“Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.”

British writer and politician

Joseph Addison was a British writer and politician remembered as a leading figure of early 18th-century English prose. He lived in the period 1672 to 1719 and is especially associated with Richard Steele, his close friend and co-founder of The Spectator. Addison is best known for helping shape a clearer, simpler prose style that moved away from the mannered habits and stock classical imagery of the previous century. He is also known for Cato, a Tragedy, written in 1712, which helped secure his reputation beyond periodical writing.