Addison
Addison names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Addison Joseph, an eminent man of letters
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Joseph, an eminent man of letters. Born at Milston, England, 1672. He was educated at the Charterhouse, London, and in the University of Oxford, where he distinguished himself by application and by skill in writing Latin verses. The elder Addison was a distinguished clergyman. He intended his son for the church, but influential friends persuaded the young man to prepare for public life. At the age of twenty-seven they secured him an appointment, with the privilege of travel for a year to two, on salary. He traveled chiefly in Italy and France, living for a time in the brilliant society of Paris and Versailles. A change in the English government cut this life short. He returned to England. A poem on the victory of Blenheim brought him to the notice of the Whigs, from whom he received several important appointments or secretaryships. He married the widowed Countess of Warwick, a lady of social standing, one who was a help so far as rising in the world was concerned. But Addison seemed to lack executive ability. In drawing up state papers, he is said to have written rather as a poet or an essayist than as one transacting public business of importance. Though one of the most famous men of his day, and popular with all parties, he proved so unsuited for public place that he was forced to retire. He was granted a pension, however, of $7,500 a year. Addison's wife lived in style in the famous Holland House, but it was never a congenial home for Addison. His great delight was to spend a few hours with friends at a club house, where they smoked, drank claret, told stories, and discussed politics or literature. Addison died June 17, 1719, and was buried at dead of night in Westminster Abbey. His death was universally regretted. The notable men of the day gathered in sad procession to follow his remains through the passages of that wonderful abbey in whose gloomy recesses the poet delighted to walk, pondering on the uncertainty of life. Addison is known best as a writer of essays. He contributed to the small periodical sheets known as the Spectator, the Tatler, the Guardian, and the Freeholder. Addison was himself a genial, prosperous, generous man, with an intense desire to see everybody happy and well-doing. His essays were short and witty attacks on the vices and foibles of the day. More than that, they aimed to substitute, in a quiet, attractive fashion, positive virtues for the faults and follies exposed. In one of the Spectator papers, Addison himself says, "The great and only end of these speculations is to banish vice and ignorance out of the territories of Great Britain." His essays were read and discussed in every drawing room in the United Kingdom. His pictures of licentiousness, debauchery, drunkenness, lazy habits, coquetry, irreligion, thoughtlessness, gross eating, jealousy, vanity, and love of loud display, were so vivid, and yet so humorous, that they turned the laugh of fashionable society against exhibitions of this sort. His descriptions of the corresponding virtues were so attractive, so sincere, and appealed so strongly to the better nature of people, that he is said to have done much to make quiet tones, modesty, becoming attire, gentle ways, truthfulness, chastity, and moderate living fashionable. His service to literature and to society was the uniting of the stern virtues of the Puritans with the pleasures of the Cavalier. Addison taught that it is not necessary to be wicked in order to have a good time; that well-doing and happiness go hand in hand. In his dissection of a beau's brain, for instance, he found that "the ogling muscles were very much worn and decayed with use; whereas, on the contrary, the elevator, or the muscle which turns the eye toward heaven, did not appear to have been used at all." Speaking of young ladies, he described his method of training "a lady to quit her fan gracefully when she throws it aside in order to take up a pack of cards, adjust a curl of hair, replace a falling pin, or apply herself to any other matter of importance. This part of the exercise . . . may be learned in two days' time." Such sentences were talked over and laughed over in the fashionable circles of London until the "mashers" and "flirts" of society were fairly laughed out of court. Addison's bright sayings were at everyone's tongue's end. The fear of ridicule did much to bring about a desired change of manners. One of his noblest essays is the Vision of Mirza, in which he likens the human race to a procession passing along an elevated road carried across a deep gulf by means of arches full of holes, through which, sooner or later, all travelers fall. Addison's prose is one of the priceless heritages of literature. Much of his poetry will not be remembered. A few hymns, however, revealing his contemplative, intense, pious nature are among the finest in the English or any other language. It is small wonder that the writer of the following lines could not bring himself to the successful preparation of foreign correspondence, designed to say much and mean little: Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And, nightly, to the list'ning earth, Repeats the story of her birth; While all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole. What though, in solemn silence, all Move round the dark terrestrial ball? What though no real voice, nor sound, Amid their radiant orbs be found? In Reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; Forever singing as they shine, "The hand that made us is divine." Whoever wishes to attain an English style familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.--Dr. Samuel Johnson. A life prosperous and beautiful--a calm death--an immense fame and affection afterwards for his happy and spotless name.--Thackeray. His conversation had something in it more charming than I have found in any other man.--Pope.
Addison JOSEPH, an English essayist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOSEPH, an English essayist, poet, and statesman ; born at Milston, May 1, 1672. In 1693, he began his literary career with a poetical address to Dryden. Next year appeared his "Account of the Greatest English Poets," and a translation of the fourth book of the "Georgics." In 1697 he composed a Latin poem on the "Peace of Ryswick," and this, with a poem, "To the King," resulted in that, through Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, he obtained, in 1699, a pension of £300, and spent four years in JOSEPH ADDISON France, Italy, Austria, Germany and Holland, one of the results of his travels being his "Letter to Lord Halifax." "The Campaign," a poem celebrating the victory of Blenheim (1704), secured for him a commissionship of excise. Elected to Parliament for Malmesbury, he kept the seat for life. He contributed largely to the "Tatler," started by his friend Steele, in 1709; 41 papers being wholly by Addison, and 34 by him and Steele conjointly. In March, 1711, was founded the "Spectator," 274 numbers of which (those signed with one of the letters CLIO), were the work of Addison. As a light essayist, he has no equal in English literature. His tragedy, "Cato " (1713), aroused such vehement party enthusiasm that it kept the stage 35 nights. In 1716 Addison married the Dowager Countess of Warwick and in 1717 he was appointed Secretary of State, but resigned his post, retar owing to his failing health, in March, 1718. He died at Holland House, June 17, 1719.
Addison CHRISTOPHER, British statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHRISTOPHER, British statesman; born June 19, 1869, was educated at Trinity College, and pursued medical studies at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He became a lecturer on anatomy, and wrote many works on medical subjects. In 1914 he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, and in the Coalition Cabinet of Lloyd George was made Minister of Munitions. Later, he was appointed minister in charge of reconstruction.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Nothing in Aiton's 1910 sketch of Joseph Addison (1672-1719) has been overturned: the dates, the Blenheim poem that won him Whig patronage, the marriage to the Countess of Warwick, and the midnight burial in Westminster Abbey all still stand. What has moved is scholarly and physical. Donald F. Bond's Clarendon edition of The Spectator (1965) settled which papers are Addison's and which Steele's, work the 1910 account could only take on tradition; and Holland House, the grand home Aiton's says was "never a congenial home for Addison" and where he died, was gutted by German bombing in September 1940, its surviving fragment now standing in a London public park. Addison's standing has also shifted: Dr Johnson's advice to give one's days and nights to Addison's volumes, which the 1910 entry was quoting as it broke off, is no longer taken as literary law, though the hymn "The Spacious Firmament on High" quoted here remains in use.
Written for this edition, 2026.