HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE SPECTATOR.

IF we are allowed to confider the popular Effay

as a new fpecies of compofition, we may without hesitation affirm, that it arrived nearly at perfection in the hands of the first inventors. In real value as well as in eftimation with the public, no work has ever exceeded that of which we are now to trace the hiftory. The irregularities, whether of plan or execution, which may be dif covered in the TATLER, are excluded from its immediate fucceffor, which, although not altogether faultlefs, is more uniform in all the valuable purposes of inftruction, and all the excellencies of style and invention. STEELE and ADDISON appear to have used the TATLER as a kind of exercise, a trial of skill, to determine what they could produce, and what the public expected, "quid ferreant humeri, quid recufant," and having made fuitable preparations, they entered conjointly on that ftructure which "fhould bear the name of THE MONUMENT," a work on which praise has been exhaufted, and which we fhall find it difficult to characterise without the repetition of acknowledged truths. Succeeding ESSAYISTS have prefented to the world labours of a fimilar kind both in pur

* Preface to the TATLER, Life of STEELE.

pofe and accomplishment, which have juftly entitled them to diftinguished fame, but none of them have provoked, or wifhed to provoke, any comparison with the general merit of the SPECTATOR. It has fubfifted in the plenitude of its original popularity for nearly a century, and no compofition, merely human, has been fo frequently printed and read. It has been so universally the delight of every youth of taste or curiofity, that perhaps our fondness for this work might be ranked among the prejudices of education, had it not stood the test of maturer years and faftidious criticism.

When STEELE had once fecured the fervices of ADDISON, when he faw not only what they had produced, but what they might produce, he could not but review the imperfections and inequalities of the TATLER with a wifh that his potent auxiliary had been called in fooner, and that inftead of improving an indigefted plan, he had been invited to take a fhare in one concerted with more regularity. It cannot be rash to conjecture that fuch reflections might pass in STEELE's mind, when he determined to conclude the TATLER, a measure which SWIFT ignorantly attributes to fcantinefs of materials, or want of public encouragement. It appears from many parts of SwIFT's private correspondence, that he looked with a jaundiced eye on the labours of STEELE and ADDISON, and moft probably envied a popularity gained by writings fo remote from the genius of his own, and which, inftead of promoting or oppofing the turbulence of faction, instead of pulling down one miniftry and setting up another, were calculated to lead the public mind to the cultivation of common duties and focial manners *.

"I will not meddle with the SPECTATOR, let him fair fex it to the world's end." SWIFT's Works, crown 8vo. vol. xxiii. p. 158.

It is stated on the fame authority, as well as on that of TICKELL, that ADDISON was ignorant of the conclufion of the TATLER, which, if we allow, it appears to have been a circumftance of little importance; nor did the work "fuffer much," fays JOHNSON, "by his unconsciousness of its commencement, or his abfence at its ceffation, for he continued his affiftance to Dec. 23, and the paper stopped on January 2." If Swift or others, therefore, affected to be surprised that STEELE should conclude without giving ADDISON notice, it was a surprise that could not last long. It is indeed highly probable that STEELE immediately communicated with ADDISON on the subject, unless we were to fuppofe, contrary to all evidence, and all sense of intereft and propriety, that he difregarded ADDISON'S fervices when chiefly he experienced the benefit arifing from them, and discontinued the TATLER that he might begin another work without his aid.

We have already feen* that STEELE affigns as a reason for giving up the TATLER, that he became known as the author: this, however, favours a little of the cant of authorship. He was known long before the TATLER had reached half its progrels, as appears from the perfonal attacks made upon him by his contemporaries; but the length of the work affords one reason why it should not be protracted until it became too bulky, and a ftill better reason was, the defign evidently formed of beginning a new paper. The event proves that STEELE and ADDISON immediately formed the plan of the SPECTATOR, probably communicated to each other the first sketch of the club, and determined that the work should be free from political intelligence at least, if not from political difcuffion; and that

* Pref. Hiftor, and Biog. to the TATLER,

each paper should confift of one entire ESSAY, unlefs when the fubject required to be treated in the form of correspondence by themselves, or when real correfpondence fhould be thought worthy of infer

tion.

ADDISON was prepared with ample resources, which STEELE must have known before he could confent to adventure on a daily paper, a tak far beyond the abilities of any one man who had not fecured the moft copious fupplies, or such assistants as might enable him to anfwer a demand to which temporary leifure and cafual opportunity or aid never could have been adequate. Dr. BEATTIE* was once informed, but had forgot on what authority, that ADDISON had collected three manufcript volumes of materials. TICKELL fays, perhaps with truth, "that it would have been impoffible for Mr. ADDISON, who made little or no use of letters fent in by the numerous correfpondents of the SPECTATOR, to have executed his large fhare of this task in fo exquifite a manner, if he had not ingrafted into it many pieces that had lain by him in little hints and minutes, which he from time to time collected, and ranged in order, and moulded into the form in which they now appear. Such are the Effays upon Wit, the Pleasures of the Imagination, and the Critique upon Milton."

The first paper appeared on Thursday, March 1, 1710-11; in it ADDISON gives an account of the birth, education, &c. of the SPECTATOR, and fketches the filent character he was to preserve, with great felicity of humour. The fecond, by STEELE, delineates the characters of the Club, or the dramatis perfone of the work, the principal of

*Notes on the Life of ADDISON, prefixed to an edition of is works, by Dr. BEATTIE, 4 vols. 8vo. 1790, Edinburgh. TICKELL'S Life of ADDISON.

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whom is Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY. Dr. JohnSON's remarks on this character demand our attention on many accounts.

"It is recorded by BUDGELL, that of the characters feigned or exhibited in the SPECTATOR, the favourite of ADDISON was Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY, of whom he had formed a very delicate and discriminated idea, which he would not fuffer to be violated; and therefore when STEELE had fhewn him innocently picking up a girl in the Temple, and taking her to a tavern, he drew upon himself fo much of his friend's indignation, that he was forced to appease him by a promise of forbearing Sir ROGER for the time to come.

"The reason which induced CERVANTES to bring his hero to the grave, para mi fola nacio Don Quixote, y yo para el, made ADDISON declare, with an undue vehemence of expreffion, that he would kill Sir ROGER, being of opinion that they were born for one another, and that any other hand would do him wrong.

"It may be doubted whether ADDISON ever filled up his original delineation. He defcribes the Knight as having his imagination somewhat warped, but of this perverfion he has made very little use. The irregularities in Sir ROGER's conduct seem not fo much the effects of a mind deviating from the beaten track of life, by the perpetual preffure of fome overwhelming idea, as of habitual rufticity, and that negligence which folitary grandeur naturally generates.

"The variable weather of the mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time cloud reafon without eclipfing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit, that ADDISON feems to have been deterred from profecuting his own defign *"

*JOHNSON's Life of ADDISON.