prepare the mind for more attainments. Had he prefented Paradife Loft to the publick with all the pomp of system and severity of science, the criticism would perhaps have been admired, and the poem ftill have been neglected; but by the blandishments of gentleness and facility, he has made Milton an univerfal favourite, with whom readers of every class think it neceffary to be pleased.

He defcended now and then to lower difquifitions; and by a ferious display of the beauties of Chevy Chase, exposed himself to the ridicule of Wagstaff, who bestowed a like pompous character on Tom Thumb; and to the contempt of Dennis, who, confidering the fundamental pofition of his criticism, that Chevy Chafe pleases, and ought to please, because it is natural, obferves, "that there is a way of deviating from nature, by bombaft or tumour, which foars above nature, and enlarges images beyond their real bulk by affectation, which forfakes nature in quest of something unfuitable; and by imbecillity, which degrades nature by faintness and diminution, by obfcuring its appearances, and weakening its effects." In Chevy Chafe there is not much of either bombaft or affectation;

;

but

but there is chill and lifelefs imbecillity. The story cannot poffibly be told in a manner that fhall make lefs impreffion on the mind.

Before the profound observers of the prefent race repofe too fecurely on the consciousness of their fuperiority to Addison, let them confider his Remarks on Ovid, in which may be found fpecimens of criticism fufficiently fubtle and refined; let them perufe likewife his Effays on Wit, and on the Pleafures of Imagination, in which he founds art on the base of nature, and draws the principles of invention from difpofitions inherent in the mind of man, with skill and elegance, fuch as his contemners will not eafily attain.

As a defcriber of life and manners, he must be allowed to stand perhaps the first of the first rank. His humour, which, as Steele obferves, is peculiar to himself, is fo happily diffused as to give the grace of novelty to domeftick fcenes and daily occurHe never outfteps the modefty of nature, nor raises merriment or wonder by the violation of truth. His figures neither di

rences.

vert by distortion, nor amaze by aggravation. He copies life with fo much fidelity, that he can be hardly said to invent; yet his exhibitions have an air fo much original, that it is difficult to fuppofe them not merely the product of imagination.

As a teacher of wisdom, he may be confidently followed. His religion has nothing in it enthusiastick or fuperftitious: he appears neither weakly credulous nor wantonly fceptical; his morality is neither dangerously lax, nor impracticably rigid. All the enchantment of fancy, and all the cogency of argument, are employed to recommend to the reader his real intereft, the care of pleafing the Author of his being. Truth is fhewn fometimes as the phantom of a vision, fometimes appears half-veiled in an allegory; sometimes attracts regard in the robes of fancy, and fometimes fteps forth in the confidence of reafon. She wears a thousand

dreffes, and in all is pleafing.

Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet.

His profe is the model of the middle style; on grave fubjects not forinal, on light occafions not groveling; pure without fcrupu

lofity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always eafy, 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 fplendour.

It was apparently his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity of diction; he is therefore fometimes verbose 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 somewhat 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 ftudied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and eafy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not oftentatious, muft give his days and nights to the volumes of Addifon.

HUGHES.

HUGHES.

OHN HUGHES, the fon of a citizen

of London, and of Anne Burgess, of an, ancient family in Wiltshire, was born at Marlborough, July 29, 1677. He was educated at a private fchool; 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 paraphrafed, rather too diffusely, the ode of Horace which begins Integer Vita. To poetry he added the fcience of musick, in which he seems to have attained confiderable fkill, together with the practice of defign, or rudiments of painting.

His ftudies did not withdraw him wholly from bufinefs, nor did bufinefs hinder him, from study. He had a place in the office of ordnance, and was fecretary to feveral commiffions

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