mity of opinion, and fellowship of study, fhould finally part in acrimonious oppofition. Such a controverfy was "Bellum plufquam civile," as Lucan expreffes it. Why could not faction find other advocates? But among the uncertainties of the human state, we are doomed to number the inftability of friendship.

Of this difpute I have little knowledge but from the Biographia Britannica. The Old Whig is not inferted in Addison's works, nor is it mentioned by Tickell in his Life; why it was omitted, the biographers doubtlefs give the true reafon; the fact was too recent, and those who had been heated in the contention were not yet cool.

The neceffity of complying with times, and of fparing perfons, is the great impediment of biogra. phy. Hiftory may be formed from permanent monuments and records; but Lives can only be written from perfonal knowledge, which is growing every day lefs, and in a fhort time is loft for ever. What is known can feldom be immediately told; and when it might be told, it is no longer known. The delicate features of the mind, the nice difcriminations. of character, and the minute peculiarities of conduct, are foon obliterated; and it is furely better than caprice, obftinacy, frolick, and folly, however they might delight in the defcription, fhould be filently forgotten, than that, by wanton merriment and unfeasonable detection, a pang fhould be given to a widow, a daughter, a brother, or a friend. As the process of thefe narratives is now bringing me among my contemporaries, I begin to feel my felf "walking upon afhes under which the fire is not "extinguished,"

"extinguished," and coming to the time of which it will be proper rather to fay "nothing that is false, "than all that is true."

The end of this ufeful life was now approaching, -Addifon had for fome time been oppreffed by fhortness of breath, which was now aggravated by dropfy; and finding his danger preffing, he prepared to die conformably to his own precepts and profeffions.

During this lingering decay, he fent, as Pope relates, a meffage by the earl of Warwick to Mr. Gay, defiring to fee him. Gay, who had not vifited him for fome time before, obeyed the fummons, and found himself received with great kindness. The purpofe for which the interview had been folicited was then difcovered. Addifon told him, that he had injured him; but that, if he recovered, he would recompenfe him. What the injury was he did not explain; nor did Gay ever know; but fuppofed that fome preferment defigned for him had, by Addifon's intervention, been with held.

Lord Warwick was a young man, of very irregular life, and perhaps of loofe opinions. Addifon, for whom he did not want refpect, had very diligently endeavoured to reclaim him; but his arguments and expoftulations had no effect. One experiment, however, remained to be tried: when he found his life near its end, he directed the young lord to be called; and when he defired, with great tenderness, to hear his laft injunctions, told him, "I have fent for you, that you may fee how a "Chriftian can die." What effect this awful scene

* Spence.

had

had on the earl, I know not: he likewife died himfelf in a fhort time.

In Tickell's excellent Elegy on his friend are thefe lines:

He taught us how to live; and, oh! too high

The price of knowledge, taught us how to die

in which he alludes, as he told Dr. Young, to this moving interview.

Having given directions to Mr. Tickell for the publication of his works, and dedicated them on his death-bed to his friend Mr. Craggs, he died June 17, 1719, at Holland-house, leaving no child but a daughter.

Of his virtue it is a fufficient teftimony, that the refentment of party has tranfmitted no charge of any crime. He was not one of those who are praised only after death; for his merit was fo generally acknowledged, that Swift, having obferved that his election paffed without a conteft, adds, that if he propofed himself for king, he would hardly have been refufed.

His zeal for his party did not extinguish his kindnefs for the merit of his opponents: when he was. fecretary in Ireland, he refufed to intermit his acquaintance with Swift.

Of his habits, or external manners, nothing is fo often mentioned as that timorous or fullen taciturnity, which his friends called modefty by too mild a name. Steele mentions with great tenderness "that remark"able bafhfulness, which is a cloak that hides and "muffles merit ;" and tells us, "that his abilities (6 were covered only by modefty, which doubles the "beauties which are feen, and gives credit and esteem

"to all that are concealed." Chefterfield affirms, that "Addison was the moft timorous and aukward "man that he ever faw." And Addifon, fpeaking of his own deficience in converfation, used to say of himself, that, with refpect to intellectual wealth, "he could draw bills for a thoufand pounds, though "he had not a guinea in his pocket."

That he wanted current coin for ready payment, and by that want was often obftructed and diftreffed; that he was often oppreffed by an improper and ungraceful timidity; every teftimony concurs to prove : but Chesterfield's reprefentation is doubtless hyperbolical. That man cannot be fuppofed very unexpert in the arts of converfation and practice of life, who, without fortune or alliance, by his usefulness and dexterity, became fecretary of state; and who died at forty-feven, after having not only ftood long in the highest rank of wit and literature, but filled one of the most important offices of state.

The time in which he lived had reafon to lament his obftinacy of filence; " for he was," fays Steele, "above all men in that talent called humour, and "enjoyed it in fuch perfection, that I have often re

66

flected, after a night fpent with him apart from "all the world, that I had had the pleasure of con"verfing with an intimate acquaintance of Terence: "and Catullus, who had all their wit and nature, "heightened with humour more exquifite and de"lightful than any other man ever poffeffed." This is the fondnefs of a friend; let us hear what is told. us by a rival: "Addifon's converfation," fays Pope, had fomething in it more charming than I

* Spence.

"have found in any other man. But this was only "when familiar: before ftrangers, or, perhaps, a

fingle stranger, he preferved his dignity by a ftiff "filence."

This modefty was by no means inconfiftent with a very high opinion of his own merit. He demanded to be the first name in modern wit; and, with Steele to echo him, used to depreciate Dryden, whom Pope and Congreve defended against them. There is no reason to doubt that he fuffered too much pain from the prevalence of Pope's poetical reputation; nor is it without ftrong reafon fufpected, that by fome difingenuous acts he endeavoured to obstruct it; Pope was not the only man whom he infidioufly injured, though the only man of whom he could be afraid.

His own powers were fuch as might have satisfied him with confcious excellence. Of very extenfive learning he has indeed given no proofs. He feems to have had fmall acquaintance with the fciences, and have read little except Latin and French; bur of the Latin poets his Dialogues on Medals fhew that he had perused the works with great diligence and fkill. The abundance of his own mind left him little indeed of adventitious fentiments; his wit always could fuggeft what the occafion demanded, He had read with critical eyes the important volume of human life, and knew the heart of man from the depths of ftratagem to the furface of affectation.

What he knew he could easily communicate. "This," fays Steele, "was particular in this writer,

7

* Tonfon and Spence.

"that,