<P>' I very much liked your last paper upon the Courtship that is usually paid to the fair sex . I wish you had reserved the Letter in this days paper concerning Indecencies at Church for an entire piece . It wd have made as good a one as any you have published . Your Reflections upon Almanza are very good .' The letter concludes with references to impeachment proceedings against Addison's friend, Henry Sacheverell (' I am much obliged to you for yor Letters relating to Sackeverell'), and the Light House petition:' I am something troubled that you have not sent away ye Letters received from Ireland to my Lord Lieutenant, particularly that from Mr Forster (the Attorney General) with the Enclosed petition about the Light House, which I hope will be delivered to the House before my Return' . </P> <P> Addison's character has been described as kind and magnanimous, albeit somewhat cool and unimpassioned . His appealing manners and conversation made him one of the most popular men of his day; and while he laid his friends under obligations for substantial favours, he showed great forbearance towards his few enemies . His essays are noted for their clarity and elegant style, as well as their cheerful and respectful humour . One flaw in Addison's character was a tendency to convivial excess, which nonetheless should be judged in view of the somewhat lax manners of his time . </P> <P> Thackeray wrote Addison and his colleague Richard Steele into the novel The History of Henry Esmond as characters . </P> <P> "As a man, he may not have deserved the adoration which he received from those who, bewitched by his fascinating society, and indebted for all the comforts of life to his generous and delicate friendship, worshipped him nightly, in his favourite temple at Button's . But, after full inquiry and impartial reflection, we have long been convinced that he deserved as much love and esteem as can be justly claimed by any of our infirm and erring race . Some blemishes may undoubtedly be detected in his character; but the more carefully it is examined, the more it will appear, to use the phrase of the old anatomists, sound in the noble parts, free from all taint of perfidy, of cowardice, of cruelty, of ingratitude, of envy . Men may easily be named, in whom some particular good disposition has been more conspicuous than in Addison . But the just harmony of qualities, the exact temper between the stern and the humane virtues, the habitual observance of every law, not only of moral rectitude, but of moral grace and dignity, distinguish him from all men who have been tried by equally strong temptations, and about whose conduct we possess equally full information ."--Lord Macaulay </P>

In which literary age did addison write his essays