ADDISON ADELUNG. 



33 



tr.ss. The next year be accompanied lx>rd Halifax 

 to Hanover, and was soon after chosen nnder-secre- 

 tary of state. In 1709, he went to Ireland as secre- 

 tary to the Earl of Wharton, and was at the same 

 time appointed keeper of the records in Binningliain's 

 tower, with an allowance of 300 per annum. While 

 A. was in Ireland, Steele, the friend of his youth, 

 began the publication of the Tatler, a series of essays 

 on literature and manners : to this paper A. became 

 a contributor. The first number of the Tatler ap- 

 peared on the 22d April, 1709, and was succeeded 

 in March, 1711, by the Spectator, which -was con- 

 tinued daily till December, 1712. Some time after- 

 ward, the Guardian was undertaken by Steele, and 

 to this A. contributed. His papers in the Spectator 

 are marked by one of the letters in the name Clio, 

 and in the Guardian, by a hand. After the publica- 

 tion of the Guardian, the Spectator was revived, and 

 the eighth volume completed. In this his papers are 

 not distinguished by any mark. The popularity of 

 these works was very great, 20,000 copies of the 

 Spectator being distributed at one time, and they yet 

 stand among the classics of English literature. They 

 may be safely said to have produced a greater effect 

 on the mass of society than any literary productions 

 which preceded them. By describing and criticising 

 the manners of the times, delineating character, ex- 

 posing the follies, and reproving the vices which 

 fashion countenances, they contributed much to re- 

 form the taste of the English nation, while they fur- 

 nished the noblest lessons for the heart and the un- 

 derstanding. Their influence on English literature 

 lias been not less remarkable than on English man- 

 ners. The cliaracter of composition which they 

 introduced, although not absolutely English in origin, 

 lias become essentially so in tone, spirit, effect, and 

 social adaptation, and it is still to be traced in our 

 best works, notwithstanding the temptation which 

 modern bookmaking holds out to a diffusive and exag- 

 gerated style. A.'s papers in these works, may be 

 divided into the comic, the serious, and the critical. 

 His humour is peculiar, his -satire easy and delicate, 

 and his wit is always on the side of truth and virtue. 

 His serious papers are distinguished by beauty, pro- 

 priety, and elegance of style, not less than by their 

 pure tone of morality and religion. They are a code 

 of practical ethics. His critical essays contain many 

 just remarks, conveyed in an easy and popular man- 

 ner, and display the results of much study and deli- 

 cate taste. In 1713, his tragedy of Cato was repre- 

 sented with very great success. It had a run of 35 

 nights, and was always received with applause. This 

 was undoubtedly owing to party feelings ; the whigs 

 hailing whatever was favourable to liberty in the 

 production of a whig, and the tories re-echoing the 

 approbation, to show that they did not feel the cen- 

 sure it was supposed to convey. Now, however, 

 that it has come to be judged of apart from party 

 feeling, its character as a dramatic composition has 

 fallen very low, although it is admitted to contain 

 many passages of great oratorical beauty. A. was 

 afterwards engaged in several periodicals, principally 

 political, particularly " The Freeholder," went 

 again, as secretary of the viceroy, to Ireland, and 

 was appointed one of the lords of trade. In 1716, 

 he married the countess of Warwick, who was won 

 with difficulty, and whose haughty treatment of him 

 often drove him to the tavern. The year after his 

 marriage, he was appointed secretary of state ; but 

 his inability to speak in public, and his solicitude 

 about the elegance of his expressions, rendered him 

 unfit for the duties of the office, and he soon retired, 

 with a pension of 1500. His principal work, after 

 this, was the Evidences of Christianity, a work useful 

 at the time, as recommending the subject by elegance 



and perspicuity to popular notice, but since super- 

 seded by more complete treatises. He died at Hol- 

 land House, Kensington, on the 17th June, 1719. 

 Before he expired, he sent for his pupil, lord War- 

 wick, a young man of loose life, and addressed him 

 in these words : "I have sent for you that you may 

 see how a Christian can die." This scene is alluded 

 to in the lines of Tickell on his death : 



" He taught us how to live, and oh ! too high 

 The price of knowledge taught us how to die." 



He was buried in Westminster abbey. He was a 

 sincere believer in the Christian revelation ; in po- 

 litics earnest, but not violent, he was respected, il 

 not beloved, by individuals of both parties. Serious 

 and reserved in his manners, modest and even timid 

 in society, he spoke little before strangers. " I have 

 never," said lord Chesterfield, " seen a more modest, 

 or a more awkward man ;" but he was easy, fluent, 

 and familiar in the company of his friends. He 

 studied all the morning, dined at a tavern, and spent 

 the evening at Button's, a coffee-house frequented by 

 the wits of the time. As a poet, he is distinguished 

 for taste and elegance, but is destitute of high poetic 

 genius. His prose is remarkable for its purity, per- 

 spicuity, and simplicity, and for the higher graces of 

 harmony and richness of metaphor. It is the sen- 

 tence of the great judge of English literature, that 

 " he who would write English with correctness and 

 elegance must give his days and nights to the study 

 of Addison." His chief works are the tragedy of 

 Cato, his papers in the Tatler, the Spectator, nnd 

 the Guardian, and his Evidences of the Christian 

 Religion. 



ADDRESS. In modern times, importance has been 

 given to the manifestation of public opinion to the 

 sovereign, in the form of addresses; and govern- 

 ments, in difficult emergencies, have in turn addressed 

 the people. A communication from the rulers to 

 the citizens is called a proclamation. In France only, 

 at the time when the sovereignty of the people was 

 acknowledged, the higher authorities sent addresses 

 to the people. An address is essentially different 

 from a petition, since it contains only an expression 

 of thanks, satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, communi- 

 cates information, justifies measures, &c. This prac- 

 tice owes its origin to the British parliament, which 

 is accustomed to answer the king's speeches, deliver- 

 ed at the commencement and close of each session 

 by a public acknowledgment of the obligations of the 

 nation. The same custom is adopted by the con- 

 gress of the United States. The constitutions of 

 the several German states grant this right in a very 

 limited sense. In Wurtemoerg, it has been declared 

 unconstitutional, in reference to the army ; and in 

 Bavaria, the estates have only the right of trans- 

 mitting petitions to the king, and of complaining 

 against the ministers of state. The right of the 

 citizens, in associations or otherwise, to present ad- 

 dresses, is connected with the right of complaining, 

 convoking assemblies, and signing in a body. It is 

 obvious, tliat addresses of thanks and satisfaction, 

 like those with which Napoleon was so much pleased, 

 are of importance only in those cases where the ex. 

 pression of public opinion is free. 



ADEL, a kingdom of Africa, lying on the eastern 

 coast of that continent, and extending about 50<i 

 miles from east to west, and 300 from north to south. 

 It formerly was tributary to the sovereigns of Abys- 

 sinia, but it is now an independent state. Adel and 

 Zeila are the chief ^>wns, from which there is a con- 

 siderable trade in ivory, gold dust, and drugs. 



ADELTTNG, John Christopher, a German scholar, 

 distinguished for his exertions to improve the lan- 

 guage of his country, was born August 8, 1732, at 

 Spantekow, in Pomeranin, where his father was a 



