katharine-street in the Strand. Four vols. MDCCXXI.

2. Essays of Joseph Addison. Chosen and edited with a preface and a few notes by Sir J. G. Frazer. Two vols. London: Macmillan, 1915.

3. The Miscellaneous Works of Joseph Addison. Edited by A. C. Guthkelch (Vol. I, Poems and Plays: Vol. II, Prose). London: G. Bell & Sons, 1914.

ADDISON and Swift ought to have changed places. Swift's heart was utterly given to the pursuit of power; as he said in a letter to Pope, all his endeavours from a boy to distinguish himself had been only for want of a great title and fortune, that he might be used like a lord by those who had an opinion of his parts-whether right or wrong was no great matter-and so the reputation of wit or great learning did the office of a blue ribbon or of a coach and six horses. But while Swift was gnawing his fingers in Laracor, or at the Deanery of St Patrick's, Addison, though he had neither birth, nor ambition, nor public eloquence, was passing from one Government post to another, as Commissioner of Appeals, Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Commissioner for Trades and Colonies, and Secretary of State.

What Swift thought of religion we know from 'A Tale of a Tub.' Addison was the devout man who does not only believe, but feels there is a Deity. He has actual sensations of him; his experience concurs with his reason; he sees him more and more in all his intercourses with him, and even in this life almost loses his faith in conviction' ('Spectator,' No. 465). He found his happiness in contemplating the might and goodness of God, and in revealing to others the way to heaven. His exquisite humour, the quiet cadences of his prose, his power to observe and create character, his knowledge of men, were all used in the service of religion. As he wrote in another essay: 'I must confess, were I left to myself, I would rather aim at instructing than diverting. ... I would not willingly laugh but in order to instruct,

or if I sometimes fail in this point, when my mirth ceases to be instructive, it shall never cease to be innocent' ('Spectator,' No. 179). Yet the virtues that he taught were all summed up in one word-prudence:

'There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as Discretion; it is this indeed which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; Virtue itself looks like weakness, the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice' ('Spectator,' No. 225). The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief and disappointments. A man should direct all his studies and endeavours at making himself easy now, and happy hereafter' (Ib. No. 163).

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In the Record Office there are preserved many lists of prisoners condemned at the Old Bailey Sessions, and lying in Newgate for the execution of sentence. In some cases the decisions of the Secretary of State are recorded in Addison's handwriting; and there are letters addressed to Addison by prisoners who pitifully beg his compassion. He knew what was going on, but from the first page of his works to the last there is not one word of pity for those suffering the agonies of captivity. It was left to writers like Ned Ward, the coarse and brutal author of 'The London Spy,' to protest against the bestialities of the penal system. Addison was wholly taken up with himself-a man was to direct all his endeavours to make himself 'easy now and happy hereafter.' Chaucer's Friar held a similar doctrine:

'For unto swich a worthy man as he
Acorded nat, as by his facultee,
To have with seke lazars aqueyntaunce.
It is nat honest, it may nat avaunce
For to delen with no swich poraille.'

Such was Addison's attitude to the criminal and the poor; and, though he wrote in the 'Guardian' (No. 166), I never saw an indigent person in my life without reaching out to him some . . . imaginary relief. I cannot

but sympathise with everyone I meet that is in affliction; and, if my abilities were equal to my wishes, there should be neither pain nor poverty in the world,' his words are cold beside the passionate cry of Goldsmith, 'Why was I born a man, and yet see the sufferings of wretches I cannot relieve? Poor houseless creatures! The world will give you reproaches, but will not give you relief.' As Addison was untouched by the real evils of his time, so he failed to understand the rise of that scepticism which was beginning to menace revealed religion. Though his voice trembled with indignation and contempt when he spoke of atheism and atheists, he could find no arguments to meet them. These supreme tests reveal the limits of his mind and imagination. The 18th century believed that Addison wrote a perfect prose style, and that his style alone would suffice to save his name from oblivion. But to those who have heard the full orchestra of 'The French Revolution' or 'Modern Painters' or 'The Egoist' his single pipe sounds small and thin; and no one will ever speak of him again as Johnson or Macaulay or Thackeray once did.

Nevertheless his works are constantly put before the public; and now Sir James Frazer, turning from the vast labour of 'The Golden Bough,' has found' ease and quiet breathing' in making a selection from Addison's Essays and writing for them a Preface of reverie and imagination. Addison wrote about four hundred and fifty essays, of which a hundred and seventy-four appear in this edition. The selection includes the best rather than the most characteristic of them. Consequently some aspects of Addison's mind and art appear less often than in the complete series. He is made at the same time more brilliant and more kindly. In one direction we are relieved of some papers offensive to modern taste; in the other we are spared the boredom of some of Addison's sermons. The total effect of the work is very delightful, but it shows once more how much is lost by separating Addison's work from Steele's. The essays should be printed as they were first issued. Tickell did no service to Addison when he threw out Steele's contributions to the 'Tatler' and the 'Spectator.'

In a very pleasant piece of writing the Preface tells how Sir James visited Coverley Hall, and found there a

number of papers relating to the Club--including the original letter in which the butler announced his master's death-and a new essay, not by Addison, but in the manner of Budgell at his best, or of Steele at his worst,' which sheds a glimmer of light on Mr Will Honeycomb's mysterious disappearance from that fashionable world of which he was so long a shining ornament.' He also tells us how in a dream he and Sir Roger and Will Honeycomb called upon Addison in Staple Inn, and how they surprised him at his writing-table.

The 'few notes' are the weakest part of this edition. Readers who require help will require very much more than is given them here. In 'Spectator' No. 592, for example, there are four phrases that need explanation (the first rehearsal of the new thunder: they have a Salmoneus behind the scenes: Mr Rymer's 'Edgar' is to fall in snow: a run of three days); and references should be given for the motto, and three quotations (from Terence, Robert South, and Pliny). Sir James Frazer annotates the phrase about Rymer's' Edgar,' and leaves the others without a word. It would be useful to translate the Latin and Greek mottoes and quotations. The later editions of the Tatler' and 'Spectator' usually quote good English versions of them; and it is not to be supposed that many readers, either in the reign of Anne or to-day, could see the point of all of them without help.

Notwithstanding these defects, the editor and the publishers between them have made a very charming book; and, if Addison is to find willing readers during the next few years he is likely to owe many of them to Sir James Frazer's good offices.

Addison's reputation has always depended upon his essays, but he wrote several other prose works, enough altogether to fill a volume of five hundred pages in the new edition of his Miscellaneous Works' which Messrs Bell are publishing. In 1697 he contributed to Dryden's translation of Virgil a short and unimportant Essay on the Georgics; in 1705 he published a volume of

Some readers may like to know that Michael Dahl painted Addison just as Sir James saw him, and that the picture is in the National Portrait Gallery.

'Remarks on Italy,' and in 1708 a pamphlet on 'The Present State of the War.' During the next six years he was writing his essays; and his only other prose work was 'The Tryal of Count Tariff.' After his death Tickell published in the collected edition of his works (1721) two other prose treatises, the 'Dialogues upon Ancient Medals' and 'Of the Christian Religion'; and eighteen years later Thomas Osborne published, 'from an Original Manuscript of Mr Addison, Prepared and Corrected by himself,' a 'Discourse on Ancient and Modern Learning' (1739).

In the formal treatises Addison has three subjects: religion, classical literature, and Whig politics. His greatest delight in literature was the study of Latin poetry; and he was himself a most skilful writer of Latin verse-he is indeed more a poet in Latin than in English. When, therefore, he was given a pension in order that he might travel on the Continent and fit himself for a place under the Whig Government, his thoughts turned to ancient Italy as the thoughts of Milton had turned sixty years earlier. The works which he wrote during these travels—the 'Remarks on Italy,' and the 'Dialogues on Medals '—are for the most part a series of illustrations of the Latin poets, drawn from Italian scenery in the Remarks,' and from ancient coins in the Dialogues.'

Italy had already been described many times when Addison travelled through it; and, having the scholar's dislike of barren repetition, he made his 'Remarks' not so much a regular account of Italy as a supplement to the works of those who had written before him. This plan caused him a good deal of embarrassment and very much disappointed his readers. He had constantly to explain that because somebody had anticipated him he would not write on this or that subject, and in the end he produced a book that might almost have been written at home. As Horace Walpole said, Addison travels through the poets and not through Italy.'* When he is not illustrating one of the Latin poets by reference to the scenery before him, Addison is usually writing on

* There is a lively passage to the same effect in Tristram Shandy' about the great Addison galloping across Europe with his satchel of school-books ... galling his beast's crupper at every stroke.'