we know so little as of Addison. His own _Spectator_, who never opened
his lips but in his club, is scarcely more silent than the essayist's
biographers, so trifling are the details they have to record beyond the
bare facts of his official and literary career. Steele knew him better,
and, in spite of an unhappy estrangement at the last, probably loved him
more than anyone else, and had he written his story, as he once proposed
doing, the narrative might have been charming; but, alas for Steele's
resolutions!

That Addison was a shy man we know--Lord Chesterfield said he was the
most timid man he ever knew--and it speaks well for his resolution and
strength of purpose that he should have risen notwithstanding this
timidity to so high a position in public affairs. His want of oratorical
power was a drawback to his efficiency, and Sir James Macintosh was
probably right in saying that Addison as Dean of St. Patrick's, and
Swift as Secretary of State, would have been a happy stroke of fortune,
putting each into the place most fitted for him. The essayist's reserve,
while it closed his lips in general society, did not prevent him from
being one of the most fascinating of companions in the freedom of
conversation with a few intimate friends. Swift, Steele, and even Pope,
testify to Addison's irresistible charm in the select society that he
loved. Young said he could chain the attention of every hearer, and Lady
Mary Montagu declared that he was the best company in the world.

[Sidenote: Richard Steele (1672-1729).]

Richard Steele was born in Dublin, 1672, of English parents, and
educated at the Charterhouse, where, as we have said, Addison was at the
same time a pupil. In 1690 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford,
Addison being then demy at Magdalen. Steele left college without taking
a degree, and entered the army as a cadet. After a time he obtained the
rank of captain in Lord Lucas's fusiliers, and wrote his treatise, _The
Christian Hero_ (1701), with the design, he says, 'principally to fix
upon his own mind a strong impression of virtue and religion in
opposition to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable pleasure.'
Steele was an honest lover of the things most worthy of love, but his
frailty too often proved stronger than his virtue, and the purpose of
_The Christian Hero_ was not answered.

Jeremy Collier's _Short View of the Immorality and Profanity of the
English Stage_, published in 1698, had made, as i