| Show it i t f t I I t I i tt t l I t tr I TIlL THE TU HERALDS J Jome r home ome Study Circle 4 Ight by Seymour 4 f t o Directed by b Frat Prof Seymour Eaton Ea on 4 l JI 4 i 4 f k GOLDEN AGES OF LITERATURE F AND THE AGE OF PROSE AND BEASON Concluded BY JOSEPH VILLIERS DENNEY DENEY tl Addison was born in Wiltshire in his father fath r being dean pf Lick Lich Lichfield field Jn school days day at Charter house he lie began the long friendship with I Steele of which Thackeray writes so I charmingly I Dick Steele teele the Charter Chart j house goV contracted ted such an admira admiration I tion In the yearn years of or his and I retained it faithfully ully through his life ire Through the school and through the I I world orld whithersoever his hig strange for i 1 tune led this erring wayward I creature Joseph Addison vas i always his heR hea heed d j boy Addison Add Wn wrote his exercises Addison did his best bent themes He ran tin messages II fagged for him and blacked his shoes shoed to tobe be in i Joe TO was waS wa Dicks greatest he took a it sermon or caning fron his 1 monitor frith ith the most boundless reference acquiescence acq j and affection From the Charier er house Addison passed paa d to Ox lt the t e age df dr 15 dis as a boy Oy scholar sch His resi rest residence dence d nee at as student scholar and fellow lasted ten years in fact he did not resign his fellowship until 1711 During his career he at attracted atI attracted the attention atte ti n of Montagu af al afterward afterward I Earl of Halifax by indicating in poems that he wrote Tote his IsIs admiration for Whig leaders and arid doctrines Mon Montagu Monta Montagu ta from entering the church and induced him hint fit himself elf for statesmanship Procuring a pen pension sion for Montagu him to travel in France Fra c Italy and Holland He ne remained rem nl abroad abl three years study studyIng Ing ng political institutions meeting fam famous famous ous ou men m n cf lf c letters lett rs and observing the ere and tastes of the peoples p he visited The Th chief literary results of his travels were a metrical letter to Halifax in which he expresses delight at finding himself in itt places made dear to him hint by his studies in the classics and the famous hymn h mn beginning When all thy mercies 0 O my God My rising soul surveys Transported with the view Im lost lostIn lostIn lostIn In wonder love and praise This clings to te the memory mem ry like like the lined linea of another hymn of him written of the starS Forever singing as they shine The hand that made m d us is divine work as an an essayist ap appeared appeared appeared in the TaUer Spectator Guard Guardian ian and Freeholder periodicals which followed one another in rapid succession sion during the years from 1709 to t 1716 The Spectator contains his h is best work The first number was Issued March M 1 I 1711 and the paper pap r appeared every week day It was wail w S eagerly read at the clubs and coffee houses as well as in inthe inthe inthe the homes and when hen the essays were collected ted into numerous edi edt I were necessary nece ary to supply the de do demand deI domand I mand mantle Neary one half of the Spectator tor papers were written itten by Addison The variety of the topics treated tr is very great greot but the purpose of all the essay es ya was to Improve the public taste to make literature attract attractive attractive ive ire to instruct while entertaining to g philosophy out of closet and li 11 libraries libraries to dwell in clubs and coffee coffeehouses coffeehouses houses Party politics was wasi excluded The first Spectator says I ever es en espoused espoused any an party with violence and andam andam am arn resolved to observe an exact neu neutrality neutrality between whigs and tories un loss leos l I shall be forced to declare my myself myself self by the hostilities of either side she In short I have acted in all the parts of I my life as a which Is the character ch I intend to preserve In this paper The Spectator hoped to ban banish baniSh banIsh ish vice and Ignorance out of the terri tern territories territorIes tories of Great Britain it attacked with f lre the thet minor vices and follies foUles of the time and made them ridiculous To women readers the tho Spectator gave the hearty rec recognition recognition accorded them then in the history qt our literature It brought a new Interest Inter into their lives by its minute observations on manners and quiet ridicule of extravagant fashions Ad t humorous satire is seen geen at its best beet in the descriptions of Sir Roger de tie Coverley the typical country gentle gentleman gentleman gentleman man of the time tl In the portraits it of Sir Roger and the other members of the famous club contemporary life is pretty completely described Tame Taine finde in these sketches the beginning of f the realistic reaU novel which appeared full formed before the eighteenth century was half over The critical papers p in inthe inthe inthe the Spectator are characterized by great moderation of o judgment the moral essays put ut forward a reasonable and cheerful view of duty dut and the in influence Influence influence fluence of both is plainly to create a sentiment against narrowness and ran car coc in ia the discussion of su subjects ejects on Which men are likely to differ most strongly It h has Jias 9 bean bei sa said that Addi greatest gre test work was wasi a work nork of reconciliation Macaulay refers to thin when he speaks of Addison as the great groat satirist who alone knew how to use ue ridicule without t abusing it who without wIt out inflicting a wound effected a great social reform and who recon reconciled reconciled reconciled wit wu and nd virtue after fter a long and disastrous separation during which wit had been bee led astray by profligacy and virtue by fanaticism The Spec Spectator Spectator litter did not speak in denunciation n of ot Intolerance ii It spread SP 1 JI abroad tOad a spirit of urbanity and good humor instead d It created a healthy and sensible pub public public lic he opinion on matters m of sf religion lit Jit literature literature and life Ufe The mistake is some rome sometimes sometimes times made of assuming that Addison entertained no Intense convictions be because beca because cause ca se in his character of Spectator he wrote rote without intensity But Addison had hati a higher art than argumentation and intense diction by which to effect his hia purposes There Thore had been more than enough controversy on ajl al the subjects which Addison touched with evident calmness in the the Spectator There was need of a respite from fierce fie contention and prose rose came as ag a relief The Thet prose pro of the preceding preceding receding ing century shows two extremes That of scholars like Milton MUton writing for scholars watt wan based on the Latin model and was wm characterized by long in involved involved involved and comprehensive sentences sentencer That of the th journalists whose number greatly Increased toward the close of the century was coarse colloquial and intentionally slovenly It is canica caricatured caricatured tuned In the for Sept 28 1710 from which a sentence or two will serve to illustrate I S I 5 5 f S 5 c i i I I I 41 a V 0 1 S 4 S S S 5 j I I S I 1 I r f t JONATHAN SWIFT S II ms said the Hie French kIns ki will barn bam boozi us agan agon which c many ninny The Jacks and others of that kidney are very and alert upon t t as you y U may amy see eee by their t pr 5 is js free fre from scholas scholasticism but in becoming popular it re remains remains remains mains pure It loses no dignity by its simplicity In Itt hands says the his historian historian torian brian Green this popular writ writIng writIng Ing big became a 8 part of literature While it U preserved the free movement of the the gayety and briskness bri of chat it obeyed the laws of literary art and was Shaped and guid guided guided guided ed by a sense of literary beauty Its humor too became a subtler and more exquisIte thing Instead of the mere wit of the coffe coffee house men found themselves smiling a ii humorist who came nearer then any other man before or since to t the humor of Shake Shakespeare speare It was thus thue that Addison be became became became came the typical representative of the revolution rev lutton which passed In his day over English En literature r rOhi J Ohio Ohi State Sta University Un |
