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SELECT

BRITISH CLASSICS,

VOL. XI.

THE

SPECTATOR.

IN EIGHT VOLUMES.

VOL. I..

PHILADELPHIA:

PRINTED BY TESSON AND LEE,

FOR SAMUEL F. BRADFORD, NO. 4, SOUTH THIRD STREET,
AND JOHN CONRAD & CO. NO. 31, CHESNUT STREET.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

46*130

LIFE OF

ADDISO N.

JOSEPH ADDISON was born May 1, 1672, at Milston, of which his father, Lancelot Addison, was then rector, near Ambrosbury in Wiltshire; and, appearing weak and unlikely to live, he was christened the same day. After the usual domestic education, which, from the character of his father, may be reasonably supposed to have given him strong impressions of piety, he was committed to the care of Mrs. Naish at Ambrosbury, and afterwards of Mr. Taylor at Salisbury. In 1683, his father being made dean of Lichfield, naturally carried his family to his new residence, and placed him for some time under Mr. Shaw, then master of the school at Lichfield, father of the late Dr. Peter Shaw.

At the school of the Chartreux, to which he was removed either from that of Salisbury or Lichfield, he pursued his juvenile studies under the care of Dr. Ellis, and contracted that intimacy with Sir Richard Steele, which their joint labours have so effectually

recorded.

In 1687 he was entered into Queen's College in Oxford, where, in 1689, the accidental perusal of some Latin verses gained him the patronage of Dr.

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