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to approach the heart. There are many who lay claim to that honorable name, and, so far as good intentions go, deserve it, who resemble engineers laying siege to a city, and beginning their operations by knocking their own heads against the wall which they desire to overthrow. This promising experiment is repeated again and again by the reformers of the present day. By reason of the singular firmness of that part of their physical system, they escape the consequences that might be expected to follow, which is indeed a crowning mercy; but when they charge others less gifted in the roof-tree with inhumanity for not using the same battering-ram in their warfare, it may be well to show them that there are other means of contending with evil, less violent perhaps, but far more likely to accomplish the purpose; and that the head, if it has any thing in it, can be used to more advantage in a different way.

Thus Addison, by an easy and graceful adaptation of his suggestions to the place and the time, gained an audience for himself, where others would not have been listened to. He improved the opportunity to impress lessons of wisdom and virtue, and he produced an effect much greater than is generally known. However little the world of that day was inclined to thoughtfulness, it was intellectual enough to admire his ability; and when men's respect was thus secured, they could not treat with scorn the instructions of such a master. Thus, thousands who would not have paid regard to mere professional teaching were put in the way to hear of religion and duty, and still more, to see the pleasantness of those paths which he desired to have them tread.

Steele had the same good purpose of doing something to raise the prevailing tone of morals and manners; but there was an obvious reason why he was not equal to the effort, inasmuch as he must needs have commenced the enterprise by taking heed to his own way of life. It is not by one who is able only to supply the gossip of the hour that such a work can be successfully done. He could not have effected much in that way without his more powerful coadjutor. But in the alliance, his knowledge of the world was not without its influence; his ways of life brought him into acquaintance with all sorts of persons; this gave him that knowing air which is so generally impressive; and as the intimation was held out that real events and characters were alluded to, his

familiarity with men and manners made him formidable, since it was certain that nothing which he knew would be withheld from the public by excessive caution or reserve. His short narratives, imaginary letters, and various particulars of the kind, which have now lost their interest, were then attractive and exciting. That there was much chaff to the wheat is certain; still, there was something there; and even now, though the day of such writings is over, those who have any love of common sense or literary history will find as much to gratify their intellectual taste, if they happen to have any, by reading the Tatler, as in dozing away life by lying parallel with the horizon on the ill-savoured heaps of George Sand, and all that unsanctified crew.

To the Tatler succeeded the Spectator, a work of higher order, published every day, and almost entirely abstaining from party strife, with the view of making more elevating impressions on the public mind. The Tatler was commenced and closed without Addison's knowledge; but the new paper was more under his command; and in it he distinguished his own articles by certain letters which were afterwards well understood. Tickell rather superfluously says, that he did so, because he did not wish to usurp the praise of others; Steele insinuated, that it was because he could not without discontent allow others to share his own. Johnson quotes this last remark, as if he thought there was cause for the complaint which it implied; but why, in the name of reason, should Addison surrender all the credit of his own labor and talent to another ? One would think, that, after having done so through the whole existence of the Tatler, and having in that way lifted it into favor and circulation, it was about as much as one, who had no special claim upon him, could rightfully demand. And we should

like well to know how many literary men there are, who, while conscious, as he must have been, that they are the life and soul of a publication, would allow others to appropriate all the profits and the praise.

Meantime, it may be well to state that the meaning of the Clio letters was not known at the time, and the reader of the day had no means, except internal evidence, of distinguishing one writer from another. Johnson adds to this a disparaging remark, which he might well have spared, saying he had heard that Addison eagerly seized his share of the income of

the Spectator. He does not give his authority; probably he had none, more than popular report or conjecture. But it would be difficult to give any reason why Addison should be counted avaricious for deriving some benefit from his labor; and Johnson should have been too well acquainted with what is rational and right, to imply such a groundless charge. His circumstances were not such as to raise him above the necessity of this exertion; and it does seem poor and unworthy enough to censure him for doing what every one else would have done in his place, and at the same time withhold all credit from his generosity on the former occasion, when he did what not one man in fifty thousand could find it in his heart to do.

The Spectator soon gave evidence of the advantage of having more of Addison's interest in it, and of being wholly under his control He excluded politics almost entirely, that pernicious indulgence by which Steele had run the bark of his own fortunes ashore. The small gossip and scandal, allusions to which had been thought necessary to supply attraction to the Tatler, were thrown overboard without ceremony, and preparation was made to give the Spectator a tone serious, earnest, and high. It was a bold undertaking; few of our Dailies would venture quite so far; but the great master who had it in charge, with his endless variety of resources, was able to make it popular, and at the same time an authority in his own age, and to render it through all future time a subject of admiration to the intellectual, - alas that they should be so few! Those who wanted entertainment were refreshed with the Freezing of Words, Shallum, and Hilpah, not to speak of Sir Roger de Coverley, perhaps the most refined and delicate piece of humor which the English or any language affords. The imaginative reader was delighted with the Vision of Mirza, and similar fancies, playing like sunbeams on the solemn field of duty which was spread out before his mind. In his critical papers, his object is not to display his own profoundness, but to bring his readers into sympathy with his own perfect taste; and he treats with easy and familiar grace the work before him, whether it be the grand and gigantic scenery of the Paradise Lost, or the charm of simple description in Chevy Chase and the Babes in the Wood. Nothing can be better suited to its purpose than the moral and religious portion of these writings;

his interest in the subject is not got up for the occasion, like the Catskill cascade, playing when they let on the water; it comes like a clear stream, flowing from a deep well-spring in his heart. With all his earnestness against the Free-thinkers, who, it must be remembered, were unthinking scoffers, ridiculing what they did not understand, he is entirely exempt from narrowness, and maintains that kind and cheerful bearing which religion should always wear.

The style of these celebrated papers is, as every one knows, as near perfection as any thing ever has been, - artless, unaffected, transparent, but always manly and strong. Like Dryden, he followed the example of Tillotson, whose discourses, though as sermons they are no great things, were excellent in their unpretending English style, illustrating the truth, that simplicity is the best of graces, and retains its attraction when ornament, high finish, and cumbrous decoration lose their interest and pass away. As we intimated, the Spectator is not so much read at present as it deserves. The present age abounds, more than it is aware of, in various literary affectations. The Muse in fashion screws her countenance into various contortions, and "looks delightfully with all her might," so that it is almost impossible to tell what her natural expression, if she ever had any, may have been. Possibly a return to these writings might do something to restore the modesty of nature. The experiment is worth trying, at least so far as to know for ourselves whether our taste is depraved or not; if we can take pleasure in these quiet and unexciting works, we may have reason for confidence, that, both in literature and morals, it is still in harmony with that which is good, and which, though neglected at times, will never lose the veneration of those fortunate individuals who are equipped with a mind and a heart.

The Spectator was suddenly brought to a close without consulting with Addison, and the Guardian established in like manner, without the concurrence of the person on whom their character depended. But he was not the man to be offended by such want of attention, though, under the circumstances, a little more deference to his judgment would have done no harm. The Guardian, though not, according to Swift's wicked expression, " cruel dry," was of a graver cast than its predecessors; and in the earlier parts, where we

cannot trace the hand of the master, it is less interesting than the others. Still, it stands high in comparison with other writings of the kind, with the exception of its own ancestry; and Addison's part in it, though less humorous than his former efforts, is in every way worthy of his fame. Johnson complains of its occasional liveliness as inconsistent with its professed character of Guardian; we do not see why. There is no reason why, even in one who guards the public morals, an attempt to make others smile should be a sin; and even if it were not quite in keeping with the profession, still, as punishment is intended for the prevention of crime, and there are so few human writings which offend by reason of being sprightly overmuch, there is no crying necessity at present for exacting dulness as a religious virtue, or scouting pleasantry as at war with the best interests of mankind.

The work did not extend beyond two volumes, not from want of favor or circulation, but because Steele, with his usual restlessness, longed to be engaged in those politics from which Addison withheld him, and in which he was sure to injure himself, without doing service to any party. Later in life, he involved himself in a world of embarrassment, by a wild speculation for carrying live fish to market; at this time, he was engaged in carrying his fish to the political market, where he succeeded only so far as to bring himself into near acquaintance with the frying-pan and the fire. Shortly after, he met with an unusual measure of success, not, however, in consequence of any happy arrangements of his own, but because the act of Providence unexpectedly removed the queen from her subjects, who were quite ready to spare her to the skies. It is matter of surprise to us that historians do not set down the fact, which to our minds seems clear, though the politicians of her day had no means of knowing it, that the ascendency of Bolingbroke and Oxford, and the fall of Marlborough, were owing, not, to use Burnet's elegant expression, to his "brimstone of a wife," nor to spilling a cup of coffee on the royal gown, but to the attachment of the queen to her exiled brother, and the concurrence of the Tory ministry in her wish and purpose to restore him to the throne. The communication of that administration with the Pretender can now be fully proved; the living actions and the dying words of the queen leave no doubt of her accession to their conspiracies; and this fact, once established,

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