1078 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 
position, solely by his talents. In an age of political corruption, 
which tainted men like Marlborough, he maintained his truth, his 
integrity, his constancy in friendship ; and his whole bearing was 
marked by a decorum which prevented him from overstepping the 
bounds that hedge round the gentleman and Christian. With a 
mind so chastened and regulated, Addison became the most perfect 
master of English prose, and his conversation is said to have been 
more brilliant and charming than his writings. ‘“ Addison almost 
created, and wholly perfected, English prose as an instrument for 
the expression of social thought.” Chaucer, in his age, and 
Shakespeare in Elizabethan times, had represented the genius and 
character of the English nation in poetry ; but Addison was the 
first to speak for al] that was English in prose. His object in 
writing is given in the following words :—“ It was said of Socrates 
that he brought down philosophy from heaven to inhabit among 
men ; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I have 
brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, 
to dwell at clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables, and in coffee- 
houses.” Johnson declares that ‘whoever wishes to obtain an 
English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not osten- 
tatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.” 
Macaulay terms him ‘the unsullied statesman, the accomplished 
scholar, the master of pure English eloquence, the consummate 
painter of life and manners, the great satirist who alone knew how 
to use ridicule without abusing it, 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.” 
During the Seven Years’ War with France and Spain, Johnson 
and Goldsmith were the pillars of English literature. From this 
struggle Britain issued with honour, having gained much addi- 
tional territory and a considerable quantity of treasure. or this 
period we have Boswell’s inimitable “ Life of Johnson” to draw 
upon. 
Johnson was an exaggerated type of the Englishman of his day: 
stout in build, rugged in appearance, blunt in speech, and tempes- 
tuous in manner; beneath all these he concealed a kindly and 
sensitive heart. Not averse to quarrel, he was readily disarmed by 
kindness ; and with all the insular prejudices of his age, he was 
ever on the side of truth, right, and justice. 
Among the struggling authors of the day Johnson had always 
one or more under his wing. In Grub-street he was the friend of 
Richard Savage, that wayward genius to whom gifts seem to have 
been given for no other pupose than that they might blast his own 
life. At a later date he was the friend, adviser, and protector of 
Goldsmith. 
After the appearance of his dictionary, Johnson became the 
great champion of literature, the ruler of the English literary 
