crown, to support him in his travels. If the uncommonness of a favour, and the diftinction of the person who confers it, enhance its value: nothing could be more honourable to a young man of learning, than such a bounty from fo eminent a patron.

How well Mr. Addison answered the expectations of my Lord Somers, cannot appear better, than from the book of Travels he dedicated to his Lordship at his return. It is not hard to conceive, why that performance was at first but indifferently relished by the bulk of readers; who expected an account, in a common way, of the customs and policies of the several governments in Italy, reflexion upon the genius of the people, a map of their provinces, or a measure of their buildings. How were they disappointed, when, instead of such particulars, they were presented only with a journal of poetical travels, with remarks on the present picture of the country, compared with the landskips drawn by claffic claffic authors, and other the like unconcerning parts of knowledge! One may easily imagine a reader of plain sense, but without a fine taste, turning over these parts of the volume, which make more than half of it, and wondering how an author, who feems to have so solid an understanding, when he treats of more weighty subjects in the other pages, should dwell upon such trifles, and give up so much room to matters of mere amusement. There are indeed but few men fo fond of the ancients, as to be transported with every little accident, which introduces to their intimate acquaintance. Persons of that caft may here have the fatisfaction of seeing annotations upon an old Roman poem, gathered from the hills and valleys where it was written. The Tiber and the Po serve to explain the verses that were made upon their banks; and the Alps and Apennines are made commentators on those authors, to whom they were fub

jects so many centuries ago. Next to

perfonal personal conversation with the writers themselves, this is the surest way of coming at their sense; a compendious and engaging kind of criticism, which convinces at first sight, and shews the vanity of conjectures, made by antiquaries at a distance. If the knowledge of polite literature has its use, there is certainly a merit in illustrating the perfect models of it, and the learned world will think some years of a man's life not mifspent in so elegant an employment. I shall conclude what I had to say on this performance, by obferving, that the fame of it increased from year to year, and the demand for copies was so urgent, that their price rose to four or five times the original value, before it came out in a second edition.

The Letter from Italy to my Lord Halifax may be confidered as the text upon which the book of Travels is a large comment, and has been esteemed by those, who have a relish for antiquity, as the most exquisite of his poetical performances. A tranflation of it by Signior Salvini,

Salvini, profeffor of the Greek tongue at Florence, is inserted in this edition, not only on the account of its merit, but because it is the language of the country which is the subject of this poem.

The materials for the Dialogues upon Medals, now first printed from a manuscript of the Author, were collected in the native country of those Coins. The book itself was begun to be cast into form at Venice, as appears from a letter to Mr. Stepney, then minister at that court, dated in November_1702.

Some time before the date of this letter, Mr. Addison had designed to return to England, when he received advice from his friends that he was pitched upon to attend the army under Prince Eugene, who had just begun the war in Italy, as fecretary from his Majefty. But an account of the death of King William, which he met with at Geneva, put an end to that thought; and as his hopes of advancement in his own country were fallen with the credit of his friends, who were out of power at the beginning beginning of her late Majesty's reign, he had leisure to make the tour of Germany in his way home.

He remained for some time, after his return to England, without any public employment, which he did not obtain till the year 1704, when the Duke of Marlborough arrived at the highest pitch of glory, by delivering all Europe from slavery, and furnished Mr. Addison with a subject worthy of that genius which appears in his poem called The Campaign. The Lord-Treasurer Godolphin, who was a fine judge of poetry, had a fight of this work, when it was only carried on as far as the applauded simile of the Angel; and approved the poem, by bestowing on the author, in a few days after, the place of Commiffioner of appeals, vacant by the removal of the famous Mr. Locke to the council of trade.

His next advancement was to the place of under-fsecretary, which he held under Sir Charles Hedges, and the pre

fent