Wheeling times and advertiser. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1839-1849, 1843-09-13
SWIFT, VoLrAIRE, AND ADDISON.

SSP" HNNS"' S'AHhy rum Nhe pen
Of Mr.. Macauley, in the last number Of
the Edinburgh Review:-NationaI In.
te~lligeneer.
The three most eminent masters Of
he art Of rldicule, during the eighteenth
century, were, we conceive, Addison,
Swift and NoltRIre. Which Of the three
had the greatest power OF moving
laughter may be questioned. But each
IL Them within his own domain, was
supreme. Noltaire is the prince of
buiToons His meIriment is without
disguise or restTainl. lie gambols, he
grlns, he shakes his sides, he shoots out
the tongue. The manner Of Swift is the
very opposite 10 this. lie moves
laughter, but never joins in it. lie ap.
pears in his works, such as he appear.
ed IN society, All the company are
convulsed in merriment, while the Dean
the author of the mirIh. preserves an
lnvInciose gravity and even sourness OF
aspect; and gives ute rance 10 the most
eccentric and ludicrous f~ancies, with the
air oil q man reading the communion
service.
The manner Of Addison is as remote
from that Of Swift as from that of Vol
Tuire lie neither laughs out, like the
French wit, nor like the Irish wit.
throws a double portion Of severity in.
10 ms eountenaEce while l~aughingly;
Tat preserves a looG peculiarly MS own
"A look of demure serenity, disturbed
only by an arch sparkle Of the eve, an
almost lmperceptib'e elevation of the
brow, an almost impercepuble curl Of
the lip His tone was ne ther that of
Jack Pudding or ola Cypic, II isthat
Of a gentleman, in whom the quickest |
sense Of the ridiculous is con s%tan!ly tenn
pered by good nature aud good breed
ieg.
Ne own tina the humor Of Addison is
in our opinion of a more delicious fla
vor than the humor of either Swift or
Voltaire. Thus much, at least, is GER
tain-that both Swift and Volieire have
been successfully mimicked, and hat no
man has yet been able 10 mimic Addi-
son. The letter Of the AbOe Coyer 10
Pansophe is Voltaire all over. and i'm
posed, dnringa long time, on the Acade-
micIans OF Paris. There are passages
IN Arbuthnot'S s~atirical works which
we, a; least, cannot distinguish from
Swilrs best writing. But, of the many !
eminent men who have made Addison /,
their model-though several have conf
cd his mere diction with happy effect
none has been able TO catch the tone of
his pleasantly. In the World, IN the
ConnoisseHr, in the Mirror, in the
Lounger, there are numerous papers
A. Edfaa.a - aI..z.- -
tiers and spectators. Most of these pa.
pers have some merit; many are very
lively and amusing; but there is not a
single one which could be passed off as
Aedlson's on a critic Of the smalles.
P~erspicaeity.
But that which chiefly distia cuisines
Addison from Swift, from Voltaire. from
almost all the great masters of ridicule. !
Is the grace tie ~uobleness. the moral
purify, which we fad ever in his merri.
ment. Severity, gradually hardening
n darkenlng into misanthropy, char
acterlzes the works Of Swift. The ma
tureoi NoitaiIe was, indeed, not inhu
man but he veneTaIed nothing. Nel-
ther IN the master pieces of art, nor in
Inc purest examples of ,yirtue-neither
In the Great First Cause, nor IN the aw.
iul enigma Of the grave-could he see
anything but subjects for drollery. The
mo re solemn and august the theme, the
more monkey like was his grimacing
and chattering. The mirth Of Swift is
the mirth Of Mephistophiles, the mirth
Vo taire is the mirth Of Puck. If, as
Soame Jenyns oddly imagined, & portion
OF the happiness Of Seraptin and Just
men made perfect be derived from an
exquisite perception Of the ludicrous.
their mlrth must surely be none other
than the mirth-of Addison "a mir.h con
sistent with tender compassion for all
that is frail, and With profound rever-
ence for all that is sublime. Nothing
great, nothing umiable, no moral duty,
no doctrine Of natural or revealed reii
gloD, has ever been associated by Add.
son with any degrading idea. His hu-
manity is without a parallel in literary
history. The highest proof Of human
virtue is 20 possess Doundless power,
without abusing il. No kind Of power
is more formidable than the power Of
men ridiculous: aud that power Addison
possessed in boundless measure. How
grossly that power was abused by Swift I
and Voltalre, Is well known. But Of
Addison It may be confidently affirmed
that he had bIackened no mans charac-
ter nay, that il would be difficult, If not
impossible, to hnd, in all the volumes
which he has left us, q single taunt
which az be called ungeneroUs or un-
- ". IL