In 1687 Addison was entered at Queen’s College, Oxford, where he took the degree of M.A., February 14, 1693. One of his early poetical attempts was ‘An Account of the greatest English Poets, inscribed to H. S.;’ initials which have been currently assigned to Dr. Henry Sacheverell, who is indebted, for no enviable place in history, to his trial and its consequences. But a college friend of Addison has left it on record, that the initials were the property of a gentleman bearing the same name, who died young, after having shown some promise in writing a history of the Isle of Man, and who bequeathed his papers to Addison, containing, among other things, the plan of a tragedy 011 the death of Socrates, which the legatee had some thoughts of working up himself. In this poem the writer tells his friend that Spenser can no longer charm an understanding age. Now the judgment of the present age disclaims this confident decision; nor would it be worth recording, but for Spence’s assertion, that the critic had never read the ‘Faery Queene,’ when he drew its character. In after life he spoke of his own poem as a “poor thing;” but his general level as a versifier was not high. The ‘Campaign’ is his masterpiece in rhyme. He was indebted to Congreve for his introduction to Montague, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. Johnson says, that “he was then learning the trade of a courtier, and subjoined Montague as a poetical name to those of Cowley and of Dryden.” In 1695 he wrote a poem to King William, with an introduction addressed to Lord Somers, who is said by Tickell to have sent a message to the author to desire his acquaintance.