“Many who praise virtue do no more than praise it. Yet it is reasonable to believe that Addison's profession and practice were at no great variance; since, amidst that storm of faction in which most of his life was passed, though his station made him conspicuous, and his activity made him formidable, the character given him by his friends was never contradicted by his enemies. Of those with whom interest or opinion united him, he had not only the esteem but the kindness; and of others, whom the violence of opposition drove against him, though he might lose the love, he retained the reverence.”—Johnson.
“Milton's chief talent, and indeed his distinguishing excellence lies in the sublimity of his thoughts. There are others of the modern, who rival him in every other part of poetry; but in the greatness of his sentiments he triumphs over all the poets, both modern and ancient, Homer alone excepted. It is impossible for the imagination of man to disturb itself with greater ideas than those which he has laid together in his first, second, and sixth books.”—Spectator, No. 279.
“If I were to name a poet that is a perfect master in all these arts of working on the imagination, I think Milton may pass for one.”—Ibid., No. 417.
These famous papers appeared in each Saturday's Spectator, from January 19 to May 3, 1712. Besides his services to Milton, we may place those he did to Sacred Music.
“Addison was very kind to me at first, but my bitter enemy afterwards.”—Pope (Spence's Anecdotes).
“ ‘Leave him as soon as you can,’ said Addison to me, speaking of Pope; ‘he will certainly play you some devilish trick else: he has an appetite to satire.’ ”—Lady Wortley Montagu (Spence's Anecdotes).
“The remark of Mandeville, who, when he had passed an evening in his company, declared that he was ‘a parson in a tye-wig’, can detract little from his character. He was always reserved to strangers, and was not incited to uncommon freedom by a character like that of Mandeville.”—Johnson, Lives of the Poets.
“Old Jacob Tonson did not like Mr. Addison: he had a quarrel with him, and, after his quitting the secretaryship, used frequently to say of him—‘One day or other you'll see that man a bishop—I'm sure he looks that way; and indeed I ever thought him a priest in his heart.’ ”—Pope (Spence's Anecdotes).
“Mr. Addison stayed above a year at Blois. He would rise as early as between two and three in the height of summer, and lie abed till between eleven and twelve in the depth of winter. He was untalkative whilst here, and often thoughtful: sometimes so lost in thought, that I have come into his room and stayed five minutes there before he has known anything of it. He had his masters generally at supper with him; kept very little company beside; and had no amour that I know of; and I think I should have known it, if he had had any.”—Abbé Philippeaux of Blois (Spence's Anecdotes).
Mr. Addison To Mr. Wyche.