of going into Holy
Orders, to which he was strongly importuned by his father. His remarkable
seriousness and modesty, which might have been urged as powerful reasons
for his choosing that life, proved the chief obstacles to it. These
qualities, by which the Priesthood is so much adorned, represented the
duties of it as too weighty for him, and rendered him still the more
worthy of that honour, which they made him decline. It is happy that this
very circumstance has since turned so much to the advantage of Virtue and
Religion; in the cause of which, he has bestowed his labours the more
successfully, as they were his voluntary, not his necessary employment.
The World became insensibly reconciled to Wisdom and Goodness, when they
saw them recommended by him, with at least as much Spirit and Elegance as
they had been ridiculed [with] for half a century.

He was in his twenty-eighth year [1699], when his inclination to see
France and Italy was encouraged by the great Lord Chancellor SOMERS, one
of that kind of patriots who think it no waste of the Public Treasure, to
purchase Politeness to their country. His Poem upon one of King WILLIAM's
Campaigns, addressed to his Lordship, was received with great humanity;
and occasioned a message from him to the Author, to desire his
acquaintance.

He soon after obtained, by his Interest, a yearly pension of three
hundred pounds from the Crown, to support him in his travels. If the
uncommonness of a favour, and the distinction 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 so 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, reflections upon the Genius of the people,
a Map [_description_] of the 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 [_landscapes_]
drawn by Classic Authors, and others the like unconcerning parts of
knowledge! One may easily imagine