sh of tea, every morning next winter.

As we have yet had nothing new since the _Spectator_, it only remains for
me to assure you, that I am

Yours, &c., J[OHN] G[AY].

_Westminster, May_ 3, 1711.

_POSTCRIPT_.

Upon a review of my letter, I find I have quite forgotten the _British
Apollo_; which might possibly have happened, from its having, of late,
retreated out of this end of the Town into the country: where, I am
informed however, that it still recommends itself by deciding wagers at
cards, and giving good advice to shopkeepers and their apprentices.

_FINIS_.

THOMAS TICKELL.

_Life of JOSEPH ADDISON_.

[_Preface_ to first edition of ADDISON's _Works_ 1721.]

JOSEPH ADDISON, the son of LANCELOT ADDISON, D.D., and of JANE, the
daughter of NATHANIEL GULSTON, D.D., and sister of Dr. WILLIAM GULSTON,
Bishop of BRISTOL, was born at Milston, near Ambrosebury, in the county
of Wilts, in the year 1671.

His father, who was of the county of Westmoreland, and educated at
Queen's College in Oxford, passed many years in his travels through
Europe and Africa; where he joined to the uncommon and excellent talents
of Nature, a great knowledge of Letters and Things: of which, several
books published by him, are ample testimonies. He was Rector of Milston,
above mentioned, when Mr. ADDISON, his eldest son, was born: and
afterwards became Archdeacon of Coventry, and Dean of Lichfield.

Mr. ADDISON received his first education at the _Chartreuse_
[_Charterhouse School in London_]; from whence he was removed very early
to Queen's College, in Oxford. He had been there about two years, when
the accidental sight of a Paper of his verses, in the hands of Dr.
LANCASTER, then Dean of that House, occasioned his being elected into
Magdalen College.

He employed his first years in the study of the old Greek and Roman
Writers; whose language and manner he caught, at that time of life, as
strongly as other young people gain a French accent, or a genteel air.

An early acquaintance with the Classics is what may be called the Good
Breeding of Poetry, as it gives a certain gracefulness which never
forsakes a mind that contracted it in youth; but is seldom, or never, hit
by those who would learn it too late.

He first distinguished himself by his Latin compositions, published in
the _Musae Anglicanae_: and was admired as one of the best Authors since
the Augustan Age, in the two universities and the greatest part of
Euro