Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/89

 A D D I S O N. 53

he was made fecretary to the regency, and was required by his oShce to fend notice to Hanover that the QULVII w:s dead, and that the throne was vacant. To do tins woulJ not have been difucult to any man hut Addifm, who was f.> ovemhJmt 1 ! w;ih r.te grcatneU of th evc;it, and (odi iracr. d by choi >* c i expreliion, tha L the lor. is, who could i: jt wait for the- ijceties of criticifm, cdK.I Mr. Southwell, a clerk HI the houle, and ordered him to difpatch the meilage. S-uth- vcl! r.-.idiiy told what was necelLry, in the common ftyle of bu!u ("-, a 'd valued Ir'nJtlf upon having done wh.it wab too hard fur Addifon. He was better qualified .'or the Freeholder, a paper which he :.,n U -c. 2 ^, 1/15, to the middle of -the next year. Thisw,.s undertaken in de- fence of the eftabliflied government, ometimes with argu- ment, fomrtimes with mirth. In aronnvnt he had nuny equals; 'out his humour was fingular and matchleli. c.):i the 2d of Augult 17 i 6^ he married the Countefs dowa- ger of Warwick, whoiii he bad ("'Mfcit^d by a very long and anxious courtfhip. He is fa id to have firfi known herb be- coming tutor to her ion. The marriage, if uhcontradited repoit can be credited, made no addition to his happinefs ; it neither found them iv, made them equ-i!. Sh>' always re- membered her own rmk, and thou;ht herfclf entitled to tieat with very lictle ceremony the tutor of her Ion. It is certain that Addifon has left behind him no encouragement for ambi- tious love. The year after, 1717, he rofe t.o his higheft eleva- tion, being made fecretary of (late : byt it is qniverfally con- fcifed that he was unequal to the duties of his place. In the houfc of commons he could not fpeak, and therefore was ufe- lefs to the defence of the government. In the rifi .- h? could not il r ue an order without lofing his time in q^cftof fine cx- p-refiions. V T hat h^ gained in rank, he loft in cr-dit : an;', rmdinc by experience his own inability, was forced to fohctt his difmiflion, with a penfion of 1500!. a year. Mis friends palliated this relinquiflimenf, of wnich both friends and ene- mies knew the true reaibn, with an account of declining health, and the neceffity of recefs and quiet. Me now re- turned to his vocation, and began to p'.m literary occupations for his future life. He purpofed a trag-dy on the dr.nh of So- crates ; a (lory of which, as Tickell remarks, the bafis is narrow, and to which love perhaps could noicalily have b.fon appended. He engaged in a nobler work, a defence of the ChriOidii Re- ligion, of which part was puMifhed after his d ..( ! i ; and he defigned to have made a new poetical vcrfion ot tlic I'Jalir.s. Jt is related that he had once a dcfign to make an EoglilbDic- E 3 nonary,