A LIST OF THE WRITERS OF THE SPECTATOR, AS FAR AS IS KNOWN. Those marked with an Asterisk are unknown. Those marked with more than one Initial Letter are the work of those Writers whose names are indicated by the Initial Letters. THE SPECTATOR. Mr LORD, ORIGINAL DEDICATIONS OF THE SUCCESSIVE VOLUMES. TO LORD JOHN SOMERS, BARON OF EVESHAM. I SHOULD not act the part of an impartial Spectator, if I dedicated the following papers to one who is not of the most consummate and acknowledged merit. None but a person of a finished character can be a proper patron of a work which endeavors to cultivate and polish human life, by promoting virtue and knowledge, and by recommending whatsoever may be either useful or ornamental to society. I know that the homage I now pay you, is offering a kind of violence to one who is as solicitous to shun applause, as he is assiduous to deserve it. But, my Lord, this is perhaps the only particular in which your prudence will be always disappointed. While justice, candor, equanimity, a zeal for the good of your country, and the most persuasive eloquence in bringing over others to it, are valuable distinctions: you are not to expect that the public will so far comply with your inclinations as to forbear celebrating such extraordinary qualities. It is in vain that you have endeavored to conceal your share of merit in the many national services which you have effected. Do what you will, the present age will be talking of your virtues, though posterity alone will do them justice. Other men pass through oppositions and contending interests in the ways of ambition; but your great abilities have been invited to power, and importuned to accept of advancement. Nor is it strange that this should happen to your Lordship, who could bring into the service of your sovereign the arts and policies of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the most exact knowledge of our own constitution in particular, and of the interests of Europe in general; to which I must also add, a certain dignity in yourself, that (to say the least of it) has been always equal to those great honors which have been conferred upon you. It is very well known how much the church owed to you, in the most dangerous day it ever saw, that of the arraignment of its prelates; and how far the civil power, in the late and present reign, has been indebted to your counsels and wisdom. But to enumerate the great advantages which the public has received from your administration would be a more proper work for a history, than for an address of this nature. Your Lordship appears as great in your private life, as in the most important offices which you have borne. I would, therefore, rather choose to Your Lordship's most devoted, TO CHARLES LORD HALIFAX. SIMILITUDE of manners and studies is usually |