Mr. ADDISON turn his thoughts to the civil World; and, as you were the instrument of his becoming acquainted with my Lord HALIFAX, I doubt not but you remember the warm instances that noble Lord made to the Head of the College, not to insist upon Mr. ADDISON’s going into Orders.  His arguments were founded on the general pravity [depravity] and corruption of men of business [public men] who wanted liberal education.  And I remember, as if I read the letter yesterday, that my Lord ended with a compliment, that “however he might be represented as no friend to the Church, he would never do it any other injury than keeping Mr. ADDISON out of it!”

The contention for this man in his early youth, among the people of greatest power; Mr. Secretary TICKELL, the Executor for his Fame, is pleased to ascribe to “a serious visage and modesty of behaviour.”

When a Writer is grossly and essentially faulty, it were a jest to take notice of a false expression or a phrase, otherwise Priesthood in that place, might be observed upon; as a term not used by the real well-wishers to Clergymen, except when they would express some solemn act, and not when that Order is spoken of as a Profession among Gentlemen.  I will not therefore busy myself about the “unconcerning parts of knowledge, but be content like a reader of plain sense without politeness.”  And since Mr. Secretary will give us no account of this Gentleman, I admit “the Alps and Apennines” instead of the Editor, to be “Commentators of his Works,” which, as the Editor says, “have raised a demand for correctness.”  This “demand,” by the way, ought to be more strong upon those who were most about him, and had the greatest advantage of his example.  But as our Editor says, “that those who come nearest to exactness are but too often fond of unnatural beauties, and aim at something better than perfection.”

Believe me, Sir, Mr. ADDISON’s example will carry no man further than that height for which Nature capacitated him:  and the affectation of following great men in works above the genius of their imitators, will never rise farther than the production of uncommon and unsuitable ornaments in a barren discourse, like flowers upon a heath, such as the Author’s phrase of “something better than perfection.”

But in his Preface, if ever anything was, is that “something better:”  for it is so extraordinary, that we cannot say, it is too long or too short, or deny but that it is both.  I think I abstract myself from all manner of prejudice when I aver that no man, though without any obligation to Mr. ADDISON, would have represented him in his family and in his friendships, or his personal character, so disadvantageously as his Secretary (in preference of whom, he incurred the warmest resentments of other Gentlemen) has been pleased to describe him in those particulars.