[Footnote 1: The letter is, with other contributions not now traceable
to him, by Henry Martyn, son of Edward Martyn, Esq., of Melksham, Wilts.
He was bred to the bar, but his health did not suffer him to practise.
He has been identified with the Cottilus of No. 143 of the Spectator. In
1713 Henry Martyn opposed the ratification of the Treaty of Commerce
made with France at the Peace of Utrecht in a Paper called 'The British
Merchant, or Commerce Preserved,' which was a reply to Defoe's
'Mercator, or Commerce Retrieved.' Martyn's paper is said to have been a
principal cause of the rejection of the Treaty, and to have procured him
the post of Inspector-General of Imports and Exports. He died at
Blackheath, March 25, 1721, leaving one son, who became Secretary to the
Commissioners of Excise. As an intimate friend of Steele's, it has been
thought that Henry Martyn suggested a trait or two in the Sir Andrew
Freeport of the Spectator's Club.]
[Footnote 2: Sept. 20, 1696.]
[Footnote 3: These anecdotes are from Plutarch's 'Life of Pyrrhus'.]
* * * * *
No. 181. Thursday, September 27, 1711. Addison.
'His lacrymis vitam damus, et miserescimus ultrò.'
Virg.
I am more pleased with a Letter that is filled with Touches of Nature
than of Wit. The following one is of this Kind.