The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-08
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"A perfectly virtuous man. orthodox, and
entirely sincere in his religion consistent
in his politics, correct to a penny in his
monetary affairs, fllially pious. and charged
with a never-failing supply of the most
admirable moral sentiments, which he dis
penses freely on most occasions a perfect
man of business, and an almost pedantic
scholar; a man who can see no beauty in
the Alps, and who considers the cathedral
at Vienna a "barbarous building" such a
man surely has all the elements Of one of
the greatest prigs which the world has ever
seen-must be man to make virtue de-
testable and vice agreeable to an ordinary
mind, and complete with K-g Al
for the sovereignty of boredom.
Addison was all that we have described
above, but strangely enough he was neither
a bore nor prig on the contrary, he is
in his writing what he was in his life TO
those in his confidence, one of the gentlest,
most genial most kindly, and most witty
men with whom we have ever met. After
reading what is possible about Addison.
and examining his work, what strikes one
most is the intense, overwhelming love
which he had for his fellow creatures. He
laughs at them and their folies, and in
doing so uses a wit which is entirely his
own but even while he rebukes he never
wounds. In ali extremely corrupt and
licen.ous age, his hands were always pure
and his morals unimpeachabe yet he was
one of the most popular and influential
men of his day. Although he had com
handing person and perfect manners, he
was reputed to be dull in mixed society,
where flashy brillance was everything. and
where shallow-brained, half-educated
women cackle the int6lerant frivoity
which we read in the plays of the time he
was not fitted to shine in the drawing rooms
of the day, and he did not. lie could not
make pretenceof speaking in Parliament,
and so was absolutely useless as a debater
yet the firm faith which those in authority
had in his ability and honesty entirely
counterbalanced the want of social success
and brilliancy of speech-two of the most
important requirements in those days for a
nearly penniless politician with no family
connections. Addison, by the mere power
of his personal virtues first, and his literary
ability secondly, found himself in one of
the highest offices of state, kindly assisting
the meanest and least grateful of those
whom he had known in the old times,
when, with $50 in his pocket he bulied
the great duke of Somerset, and won the
battle. He came to a singular end after
all. He married Lady Warwick. Alas
for the vanity of human wishes
OF his personal appearance we haye at
least two portraits by good hands. Before
us are three carefully engraved portraits of
him, but there is great dissimilarty
between the three, except in the wig. Sir
Godfrey Kneller painted one of these por-
traits which is entirely unlike the two
others let us, however, give Sir Godfrey
the credit of the best picture, and judge
Addison's appearance from that The wig
almost prevents our judging the shape of
the head, yet seems very high behind. The
forehead is very lofty, the sort of forehead
which is called commanding by those
people who do not know that some of the
least decided men IN the world have had
high foreheads. The eyebrows are deli
cately 'pencilled," yet show vast deal of
vigor and expression they are what his
old Latin friends, who knew so well the
power VI cAlitsS III tlC cNcDION. WOuIu
have called "supercilious"; and yet the
nasal end of the supercliumis only slightly
raised, and it droops pleasantly at the
temporal end, so that there is nothing
satanic or ill-natured about it ; the eyebrow
of Addison according to Kneller, seems
to say, "1ou are a greater fool than you
think yourself to be, but | would die
sooner than tell you So The eye, which
is generally supposed to convey so much
expression, but which very often does not,
| is very much like the eyes of other amiable
and talented people. The nose is long, as
becomes an orthodox Wing quite as long,
| we should say, as the nose of any member
of Peels famous long-nosed ministry, and
| quite as delicately chiselled. The mouth
| is very tender and beautiful, firm, yet with
| delicate curve upward at each end of the
upper lip, suggestive of a good joke, and
of calm waiting to hear if any man is
going to beat it. Below the mouth there
| follows, of course, the nearly inevitable
double chin of the eighteenth century, with
deep incision in the centre of the jaw
| bone, which shows through the flesh like a
dimpe On the whole, sngularly hand
some and pleasant face; wanting the won
derful form which one sees in the faces of
Shakespeare, Prior, Congreve, Castlereagh,
Byron or Napoleon, but still extremely fine
of its kind. Temple Bar.