It was Addison who made his cotemporaries fully aware of the truly noble sentiments which animated that fine ballad; the challenge of Douglas, and its acceptance by Percy, being a splendid instance. "'But trust me, Percy, pity it were And great offense to kill Any of these our guiltless men, For they have done no ill. "'Let thou and I the battle try, And set our men aside,' Accursed be he,' Earl Percy said, 'By whom this is denied.'" The life and vigor of the description of the battle--the impression given of the indomitable bravery of the British race--the exploit of Widdrington--the proud boast of the English monarch of the abundance of brave men in his kingdom--all were forcibly demonstrated by Addison; nor less the beautiful pathos of the poem. "Next day did many widows come Their husbands to bewail; They washed their wounds in brinish tears, But all would not prevail. "Their bodies bathed in purple gore They bare with them away, They kissed them dead a thousand times, Ere they were clad in clay." Equally did Addison vindicate and commend to our hearts the sweet ballad of the Babes in the Wood, and others of the true school of nature and feeling. Who shall say that it was not owing to these criticisms that Bishop Percy himself was led to the study and the collection of the precious relics of former ages, that lay scattered about among the people? The services of Addison to the poetry of England are far greater through what he recommended than what he composed; and the man who, more than all others, contributed to make periodical literature what it has become, and gave us, moreover, Sir Roger de Coverley, and the spirit of true old English life which surrounds him, with all those noble papers in which religion and philosophy so beautifully blend in the Spectator, must ever remain enshrined in the most grateful remembrance of his countrymen. Addison, I have said, was a fortunate man. It is well for us that he was in that one case so fortunate. It was the service that his pen could render to the government of the time, that raised him from the condition of a poor clergyman's son to a minister of state, and thus gave him afterward leisure to pursue those beautiful speculations in literature which have had so decided and so permanent an influence on our literature and modes of thinking. Addison had his faults, and was not without a few of those thorns in the side which few escape in their progress through the wilderness of the world; but, so far as we are concerned, we owe to him nothing but love and admiration. Thus much said, we must, in this brief article, leave all the details of his life and progress, of his travels and his literary contests and achievements, as matters well known, and confine ourselves to a survey of the abodes in which he lived.