ty by him. Now let us confider the place in "which this fight is presented to us. The "place, forfooth, is a long hall. Let us fup

of the Soul, a drawn fword on the table

pose, that any one should place himself in "this pofture, in the midst of one of our "halls in London; that he should appear

folus, in a fullen pofture, a drawn fword on "the table by him; in his hand Plato's trea"tise on the Immortality of the Soul, tranf"lated lately by Bernard Lintot: I defire "the reader to confider, whether fuch a per"fon as this would pafs with them who be"held him, for a great patriot, a great philo

fopher, or a general, or for fome whimsical "perfon who fancied himself all these; and "whether the people, who belonged to the "family, would think that such a person had

a design upon their midrifs or his own?

"In short, that Cato fhould fit long "enough, in the aforefaid pofture, in the "midft of this large hall, to read over Pla"to's treatise on the Immortality of the "Soul, which is a lecture of two long hours; "that he should propofe to himself to be "private there upon that occafion; that he "should be angry with his fon for intruding

"there s

there; then, that he fhould leave this hall upon the pretence of fleep, give himself the mortal wound in his bedchamber, and then "be brought back into that hall to expire, purely to fhew his good-breeding, and fave his friends the trouble of coming up to "his bedchamber; all this appears to me to be improbable, incredible, impoffible."

Such is the cenfure of Dennis. There is, as Dryden expreffes it, perhaps too much horseplay in his raillery; but if his jefts are coarse, his arguments are strong. Yet as we love better to be pleased than to be taught, Cato is read, and the critick is neglected.

Flushed with consciousness of these detec¬ tions of abfurdity in the conduct, he afterwards attacked the fentiments of Cato; but he then amused himself with petty cavils, and minute objections.

Of Addison's smaller poems, no particular mention is neceffary; they have little that can employ or require a critick. The parallel of the Princes and Gods, in his verses to Kneller, is often happy, but is too well known to be quoted.

5

His tranflations, fo far as I have compared them, want the exactness of a scholar. That he understood his authors cannot be doubted; but his verfions will not teach others to underftand them, being too licentiously paraphrastical. They are however, for the most part, fmooth and eafy; and, what is the first excellence of a tranflator, fuch as may be read with pleasure by those who do not know the originals.

the pro

His poetry is polished and pure; duct of a mind too judicious to commit faults, but not fufficiently vigorous to attain excellence. He has fometimes a ftriking line, or a fhining paragraph; but in the whole he is warm rather than fervid, and fhews more dexterity than ftrength. He was however one of our earlieft examples of correctnefs.

The verfification which he had learned from Dryden, he debased rather than refined. His rhymes are often diffonant; in his Georgick he admits broken lines. He uses both triplets and alexandrines, but triplets more frequently in his tranflations than his other works. The mere structure of verses

feems

seems never to have engaged much of his care, But his lines are very smooth in Rosamond, and too fmooth in Cato.

Addison is now to be confidered as a critick; a name which the present generation is fcarcely willing to allow him. His criticifm is condemned as tentative or experimental, rather than scientifick, and he is confidered as deciding by tafte rather than by principles.

It is not uncommon for those who have grown wife by the labour of others, to add a little of their own, and overlook their masters. Addison is now defpifed by fome who perhaps would never have feen his defects, but by the lights which he afforded them. That he always wrote as he would think it necessary to write now, cannot be affirmed; his inftructions were fuch as the character of his readers made proper. That general knowledge which now circulates in common talk, was in his time rarely to be found. Men not profeffing learning were not ashamed of ignorance; and in the female world, any acquaintance with books was diftinguished only to be cenfured. His purpose was to infufe literary curiofity,

by

by gentle and unsuspected conveyance, into the gay, the idle, and the wealthy; he therefore presented knowledge in the most alluring form, not lofty and auftere, but acceffible and familiar. When he fhewed them their defects, he fhewed them likewise that they might be easily supplied. His attempt fucceeded; enquiry was awakened, and comprehenfion expanded. An emulation of intellectual elegance was excited, and from his time to our own, life has been gradually exalted, and converfation purified and enlarged,

Dryden had, not many years before, scat、 tered criticism over his Prefaces with very little parcimony; but, though he sometimes condefcended to be fomewhat familiar, his manner was in general too fcholaftick for those who had yet their rudiments to learn, and found it not eafy to understand their mafter. His obfervations were framed rather for those that were learning to write, than for thofe that read only to talk..

An inftructor like Addifon was now wanting, whose remarks being fuperficial, might be easily understood, and being just, might prepare