And may my friend here--young Esquire Tufton, of Gablethorpe, in the county of Essex--have the privilege of hearing some of those wonderful lines which are to take the country by storm?
Come, Master Addison, you know that I am a lover of good metre and fine sentiment.

The words must needs be tingling in your ears, and lying hot upon your tongue.

Let us hear the roll of them, and I warrant that all London town shall soon be in a ferment to hear them, too!" The man of letters was attired in a neat but poor suit of clothes, and his surroundings were humble and even sordid; but his face was neither peevish nor careworn, but wore an expression of dignified contentment and scholarly repose.

The walls of his lodging were lined with bookcases, upon which many a volume was stacked.

Poor he had been for long, but he had not been in the straits that many men of letters were reduced to in those days.