From any minute knowledge of his familiar manners the intervention
of sixty years has now debarred us. Steele once promised Congreve
and the public a complete description of his character; but the
promises of authors are like the vows of lovers. Steele thought no
more on his design, or thought on it with anxiety that at last
disgusted him, and left his friend in the hands of Tickell.

One slight lineament of his character Swift has preserved. It was
his practice, when he found any man invincibly wrong, to flatter his
opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeper in absurdity.
This artifice of mischief was admired by Stella; and Swift seems to
approve her admiration. His works will supply some information. It
appears, from the various pictures of the world, that, with all his
bashfulness, he had conversed with many distinct classes of men, had
surveyed their ways with very diligent observation, and marked with
great acuteness the effects of different modes of life. He was a
man in whose presence nothing reprehensible was out of danger; quick
in discerning whatever was wrong or ridiculous, and not unwilling to
expose it. "There are," says Steele, "in his writings many oblique
strokes upon some of the wittiest men of the age." His delight was
more to excite merriment than detestation; and he detects follies
rather than crimes. If any judgment be made from his books of his
moral character, nothing will be found but purity and excellence.
Knowledge of mankind, indeed, less extensive than that of Addison,
will show that to write, and to live, are very different. Many who
praise virtue, do no more than praise it. Yet it is reasonable to
believe that Addison's professions and practice were at no great
variance, since amidst that storm of faction in which most of his
life was passed, though his station made him conspicuous, and his
activity made him formidable, the character given him by his friends