Have You Read This?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 624, 28 March 1929, Page 8

Have You Read This?

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Professor of English Literature at Cambridge, recently chose for "The Daily Mail " a series of short passages, the “purple patches“ of English prose. It is hoped that the series, reprinted here, ■will pleasantly refresh the memories of some and stir the fresh interest of others. WESTMINSTER ABBEY JOSEPH ADDISON. From the “Spectator” Essays. Joseph Addison (1672-1719) is remembered now only for his essays , but in his day he was a popular poet and dramatist as well as a politician of some note. His poem in celebration of the Battle of Blenheim—they took notice of sach things in those days—won him a post as Undersecretary of State in succession to Locke; in 1708 he was elected M.P. for Lostwithiel and went as Chief Secretary to Ireland; in 1710 he became M.P. for Malmesbury; and on Anne's death he was secretary to the Regency. To-day we esteem him not for these things but for the esJays—vigorous but urban, satirical without being biiter , charming but never sloppy — which. he contributed to the “ Spectator .” w w jHFN I am in a serious Humour, YY I often walk by myself in Westminster Abbey; where the Gloominess of the Place, and the Use to which it is applied, with the Solemnity of the Building, and the Condition of the People who lye in it, are apt to fill the Mind with a kind of Melancholy, or rather Thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable. . . . For my own part, though I am always serious, I do not know what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a View of Nature in her deep and solemn Scenes, with the same Pleasure as in he* most gay and delightful ones. By this means I can improve myself with those Objects, which others consider with Terror. When I look upon the Tombs of the Great, every Emotion of Envy dies in me; when I read the Epitaphs of the Beautiful, every inordinate Desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of Parents upon a Tomb-stone, my Heart 'melts with Compassion; when I see the Tomb of the Parents themselves, I consider the Vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow. When I see Kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival Wits placed Side by Side, or the holy Men that divided the World with their Contests and Disputes, I reflect!with Sorrow and Astonishment on the little Competitions, Factions, and Debates of Mankind. "When I read the several Dates of the Tombs of some that died Yesterday, and some six hundred Years ago, I consider that great Day when we shall all of us be Contemporaries, and make our Appearance together.