Sweden, of Prince Eugene, of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Dukes of Parma, Modena, and Guastalla, of the Doge of Genoa, of the Regent Orleans, and of Cardinal Dubois. We ought to add, that this edition. though eminently beautiful, is in some important points defective: nor, indeed, do we yet possess a complete collection of Addison's writings.

It is strange that neither his opulent and noble widow, nor any of his powerful and attached friends, should have thought of placing even a simple tablet, inscribed with his name, on the walls of the Abbey. It was not till three generations had laughed and wept over his pages that the omission was supplied by the public veneration. At length, in our own time, his image, skilfully graven, appeared in Poet's Corner. It represents him, as we can conceive him, clad in his dressing-gown, and freed from his wig, stepping from his parlor at Chelsea into his trim little garden, with the account of the Everlasting Club, or the Loves of Hilpa and Shalum, just finished for the next day's Spectator, in his hand. Such a mark of national respect was due to the unsullied statesman, to the accomplished scholar, to the master of pure English eloquence, to the consummate painter of life and manners. It was due, above all, to the great satirist, who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it, who, without inflicting a wound, effected a great social reform, and who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy, and virtue by fanaticism.

[RICHARD HURD, Bishop of Worcester, was denominated by Gibbon, who has left a careful examination of his commentary on Horace's epistles, "one of those valuable authors who cannot be read without improvement." He was born at Congreve, Staffordshire, January, 13, 1721, and died May, 1808. He studied at Cambridge, rose through the various degrees of preferment, from fellow to bishop; was preceptor to the Prince of Wales and Duke of York; attracted attention by several critical and theological works; a defence of religion against Hume, and his friendship with Warburton-of whom he was both biographer and edi tor. His edition of Addison was published in 6 vols. 8vo.

The notes are chiefly confined to verbal criticism, and the fol lowing notice and extracts are the only preface.—G.]

Mr. Addison is generally allowed to be the most correct and elegant of all our writers; yet some inaccuracies of style have escaped him, which it is the chief design of the following notes to point out. A work of this sort, well executed, would be of use to foreigners who study our language; and even to such of our countrymen, as wish to write it in perfect purity. R. WORCESTER.

Extract from a Letter of BISHOP Warburton, to Dr. Hurd. "GLOUCESTER, Sept. 10, 1770. -"Your grammatical pleasures, which you enjoy in studying the most correct of our great writers, Mr. Addison, cannot be greater than the political ones I taste, in reading, over again, the most incorrect of all good writers (though not from his incorrectness, which is stupendous) Lord Clarendon, in the late published continuation of his History.

"I charge you bring your Addison to town. Nothing is minutiæ to me which you write or think."

See "Letters from a late eminent Prelate," &c.-Letter 227. 4to. 1808.

And in Letter 228, in the same collection, October 16, 1770, the BISHOP says—

"Your reflections on Lord Clarendon are the truth itself. The History of his Life and Administration I have just finished. Every thing is admirable in it but the style: in which your favourite and amiable author [Mr. Addison] has infinitely the advantage. Bring him with you to town. There, I own, your late amusements have the advantage of mine. It was an advantage I envied you;"

Extract of a Letter from DR. HURD to the REVEREND MR. MASON, Residentiary of Yorke.

"THURCASTON, Oct. 26, 1770. "You will ask what I have done in this long leisure. Not much indeed, to any purpose. My lecture has slept: But I found an amusement in turning over the works of Mr. Addison. I set out, many years ago, with a warm admiration of this amiable writer. I then took a surfeit of his natural, easy manner; and was taken, like my betters, with the raptures and high flights of Shakespeare. My maturer judgment, or lenient age (call it which you will), has now led me back to the favourite of my youth. And, here, I think, I shall stick: for such useful sense, in so charming words, I find not elsewhere. His taste is so pure, and his Virgilian prose (as Dr. Young styles it) so exquisite, that I have but now found out, at the close of a critical life, the full value of his writings."

Inscription to Mr. Addison, written in 1805.

EXIMIO VIRO,

JOSEPHO ADDISON:

GRATIA, FAMA, FORTUNA COMMENDATO; HUMANIORIBUS LITERIS UNICE INSTRUCTO; HAUD IGNOBILI POETÆ;

IN ORATIONE SOLUTA CONTEXENDA

SUMMO ARTIFICI;

CENSORI MORUM

GRAVI SANE, SED ET PERJUCUNDO,

LEVIORIBUS IN ARGUMENTIS

SUBRIDENTI SUAVITER,

RES ETIAM SERIAS

LEPORE QUODAM SUO CONTINGENTI;

PIETATIS, PORRO, SINCERÆ,

HOC EST, CHRISTIANÆ,

FIDE, VITA, SCRIPTIS

STUDIOSISSIMO CULTORI:

EXIMIO, PROINDE, VIRO,

JOSEPHO ADDISON,

HOC MONUMENTUM SACRUM ESTO.

R. W. 1805, Sept. 5.