secretary of state, he appointed Mr. Tickell his under-secretary. Mr.
Addison being obliged to resign on account of his ill-state of health,
Mr. Craggs who succeeded him, continued Mr. Tickell in his place, which
he held till that gentleman's death. When Mr. Addison was appointed
secretary, being a diffident man, he consulted with his friends about
disposing such places as were immediately dependent on him. He
communicated to Sir Richard Steele, his design of preferring Mr. Tickell
to be his under-secretary, which Sir Richard, who considered him as a
petulant man, warmly opposed. He observed that Mr. Tickell was of a
temper too enterprising to be governed, and as he had no opinion of his
honour, he did not know what might be the consequence, if by insinuation
and flattery, or by bolder means, he ever had an opportunity of raising
himself. It holds pretty generally true, that diffident people under the
appearance of distrusting their own opinions, are frequently positive,
and though they pursue their resolutions with trembling, they never fail
to pursue them. Mr. Addison had a little of this temper in him. He could
not be persuaded to set aside Mr. Tickell, nor even had secrecy enough
to conceal from him Sir Richard's opinion. This produced a great
animosity between Sir Richard and Mr. Tickell, which subsisted during
their lives.

Mr. Tickell in his life of Addison, prefixed to his own edition of that
great man's works, throws out some unmannerly reflexions against Sir
Richard, who was at that time in Scotland, as one of the commissioners
on the forfeited estates. Upon Sir Richard's return to London, he
dedicates to Mr. Congreve, Addison's Comedy, called the Drummer, in
which he takes occasion very smartly to retort upon Tickell, and clears
himself of the imputation laid to his charge, namely that of valuing
himself upon Mr. Addison's papers in the Spectator.