he died June 17, 1719, at Holland House, leaving no child but a
daughter.

Of his virtue it is a sufficient testimony that the resentment of
party has transmitted no charge of any crime. He was not one of
those who are praised only after death; for his merit was so
generally acknowledged that Swift, having observed that his election
passed without a contest, adds that if he proposed himself for King
he would hardly have been refused. His zeal for his party did not
extinguish his kindness for the merit of his opponents; when he was
Secretary in Ireland, he refused to intermit his acquaintance with
Swift. Of his habits or external manners, nothing is so often
mentioned as that timorous or sullen taciturnity, which his friends
called modesty by too mild a name. Steele mentions with great
tenderness "that remarkable bashfulness which is a cloak that hides
and muffles merit;" and tells us "that his abilities were covered
only by modesty, which doubles the beauties which are seen, and
gives credit and esteem to all that are concealed." Chesterfield
affirms that "Addison was the most timorous and awkward man that he
ever saw." And Addison, speaking of his own deficiency in
conversation, used to say of himself that, with respect to
intellectual wealth, "he could draw bills for a thousand pounds,
though he had not a guinea in his pocket." That he wanted current
coin for ready payment, and by that want was often obstructed and
distressed; and that he was often oppressed by an improper and
ungraceful timidity, every testimony concurs to prove; but
Chesterfield's representation is doubtless hyperbolical. That man
cannot be supposed very unexpert in the arts of conversation and
practice of life who, without fortune or alliance, by his usefulness
and dexterity became Secretary of State, and who died at forty-