affecting and so salutary, that no plea of brevity can excuse the omission of it wherever his character is the object of contemplation. It was first related by Dr. Young, in "Conjectures, or Original Composition," from which it is here copied.

"After a long and manly, but vain struggle with his distemper, Addison dismissed his physicians, and with them all hopes of life. But with his hopes of life he dismissed not his concern for the living, but sent for a youth nearly related," (the Earl of Warwick, who did not live long after this affecting interview), "and finely accomplished, yet ⚫ not above being the better for good impressions from a dying friend. He came, but life now glimmering in the socket, the dying friend was silent. After a decent and proper pause the youth said, 'Dear Sir, you sent for me: I believe, and I hope, that you have some commands: I shall hold them most sacred.'-May distant ages not only hear, but feel the reply! Forcibly grasping the youth's hand, he softly said, 'See in what peace a Christian can die.' He spoke with difficulty, and soon expired."

Addison died on June 17, 1719, in the 48th year of his age, leaving a daughter by the Countess of Warwick, of whom we are told that she was bred up with little veneration for his memory ; that she had a marked dislike to his writings, and an unconquerable aversion to the perusal of them; that she discovered very early in life as great an unlikeness and inferiority to Addison, in respect of

filial sentiment, as in point of understanding; but that afterwards she conceived a great reverence for her father's memory, and a suitable regard for his writings.* This lady died single, at an advanced age, a few years ago, and after her death her father's library, which had been in her possession, was sold in London.†

Addison's contributions to the Spectator are ascertained on the best authority. The principal writers of this work were distinguished by signature letters: and much has been said of those adopted by Addison, because they form the name of the muse Clio :

"When panting virtue her last efforts made,

"You brought your Clio to the virgin's aid."

But it is not very likely that Addison intended this compliment to his papers; and it has therefore been conjectured that his signatures refer to the places in which he happened to write, C. Chelsea, L. London, I. Islington, and O. his office.

We have better authority for asserting, that no man could be more scrupulous in correcting both the errors of the press and such as had escaped him in the hurry of writing. Dr. Warton relates, that the press was often stopped that Addison might make a trifling correction. In the folio edition are many proofs of his being rather fastidious

Annotations on the Tatler, No. 235.

+ See an account of this lady, in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxvii, pp. 256, 385.

in little things, but when he had once corrected the press, he considered his business as completed; the alterations made afterwards, when the work was published in volumes, are very few and not very important. It ought also to be mentioned, that Addison was, in general, singularly happy in the choice of his mottos. Dr. Warton has given him this praise, but has, among other instances, quoted No. 2, which was written by Steele.

The papers claimed for Addison are in number two hundred and seventy-four. About two hun dred and thirty-six are given to Steele on the au thority of his signature, T.; but with the restric tions mentioned before.* The unknown correspondents were certainly numerous, and Steele made a free use of such letters as contained hints, or were thought worthy of insertion in their original From negligence, or want of matter, or want of leisure, for he was a man of many projects, he was frequently unprepared, and on this account it is on record that the press has been sometimes stopped; but, when he determined to exert himself, he could do it to advantage. The series of papers from No. 151 to 157 inclusive, which are his composition, rank among the best of the grave kind.†

state.

* Pref. Hist. and Biog. to the Tatler.

Steele's signature was R. and T.; the former, it has been supposed, when he wrote the whole of the paper, the latter when he composed or com. piled from the letter-box; but this does not appear to be the universal rule, and the annotators imagine that T. sometimes means Tickell.

Of the value of his and Addison's papers we become the more sensible as we descend to exam ine the contributions of contemporary wits, who from interest or inclination were induced to lend their aid to the general purpose of the work.

The first of these, if we respect the quantity merely of his assistance, was Eustace Budgell, a writer of some note in the days of the Spectator. He was born about the year 1685. His father, Gilbert Budgell, D. D. of St. Thomas, near Exeter, appears to have been a man of property, as he sent his son as a gentleman-commoner, to Christ Church, Oxford, and thence to the Inner Temple, to study law, with a provision suitable to his rank and necessities. In the study of the law, however, Eustace made little progress, being diverted from it by a taste for polite literature, and the company of such men as that taste easily procures. In 1710, Addison, to whom he was nearly related, took him to Ireland as one of his clerks, when himself secretary to Lord Wharton. In this employment, such was Budgell's attention to business, that in 1714 he was promoted to the office of chief secretary to the lords justices of Ireland, and deputy clerk of the council, and his talents were already so distinguished as to procure him a seat in the Irish parliament, where he was considered as an able speaker.

During the rebellion, in 1715, he discharged the service hitherto entrusted to a field-officer, of transporting the troops from Ireland to Scotland, with great ability and integrity. In 1717 he was pro

moted by Addison, then secretary of state, to the place of accountant and comptroller general; and as he had some time before succeeded to the family estate, valued at 950l. per annum, though somewhat encumbered by his father's prodigality, he was exempted from the cares of wealth, if not wholly from those of ambition. He had now commenced a prosperous career as a statesman, and was ill prepared for the fatal reverse which was at hand, and which, although there were other precipitating circumstances, may be dated from the time the Duke of Bolton was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, in the year last mentioned. The Duke insisted on quartering upon him a friend of one Webster, whom he had made his secretary and a privy counsellor. This was either an insult or an injury, and with lofty spirits the distinction is rarely admitted, which Budgell resented with asperity, and was therefore deprived of his place of accountant. He then came to England, contrary to the advice of Addison, and probably of every other friend, and farther irritated his powerful enemies by publishing his case. This irritation was the more keen, as they were unprepared to defend their treatment of a man who had been a very faithful and useful servant to the public. In 1719 he made another enemy in the Earl of Sunderland, by publishing a very popular pamphlet against the famous peerage-bill; but his declension was chiefly hastened by the loss of twenty thousand pounds, which he had embarked in the South Sea scheme,