lofity, and exact without apparent elabora-. tion; always equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed fentences. Addifon never deviates from his track to fnatch a grace; he feeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected splendour.

It was apparently his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity of diction; he is therefore fometimes verbofe in his tranfitions and connections, and fometimes defcends too much to the language of converfation; yet if his language had been lefs. idiomatical, it might have loft fomewhat of its genuine Anglicifm. What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetick; he is never rapid, and he never ftagnates. His fentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not oftentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addifon.

HUGHES.

ancient family in Wiltshire, was born at Marlborough, July 29, 1677. He was educated at a private school; and though his advances in literature are in the Biographia very oftentatiously displayed, the name of his master is somewhat ungratefully concealed.

At nineteen he drew the plan of a tragedy; and paraphrased, rather too diffusely, the ode of Horace which begins Integer Vitæ. Tó poetry he added the fcience of musick, in which he seems to have attained confiderable skill, together with the practice of design, or rudiments of painting.

His studies did not withdraw him wholly from business, nor did bufinefs hinder him from study. He had a place in the office of ordnance, and was fecretary to several com

missions for purchafing lands necessary to fecure the royal docks at Chatham and Portfmouth; yet found time to acquaint himfelf with modern languages.

In 1697 he published a poem on the Peace of Ryfwick; and in 1699 another piece, ĉalled The Court of Neptune, on the return of king William, which he addreffed to Mr. Montague, the general patron of the followers of the Mufes. The fame year he produced a fong on the duke of Gloucester's birth-day.

He did not confine himfelf to poetry, but cultivated other kinds of writing with great fuccefs; and about this time fhewed his knowledge of human nature by an Effay on the Pleafure of being deceived. In 1702 he published, on the death of king William, a Pindarick ode called The House of Naffau; and wrote another paraphrafe on the Otium Divos of Horace.

In 1703 his ode on Mufick was performed at Stationers Hall; and he wrote afterwards fix cantatas, which were set to mufick by the greatest master of that time, and feem intended to oppose or exclude the Italian opera, an exotick and irrational entertainment, which

has

has been always combated, and always has prevailed.

His reputation was now fo far advanced, that the publick began to pay reverence to his name; and he was folicited to prefix a preface to the translation of Boccalini, a writer whofe fatirical vein coft him his life in Italy; but who never, I believe, found many readers in this country, even though introduced by fuch powerful recommendation.

He tranflated Fontenelle's Dialogues of the Dead; and his verfion was perhaps read at that time, but is now neglected; for by a book not neceffary, and owing its reputation. wholly to its turn of diction, little notice can be gained but from those who can enjoy the graces of the original. To the dialogues of Fontenelle he added two composed by himfelf; and, though not only an honest but a pious man, dedicated his work to the earl of Wharton. He judged fkilfully enough of his own intereft; for Wharton, when he went lord lieutenant to Ireland, offered to take Hughes with him, and establish him; but Hughes, having hopes or promises from another man in power, of fome provision

more fuitable to his inclination, declined Wharton's offer, and obtained nothing from the other.

He tranflated the Mifer of Moliere; which he never offered to the Stage; and occafionally amused himself with making verfions of favourite scenes in other plays.

Being now received as a wit among the wits, he paid his contributions to literary undertakings, and affifted both the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian. In 1712 he tranflated Vertot's Hiftory of the Revolution of Portugal; produced an Ode to the Creator of the World, from the Fragments of Orpheus; and brought upon the Stage an opera called Calypfo and Telemachus, intended to shew that the English language might be very happily adapted to mufick. This was impudently opposed by those who were employed in the Italian opera; and, what cannot be told without indignation, the intruders had fuch intereft with the duke of Shrewsbury, then lord chamberlain, who had married an Italian, as to obtain an obstruction of the profits, though not an inhibition of the performance.

There