We have now reached the close of that enumeration, which we professed to give, of those who are known to have contributed, in any degree, to the composition of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian. The essays including this series have extended, notwithstanding the adoption of a plan of great brevity, much beyond the limits. to which they had originally been circumscribed, owing to the discovery, as the work proceeded, of no less than twelve names, in addition to the number which had been stated in the preface.

The execution of so many miniature sketches must necessarily be attended with considerable difficulty. To compress a volume into a few pages with little injury to the interest and effect, will be pronounced an enterprize of no easy achievement; and where, on the other hand, the materials are trifling or defective, it is an attempt of still greater labour to give them a structure and arrangement which shall gratify the reader. It has been my aim, however, notwithstanding the frequent recurrence of these obstacles, to render the biography of these three essays not only accurate but entertaining; and I have therefore availed myself of every resource, that, consistently with the space to which I have confined myself, seemed likely to impart the stamp of novelty, instruction, or amusement.

As the succession of names has been regulated by the number and importance of the communications, and not by the title of the Paper to which they are attached; it will, in my opinion, prove an useful and satisfactory appendix, to throw into tabular forms, under the appellations of Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, the respective contributors to these papers, and the comparative quantity of their assistance. Thus the reader will, at one view, perceive by whose labours, and in what proportion, each work was constructed.

In this table of the Tatler, I have attributed to Steele all those papers in which, with the exception of Addison, he was an associate with the other contributors; they amount, as the arrangement shews, to twenty-four. The entire essays of Sir Richard, therefore, may be estimated at 164, a proportion of the whole which places in a very striking light his industry, and the fertility of his resources.

The numbers in this table of the Spectator, which the letters and parts of papers contributed to form, are ascribed to Addison, or to Steele, as they respectively assisted in their construction. In the Tatler and Guardian, the annotators have constantly given to Steele those papers for which no other owner could be found; and in the Spectator they have allotted him every one to which

the initials T, or R, are annexed; though the former letter is generally supposed to imply that the number was merely transcribed. Independent of this appropriation, however, and although curiosity and enquiry have not been deficient in their researches, there are fifty-three papers in the Spectator, of which the authors are totally unknown. It is probable that several of them are the compositions of Budgell and Tickell.