BOOKS TO READ

Stories of Gulliver, by J. Lang.  Gulliver’s Travels.  Gulliver’s Travels (Everyman’s Library).

NOTE:—­These two last are both the same text and are illustrated by A. Rackham.  It is the edition in Temple Classics for Young People that is recommended, not that in the Temple Classics.

Chapter LXV ADDISON—­THE “SPECTATOR”

SWIFT’S wit makes us laugh, but it leaves us on the whole, perhaps, a little sad.  Now we come to a satirist of quite another spirit whose wit, it has been said, “makes us laugh and leaves us good and happy."*

Thackeray.

Joseph Addison was the son of a Dean.  He was born in 1672 in the quaint little thatched parsonage of Milston, a Wiltshire village, not far from that strange monument of ancient days, Stonehenge.  When he was old enough Joseph was sent first to schools near his home, and then a little later to the famous Charterhouse in London.  Of his schooldays we know little, but we can guess, for one story that has come down to us, that he was a shy, nervous boy.  It is said that once, having done something a little wrong, he was so afraid of what punishment might follow that he ran away.  He hid in a wood, sleeping in a hollow tree and feeding on wild berries until he was found and taken home to his parents.

At Charterhouse Joseph met another boy named Dick Steele, and these two became fast friends although they were very different from each other.  For Dick was merry, noisy, and fun-loving, and although Joseph loved fun too it was in a quiet, shy way.  Dick, who was a few weeks older than Joseph, was the son of a well-to-do lawyer.  He was born in Ireland, but did not remain there long.  For, as both his father and mother died when he was still a little boy, he was brought to England to be taken care of by an uncle.

From Charterhouse Joseph and Dick both went to Oxford, but to different Colleges.  Dick left the University without taking his degree and became a soldier, while Joseph stayed many years and became a man of learning.

Joseph Addison had gone to College with the idea of becoming a clergyman like his father, but after a time he gave up that idea, and turned his thoughts to politics.  The politicians of the day were always on the lookout for clever men, who, by their writings, would help to sway the people to their way of thinking.  Already at college Addison had become known by his Latin poetry, and three Whig statesmen thought so highly of it that they offered him a pension of 300 pounds a year to allow him to travel on the Continent and learn French and so add to his learning as to be able to help their side by his writing.  Addison accepted the pension and set out on his travels.  For four years he wandered about the Continent, adding to his store of knowledge of men and books, meeting many of the foremost men of letters of his day.  But long before he returned home his friends had fallen from power and his pension was stopped.  So back in London we find him cheerfully betaking himself to a poor lodging up three flights of stairs, hoping for something to turn up.