Praise Quote: Joseph Addison

“The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.” – Joseph Addison

About Author: Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. Addison wrote the popular church hymn “The Spacious Firmament on High”, publishing it in The Spectator in 1712. It is sung either to the tune known as “London (Addison’s)” by John Sheeles, written c. 1720, or to “Creation” by Franz Haydn, 1798. In 1716, he married Charlotte, Dowager Countess of Warwick, to whose son Edward Rich, 7th Earl of Warwick, he had been tutor, and his political career continued to flourish, as he served as Secretary of State for the Southern Department from 1717 to 1718.