PREFACE.

THE present work was undertaken from the desire of supplying what appeared a real deficiency in our literature. While the lives of Pope and Swift had been written and rewritten with unwearied research and distinguished ability; while Dryden had in recent times been made the object of a detailed and interesting biography, what accounts did. we possess of a contemporary inferior to none of these in genius or in fame, and certainly superior to them all in the purity, amenity and moral tendency of his writings, as well as in the virtues of his life? What records had we of Addison? Two prefaces; that of Tickell to the general edition of his works, that of Johnson to his poetry included in the collection of the English poets! The first of these, invaluable for its authenticity, and the absolute reliance to be placed on the statements which it founds on the personal knowledge of

the writer, does not aim at the character of a complete biography. It is a literary notice only, though of a very pleasing kind, and much resembling the academical eulogies of the French. That of Dr. Johnson is principally a piece of criticism; to which it may be added, that his judicial scales were never held with an unswerving hand when the character, whether personal or literary, of a decided whig was placed in the balance. In the case of Addison too, the unfavorable bias has been aggravated by his reliance on the manuscript anecdotes of Spence which he had under his eye, and which embody all the prejudice and enmity of Pope.

Of narratives compiled from these authorities it is needless to speak.

The numerous and scattered sources from which the facts contained in the following pages have been derived, are pointed out in their proper places whenever they could be clearly ascertained. Addison's own correspondence, never before collected and applied to the illustration of his biography, has been the best guide of the writer, and will no doubt