: he having proposed, as appears from the Introduction, to add the
Jewish to the Heathen testimonies for the truth of the Christian History.
He was more assiduous than his health would well allow, in the pursuit of
this Work: and had long determined to dedicate his Poetry also, for the
future, wholly to religious subjects.

Soon after, he was, from being one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade,
advanced to the post of Secretary of State; he found his health impaired
by the return of that asthmatic indisposition; which continued often, to
afflict him during his exercise of that employment: and, at last, obliged
him to beg His Majesty's leave to resign.

His freedom from the anxiety of business so far re-established his
health, that his friends began to hope he might last for many years: but
(whether it were from a life too sedentary; or from his natural
constitution, in which was one circumstance very remarkable, that, from
his cradle, he never had a regular pulse) a long and painful relapse into
an asthma and dropsy deprived the World of this great man, on the 17th of
June, 1719.

He left behind him only one daughter, by the Countess of WARWICK; to whom
he was married in the year 1716.

Not many days before his death, he gave me directions to collect his
Writings, and at the same time committed to my care the _Letter_
addressed to _Mr. CRAGGS_, his successor as Secretary of State, wherein
he bequeaths them to him, as a token of friendship.

Such a testimony, from the First Man of our Age, in such a point of time,
will be perhaps as great and lasting an honour to that Gentleman as any
even he could acquire to himself, and yet it is no more than was due from
an affection that justly increased towards him, through the intimacy of
several years. I cannot, save with the utmost tenderness, reflect on the
kind concern with which Mr. ADDISON left Me as a sort of incumbrance upon
this valuable legacy. Nor must I deny myself the honour to acknowlege that
the goodness of that Great Man to me, like many other of his amiable
qualities, seemed not so much to be renewed, as continued in his
successor; who made me an example, that nothing could be indifferent to
him which came recommended to Mr. ADDISON.

Could any circumstance be more severe to me, while I was executing these
Last Commands of the Author, than to see the Person to whom his Works
were presented, cut off in the flower of his age, and carried from the
high Office wh