yet his entrance into Merton College is said not to have taken place till 1691, four years later than the admission of Addison at Queen's. There may be some error here, but in any case, he must have been long the Oxford contemporary of Addison, who did not leave the university till 1699. Steele must have been destitute of patrimony, since he mentions in one of his letters that he was indebted to his uncle Gascoine for a liberal education. Of his academic career two facts only, but those significant ones, are recorded: that he wrote a comedy while at Oxford, and that he quitted it without a degree. Afterwards, under what stress of circumstances we are not informed, he entered the army as a trooper in the Horse Guards; an incident to which, after he had rendered himself formidable to the last ministry of Queen Anne as a political writer, he referred in the following terms: "When he cocked his hat, and put on a broad sword, jackboots and shoulder-belt under the command of the unfortunate Duke of Ormond, he was not acquainted with his own parts, and did not then know he should ever have been able (as he has since appeared to be in the case of Dunkirk,) to demolish a fortified town with a goose-quill.", Even in this inferior station however, he found means to exhibit his amiable qualities and social talents in so favourable a light as to gain him warm friends among his officers; and he was speedily res ACCOUNT OF STEELE. 21 cued from his self-imposed degradation by the gift of an ensign's commission. From this period, when the avocations of a military life must of necessity have broken off his habits of personal intercourse with the Oxford student, we hear nothing further of him till the publication of his Christian Hero in 1701, at which time he had become private secretary to General Lord Cutts, to whom the piece is inscribed. Meantime his friend was pursuing a straiter path to literary fame and worldly advancement. The parsonage house, Milston, Wiltshire, the birth-place of Joseph Addison. ADDISON AT OXFORD. CHAPTER II. 1687 to 1695. TRADITIONAL NOTICES OF HIM THERE. HIS LATIN VERSES. HIS ACQUIREMENTS. DESIGNED FOR THE CHURCH. TRANSLATION VERSES ΤΟ TRADITION has preserved to us few particulars concerning Addison during his residence at Oxford; fewer by much than we might reasonably desire, on the consideration that the earlier periods of the life of a man of eminence, who was the architect of his own fortune, are necessarily the most fertile of interest and instruction. Of the steps of his academic progress however, the following notices are derived from the highest authority. He was removed from the Charter-house to Oxford in 1687, and entered of Queen's College. Two years afterwards, the accidental sight of some of his Latin verses excited so much admiration in Dr. Lancaster, afterwards provost of that society, that he exerted himself to procure his admission into Magdalene College, of which he was elected Demy (semi ADDISON AT OXFORD. 23 communarius,) in 1689. That was called the golden election, because twice the usual number were admitted, there having been no election the year before, by reason of the quarrel between the college and James II. Among those elected at the same time with Addison were the noted Sacheverell, Boulter, who became primate of Ireland, and Smallbroke, afterwards a theologian of some note. Addison became probationary Fellow in 1697, and actual Fellow the following year.* That he had long before * From the obliging information of the Rev. Dr. Routh, the President of Magdalene College. Another early discoverer of Addison is indicated in the following letter written by Young to Tickell when preparing the posthumous edition of his works. The exercises alluded to appear to have escaped the search of his editor. DR. TICKELL, March 1st, 1718. I have now with me some gentlemen of Maudlin, who, giving an account of Dr. Farryer's funeral, (who is succeeded in his Professorship by Dr. Bertie of this college) say Tom Collins made an affecting speech over him, and among other points dilated on his being a means of discovering Mr. Addison's genius, and improving it by exercises imposed on him, which exercises he said in express terms, he hoped ye gentlemen now publishing that great man's works, would search after, as being much too valuable to be neglected. I asked ye gentlemen if they could guess in whose hands they were, who said Tom Collins was ye man to be consulted. Gr is this moment come in, who says he has writ to this purpose to Oxford-Excuse therefore, dear Sir, Yours most faithfully, E. YOUNG. (Tickell Papers.) his attainment of a fellowship engaged in the labour of tuition, we learn from the brief statement, that "Sir John Harper is under Mr. Addison's care at Magdalene," contained in a letter of Mr. Smalridge's without date, but certainly written about 1690. Of his habits and disposition the following notices are all that could now be collected at Oxford. That he was always very nervous; that he kept late hours; and that most of his studies were after dinner-a circumstance, it may be observed, pretty conclusive of the sobriety of his habits at this period. A walk with rows of trees along the side of the college meadow, is still pointed out as his favourite haunt; it continues to bear his name, and some of the trees are said to have been planted by him. The particular direction of his assiduous studies we are left to discover by the results; from these we may safely conclude them to have comprised the classical authors, Greek and Latin, and a wide range in polite literature. There is no appearance that the exact sciences ever obtained any great share of his attention; but he was not, like Pope and Swift, chargeable with the arrogance and folly of decrying and attempting to turn into ridicule subjects which he did not understand. It is evident that at this or some See Mr. Smalridge to Mr. Gough, in Atterbury's Correspondence (edition in 5 volumes), i. 28, 29. |