more in his Essays (1) has given a very handfome encomium upon them. His words

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(1) Vol. I. pag. 202.

are

"the perfons introduced were all Philofophers, and "the difcourfes wholly ferious; yet this he borrow"ed from Plato, and others of the Greeks; whom "he profeffed to imitate. But the introducing a fet "of perfons of different humours and characters, "acting on fome imaginary occafion, which might "draw out a variety of incidents and difcourfes, "and in which every paper should be an entire piece, at the fame time, that it is a part of the whole, is the invention of the writer already mentioned, who seems at once to have introduced it, and carried it to perfection." A very ingenious and polite writer gives the following general "character of Mr. Addifon's writings: "I may re"commend Mr. Addifon, fays he, as a perfect pat66 tern of true poetic writing... This author is more "labour'd like his great Mafter Virgil, he has weighed every word, nor is there one expreffion "in all his lines, that can be changed for any jufter, or more forcible than it felf (25)." Poffibly this laft compliment may be a little overstrained. may obferve here, that the Tatlers, Spedators, and Guardians, have been tranflated into most of the European Languages, and given birth to feveral papers in imitation of them in foreign countries. The French had for fome time their Babilliard, or Tatler; the Dutch have to this day their Spectator; and the Germans had for fome years together their Guardian. This laft paper was printed at Hamborough, and compofed by a fociety of Gentlemen, who understood English; they tranflated several of the Spec

We

(25) Dissertation on reading the Clafficks, and forming a just style, p. 209, 210, London, printed for J. Bowyer 1713, 120.

tators,

are these. "Many more books on other moral fubjects have been composed with

much

tators, which had not before appeared in the German language; and this gave their Guardians fo great a reputation, that nine or ten thousand of them were ufually fold. Thefe particulars we are informed of by a relation of Mr. Addison's (26), who likewise tells us, "that when the Old Spectator was laid down "by thofe hands which at first compofed it, the paper was immediately fet on foot again by fome of "the greatest Wits in England. Several of whofe

writings of different kinds had been received with "the utmoft applause by the public; yet even these "Gentlemen, to their great furprize, found the "thing would not do; and had the good fenfe not "only to drop their defign, but to conceal their

names. Mr. Addifon faid upon this occafion, that "be looked upon the undertaking to write Spectators "to be like the attempt of Penelope's lovers to shoot "in the bow of Ulyffes; who foon found, that no

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body could shoot well in that bow, but the hand "which used to draw it." He then relates two ftories, which fhew, that among all the characters in that work, that of Sir Roger de Coverly was the favourite with Mr. Addifon; who, a little before he laid down the Spectator, (foreseeing that fome nimble Gentleman would catch up his pen the moment he had quitted it,) faid to an intimate friend, with a certain warmth in his expreffion, which he was not often guilty of, By G---d, I'll kill Sir Roger, that no body elfe may murder him. Accordingly the whole Spectator, N. 517, confifts of nothing else but an account of the old Knight's death and fome moving circumftances, which attended it. The other inftance of Mr. Addifon's tenderness for Sir Roger, is as follows: (26) See the Bee, or an Univerfal Weekly Pamphlet, No I. p. 26, 27.

Sir

"much wit and vivacity in our own and foreign countries to expofe vice and folly

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Sir Richard Steele, in one of bis Spectators (27) has a little injudiciously made the old Knight pick up a loofe woman in Covent Garden (28). Mr. Addifon was fo beartily vexed when he read this paper, that be immediately called a coach, went to his friend Sir Richard, and never left him till he had made him promife, that he would meddle no more with Sir Roger's character.

But as the Spectator was received with fo general an applaufe, it could not be exempt from an attack (a fate to which the nobleft compofitions are obnoxious.) for in the year 1711 there appeared a pamphlet entitled A Spy upon the Spectator (29). The preface declares, That there may be feen more than ordinary reasons to look narrowly into the Spectator's defigns and management. The tyranny that he pretends to exert over the fenfe and reafon of his 66 countrymen, and the finall ftock of difcretion "with which he lays this daily burthen of fpeculati

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ons upon them, makes it neceffary to stop him in "the beginning, and let him know that the founda"tions of his power are only imaginary, and his no"tions are of the fame nature as the clouds and

66

mifts, that he pretends to caft over his actions. "Care fhould be taken left by following him we "lofe our wit, morality and religion. For fhould

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we look upon him to be the touchstone of wit, "and the rule and ftandard of judgment, and after"wards find that he is flat in the one, and exercises "the other upon trifles (N° 10) it may at last make

(27) No 410. Vǝl. 6. (28) Here the ingenious author miftakes the place, it being in the Temple Cloysters. (29) It was printed for John Morphew near Stationer's Hall, and contains 24 pages in 8vo. See Part I,

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folly, and promote decency and fobriety of manners. But the productions of ‹ this

"us have a contemptible opinion of ingenuity and "learning.

The author then proceeds to fhew the danger that may arise from the Spectator with regard to morality; "which, fays he, is a ferious thing, and of too "much value to be loft; and therefore, although the "Spectator at prefent, under the pretence of enli"vening it by wit (N° 10) may impofe only the fha

dow of it upon us inftead of the fubftance, yet he fhould not be permitted to proceed fo far as to "make a buffoon of Ariftotle, and write a burlesque upon Epictetus."

The laft danger which he infinuates may be occafioned by the Spectator is that of religion.

46

"The

profeffion, fays he, as well as character of the Clergy, are too facred for the trivialnefs of fuch papers; and who knows but the Spectator, who "expreft his averfion to bells at two months old

(No 1) and has contracted a friendship with a Divine, that under the fhelter of a weak conftitution, "has laid afide the cares and business of his function "to attend upon clubs and chamber-council (No 2), "may have fome defign against the fifty new churches, at leaft will be again't having any Steeple-boufes "and Belfries to them."

He concludes his preface with thefe words : "The feveral Spectators being a disjoined and con"fufed huddle of unmethodized notions, I do not "look upon my felf obliged to take them in order. "However (notwithstanding his magisterial authority) every one of them in proper time and place,

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may meet with due correction. And perhaps he "fhall fhortly find, he has not art enough to disguise "himfelf; and that a net is too thin a cloak for a party-man to dance in." But the fame dull criti

cifm

"this nature, which have of late appeared in this nation, whether we regard the

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just

eism might be m de on all the excellent pieces that were ever published; and that thefe affertions were groundless and malicious, appears from the beauty of thole papers, and the good effect they wronght (30)

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Mr. Oldmixon has likewife cenfured the Speftator's character as a critic; for he tells us (3), "That in oppofition to his own rule, he feldom "takes notice of any beauty, which had not been diftinguished before by others, as well as by himfelf, either in writing or converfation. I do not "fay this in the leaft diminution of the merit of that Gentleman as a Poet or Critick. He had as much of it as any man, but to let the reader a "little into the art of the Spectator; for if we are not to remark beauties, which have been remarked " before, he has in a great meafure engroffed the "market to himself, by tranfcribing the moft beau"tiful paffages of Milton and other Poets. Befides,

(30) The formidable Mr. Denn's (in his Letters familiar, moral and critical) cenfures fome of Mr. Additon's (but without feeming to know that they were his) Spectators, speaking of the Templer (one of the Characters in that paper he fays, "That "Shadwell is of opinion, that the Sharper (cenfured in the Tat. "ler) with his box and his falfe dice is an h nefter fellow than "the rhetorical author the Templer, who makes ufe of his tropes "and figures, which are his high and his low-runners, to cheat << us at once of cur money and of cur intellectuals." And a little after, freaking of N. 40 of the Spectator, he declares, “That "there are as many bulls, and blunders, and contradictions in it al"molt as there are lines, and all delivered with that infolent and "that bluftering air, which usually attends upon error and delu"fion; while truth, like the Deity that infpires it, comes calmly "and without noife." Dennis's Letters Vol II. p. 407, 408, London 1721. There is much blufter in this Criticism, but we don't find any in the Difcourfe on which it animadverts.

(31) Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, p. 295,296. A dry, unpromifing title to the imitation of a very agreeable French work, Father Bouhour's Humiere de bien penfer.

"that