AD'DISON, JosErn An Eng lish poet and essayist. lie was the son of Lance lot Addison, a clergyman of the Church of Eng land, and NV:Is born at Milstein, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, May I. 1672. After attending the Charterhouse and other schools, he entered Queen's College. Oxford, in 1687. Two years later he passed to Magdalen College. At Oxford he was distinguished for the ease with wide!' he wrote Latin verse. By 1697 he was receiving high compliments from Dryden. He won the favor of Montagu (afterward Lord Halifax), and Lord Somers. through whom he obtained, in 1699, a pension of £300 a year. The pension was probably intended to enable him to prepare himself for diplomacy by foreign travel.
At any rate, he left England toward the close of 1699 for a Continental tour. While in France he became familiar with the language of the coun try. On the outbreak of the Spanish War of the Succession he went to Italy, where he wrote the most successful of his poems, the Letter, ad dressed to Lord Halifax. In the autumn of 1703 he returned home by way of Switzerland and Germany: but in his expectations of place he was disappointed, for the Whigs were out of office. The battle of Blenheim, however, which occurred the next year, presented a brilliant opportunity, which be did not fail to make the most of. The ministry wished the victory commemorated in verse, and Addison was appointed to do it. Lord Godolphin, the treasurer, was so pleased with the first half of the poem that before The Campaign was finished he made Addison a commissioner of appeals.
The poet was now fairly involved in politics. He became under-secretary of state in 1706, ac etimpanied Halifax to Hanover the next year, and in 1709 went to Ireland as secretary to the 'lord lieutenant, where he also obtained the office of keeper of the accords, worth £300 a year. In the same year Sir Richard Steele began the Tatter, to which Addison soon became a frequent con tributor. He also wrote a number of political articles in the Whig Examiner. On March 1711, appeared the first number of the Spectator, which continued as a daily till December 6, 1712. In 1714 it was revived as a triweekly. In 1713 appeared the Tragedy of Cato, the popularity of which, considering its total want of dramatic power. is amazing. It was generally understood to have a political as well as a poetical inspira tion; but so skillfully had Addison expressed himself, that both parties, Whig and Tory, re ceived its cold declamations with rapture. It was translated into several European languages; and even the prince of French criticism, Vol taire, held Shakespeare a barbarian in tragedy compared with Addison. In 1716 Addison mar ried the Dowager Countess of Warwick. The marriage was "uncomfortable." He reached his highest political position when he was appointed Secretary of State in 1717. For this place he was not at all suited, and he resigned the next year. Addison's health bad been poor for some time, and, after an illness of a few months, he died at Holland House. Kensington, on June 17, 1719, three years after what Thackeray calls "his splendid but dismal union." Thomas Tickell, whom Addison had appointed his literary executor, published his works two years later in four volumes, including, besides those already mentioned, papers Addison had written for the Guardian and the Freeholder, a play entitled The Drummer, Dialogues on Medals.
and several poems. The most delightful and original of Addison's productions is that series of sketches in the Spectator, of which Sir Roger de Coverley is the central figure and Sir Andrew Freeport and Will Honeycomb the lesser ones. Sir Poger himself is an absolute creation; the gentle, yet vivid imagination, the gay and cheerful spirit of humor, the keen, shrewd observation. and fine raillery of foibles which Addison has displayed in this character make it a work of pure genius. In prose, Addison is always excellent. He gave a delicacy to English sentiment and a modesty to English wit which it had never known before. Elegance, which in his predecessors had been the companion of immorality, now appeared as the advocate of virtue. His style. too, is admirable. There are many nobler and grander forms of expression in English literature than Addison's, but there are none comparable to his in propriety and natural dignity. "Whoever wishes," says Dr. Johnson, "to attain an English style, fa miliar but not coarse, and elegant but not os tentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison." His various writings, but especially his essays, fully realized the pur pose which he constantly ha41 in view, "to en liven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." He also did more than any other man of his time toward creating a wide public for literature. Consult: Johnson. Lives of the Poets (many editions); Maeaulay,"Essay on Addison," Edinburgh Review (1843) ; Aiken, Life of Addi son (London, 1843) ; Courthope, Addison (New York, 1884) and Beljame, Le public et les horn noes des lettres cn Angleterre (second edition, Paris, 1897).
AIrDISON'S DISEASE. A disease char acterized pathologically by pigmentation of the skin and by certain changes in the suprarenal glands. The pigmentation of the skin varies from a light yellowish brown to a dirk brown or blackish color. Various changes have been described in the suprarenals, the most common being tuberculous inflammation. Fatty and waxy degenerations and carcinoma have also been described. The suprarenal glands, or adrenal bodies, were little understood till 1855, when Dr. Thomas Addison, of Guy's Hospital, London, published his work on their diseases. The most important of these is the one called after Dr. Addison. Its leading symptoms are anamia, general languor and debility, remarkable feeble ness of the heart's action, irritability of the stomach, and the peculiar bronzing (melasma) to which reference has been made. It is a rare disease, more common among the poor, far more frequent in males than in females, and generally occurs between the ages of thirty and fifty years. There may be profuse din vrInea, also rheumatoid pains in the loins and abdomen, and the tempera ture is subnormal, except in those rare cases in which delirium, loss of consciousness, and con vulsions occur. The bronzing is more pro nounced on the face, neck, and backs of the hands, and upon points of pressure. The dis ease lasts from eighteen months to a few years. No curative treatment is known. Tonics, gen erous diet, proper climate, and the internal administration of suprarenal extract are bene ficial. See SUPRARENAL CAPSULES.