But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds. Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729). Sir Richard Steele, the associate and friend of Addison, was born in Dublin in 1672. Under the patronage of the Duke of Ormonde he was placed in the Charterhouse school, and there made his first acquaintance with Addison, whose diligence and success he admired but failed to imitate. He entered Oxford, but after a short stay there enlisted in the Horse-Guards. This rash act cost him a fortune, for on account of this a wealthy relative revoked a will which would have made Steele a rich man. Though he led a life of dissipation, his benevolence was deep, and his aspirations were lofty; but his passions were strong, and he was always ready to sacrifice his welfare for the whim of the moment. When he became a captain in Lucas's Fusiliers, he astonished the town by his wild extravagance, but for this he was not without remorse. He wrote a moral treatise entitled "The Christian Hero," which contained the loftiest sentiments of piety and virtue. He intended this work to be an expression of his reform, and a means of effecting it, but the taunts of his fellow-officers made him fall back into his old habits. Being an ardent partisan pamphleteer he was employed by the Whigs to write the Gazette during the war of the Spanish succession. The nature of his employment suggested the design of the Tattler, a tri-weekly sheet, giving the latest items of news and with them a tale or an essay. Thus to Steele belongs the credit of having founded English periodical literature. The success of the Tattler being decisive, it was followed by the Spectator, the plan of which was projected by Addison, assisted by Steele. Steele's essays, though teeming with originality and freshness, lack the finish and grace which mark those of Addison. Nature had done more for Steele; Addison's steady application to his art more than compensated for his lesser gifts of genius, Steele figured prominently in the politics of the time;. he became a member of Parliament, but was expelled for seditious language. Under George I., his zeal was rewarded by knighthood, and he had several lucrative appointments, but his extravagance and his carelessness in money matters kept his purse empty. Early in his literary career he produced three comedies, which had little success. His last literary work was "The Conscious Lovers," a comedy which was received with great enthusiasm in 1722. The last years of his life were spent in Wales, on a small estate left to him by indulgent creditors. Here he died of paralysis in 1729. 66 Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) A mass of genuine manhood.”— Carlyle. "The special title of moralist in English literature is accorded by the public voice to Johnson, whose bias to Catholicity is well known." Cardinal Newman, Samuel Johnson was born at Lichfield in 1709. His father was a native of Derbyshire, but had settled in Lichfield as a bookseller. After having received the rudiments of a classical education at various country schools, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in the year 1728. His father about this time suffered heavy losses in business, in consequence of which Johnson had to struggle for many years against the deepest poverty. Nor were either his mental or bodily constitution so healthful and vigorous as to compensate for the frowns of fortune. Leaving the University, he attempted to support himself by teaching, but he was unsuccessful and turned his attention to literary work. In 1735 he married a Mrs. Porter, a widow, and going to London he contributed many papers to the Gentleman's Magazine. From 1747 to 1755 he was engaged in the preparation of his most famous work, "A Dictionary of the English Language.' He had promised to complete it in three years; but the labor was arduous, and seven years were spent in getting its pages ready for the printer. The once famous moral tale, "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia," he wrote in the nights of one week to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral. The manners and scenery of the story are not those of Abyssinia nor of any other country, and the book is but a series of reflections embodying the author's ideas on a great variety of subjects. Johnson said that had he seen the "Candide" of Voltaire he should not have written "Rasselas," as the two works go over the same ground, both picturing a world full of misery and sin. But Voltaire uses the fact to excite a sneer at religion; Johnson, on the contrary, as an argument for our faith in a coming immortality. Johnson founded and carried on alone, two periodical papers in the style that Addison and Steele had rendered so popular. These, the Rambler and the Idler, together with other works which appeared from time to time, and above all, his unrivaled excellence as a talker, made his company eagerly sought after by persons of all ranks. After the accession of George III., he received a pension of three hundred pounds a year. In 1781 he published "The Lives of the Poets." It abounds in passages of the finest criticism, but the choice of lives was determined by the likelihood of popularity; many of the greatest names |