ht,
that I have come into his room and stayed five minutes there before
he has known anything of it. He had his masters generally at supper
with him; kept very little company beside; and had no amour that I
know of; and I think I should have known it, if he had had
any."--ABBE PHILIPPEAUX of Blois (_Spence's Anecdotes_).

80 "His knowledge of the Latin poets, from Lucretius and Catullus down
to Claudian and Prudentius, was singularly exact and
profound."--MACAULAY.

81 "Our country owes it to him, that the famous Monsieur Boileau first
conceived an opinion of the English genius for poetry, by perusing
the present he made him of the _Musae Anglicanae_."--TICKELL (Preface
to _Addison's Works_).

82 "It was my fate to be much with the wits; my father was acquainted
with all of them. _Addison was the best company in the world._ I
never knew anybody that had so much wit as Congreve."--LADY WORTLEY
MONTAGU (_Spence's Anecdotes_).

83 Mr. Addison To Mr. Wyche.

"DEAR SIR,

"My hand at present begins to grow steady enough for a letter, so
the properest use I can put it to is to thank ye honest gentleman
that set it a shaking. I have had this morning a desperate design in
my head to attack you in verse, which I should certainly have done
could I have found out a rhyme to rummer. But though you have
escaped for ye present, you are not yet out of danger, if I can a
little recover my talent at Crambo. I am sure, in whatever way I
write to you, it will be impossible for me to express ye deep sense
I have of ye many favours you have lately shown me. I shall only
tell you that Hambourg has been the pleasantest stage I have met
with in my travails. If any of my friends wonder at me for living so
long in that place, I dare say it will be thought a very good excuse
when I tell him Mr. Wyche was there. As your company made our stay
at Hambourg agreeable, your wine has given us all ye satisfaction
that we have found in our journey through Westphalia. If drinking
your health will do you any good, you may expect to be as long lived
as Methusaleh, or, to use a more familiar instance, as ye oldest hoc
in ye cellar. I hope ye two pair of legs that was left a swelling
behind us are by this time come to their shapes again. I can't