is not our purpose here to compare or criticise what each, according to his genius, contributed. It is enough to say that to the last both nobly bore their part, and that whatever we have seen in the Tatler of Steele's wit, pathos, and philosophy, reappeared with new graces in the Spectator.1 There was the same inexpressible charm in the matter, the same inexhaustible variety in the form. And upon all the keen exposure of vice, or the pleasant laugh at folly; as prominent in the lifelike little story, as in the criticism of an actor or a play; making attractive the gravest themes to the unthinking, and recommending the lightest fancies to the most grave; there was still the old and ineffaceable impress of good-nature and humanity -the soul of a sincere man shining out through it all. Let any one read the uninterrupted series of twenty-two Spectators, which Steele daily contributed from the 6th to the 31st of August 1711, and doubt his title to a full share in the glory and fame of the enterprise. Try his claim to participate in its wit and character by such

1 It may perhaps be worth subjoining, before we quit the subject of their pleasant and ever memorable literary companionship, that what has been said at various times of Addison's care and Steele's indifference in regard to corrections of the press, seems to express not badly the different temperaments of the men. Joseph Warton had heard of Addison's being so nice that he would even stop the press when nearly the whole impression of the Spectator was printed, to insert a new preposition or conjunction. Nor does this differ from Pope's report that Addison wrote very fluently, but was very scrupulous and slow in correction to which he adds, what no doubt Steele knew and acted on, that "it seemed to be for "his advantage not to have time for "much revisal." That, during the continuance of the works in which they were jointly engaged, Steele sent all papers to press, is certain. Tickell asserts that the papers, before publication, were never or seldom shown to

each other by their respective writers; but that all passed through Steele's hands to the printer, is proved by old Richard Nutt, who worked in his father's office, Morphew's partner, John Nutt. This same Richard also told Mr. Nichols that the press was stopped, not seldom, by want of copy, for which Steele was responsible; and that in these cases he had often a hard task to find out Steele, who frequently wrote hastily what was needed, in a room at the printingoffice. "This merry old man, who "died but lately, mentioned upon "recollection a particular paper "which he saw rapidly written by "Steele at midnight, and in bed, "whilst he waited to 'carry it to the "press." Let me simply add that the art of making errata in themselves delightful, and of turning the correction of a printer's error into a new spring and charm of wit, was never carried to such a perfection as by Addison.

papers as the short-faced gentleman's experiences (No. 4); as the seven he inserted in the series of Sir Roger de Coverley; as those numerous sketches of Clubs which his touch filled with such various life; and as the essays we now proceed to name. On Powell's PuppetShow (No. 14), On Ordinary People (No. 17), On Envious People (No. 19), On Over-consciousness and Affectation (No. 38), On Coffee-house Politicians (No. 49), On Court Mournings (No. 64), On the Fine Gentlemen of the Stage (No. 65), On Coarse Speaking (No. 75), On the Improvidence of Jack Truepenny (No. 82), On the Footmen of the House of Peers (No. 88), On the Portable Quality of Good Humour (No. 100), On Servants' Letters (No. 137), On the Man of Wit and Pleasure (No. 151), On the Virtues of Self-denial (No. 206 and No. 248), On Mr. Antony Freeman's domestic troubles, and on Mr. Tom Meggott's share therein (Nos. 212 and 216), in which lies the whole germ of the capital comedy of the Jealous Wife, On Generous Men (No. 346), On Witty Companions (No. 258), On the Comic Actors (No. 370), On Jack Sippet (No. 448), and On Various Forms of Anger (No. 438), with its whimsical contrasts of imperturbability and wrath. Let him be measured, too, in graver themes, by such papers as those On Living to our own Satisfaction (No. 27), On Female Education (No. 66), On the Death of a Friend (No. 133), On the Fear of Death (No. 152), On Youth and Age (No. 153), On the Flogging at Public Schools (No. 157), On Raffaelle's Cartoons (No. 226), and On the Death of the Comedian Eastcourt (No. 468), the last one of his most characteristic, wise, and beautiful pieces of writing.'

1 I subjoin a passage never to be quoted too often, from this exquisite essay, in which, describing Eastcourt's astonishing talents for mimicry, he extracts from them a philosophy of most wise and general application to the weakness and self-love of us all. "What was" he says "peculiarly "excellent in this memorable com

So long as these and many

"panion, was, that in the accounts "he gave of persons and sentiments, "he did not only hit the figure of "their faces, and manner of their

others survive, there will be no need to strike him apart, or judge him aloof, from his friend.

Nothing in England had ever equalled the success of the Spectator. It sold, in numbers and volumes, to an extent almost fabulous in those days; and when Bolingbroke's stamp carried Grub-street by storm, it was the solitary survivor of that famous siege. Doubling its price, it yet fairly held its ground, and at its close was not only paying Government 291 a week on account of the halfpenny stamp upon the numbers sold, but had a circulation in volumes of nearly ten thousand. Altogether it must often have circulated, before the stamp, thirty thousand, which might be multiplied by six to give a corresponding popularity in our day. Nevertheless Steele had been for some time uneasy and restless. Thus far, with reasonable fidelity, the armistice on his side had been kept; but from day to day, at what he believed to be the thickening of a plot against public liberty, he found it more and more difficult to observe the due restraints; and not seldom latterly, perhaps in spite of himself, his thoughts took the

"well as such wherein were repre"sented men of the lowest rank of "understanding. It is certainly as "great an instance of self-love to a "weakness, to be impatient of being "mimick'd, as any can be imagined. "There were none but the vain, the "formal, the proud, or those who

were incapable of amending their "faults, that dreaded him; to others "he was in the highest degree pleas"ing; and I do not know any satis"faction of any indifferent kind I "ever tasted so much, as having got "over an impatience of my seeing "myself in the air he could put me "when I have displeased him. It is, "indeed, to his exquisite talent this "way, more than any philosophy I "could read on the subject, that my 66 person is very little of my care; 66 and it is indifferent to me what is "said of my shape, my air, my manner, my speech, or my address. It "is to poor Eastcourt I chiefly owe

"that I am arrived at the happiness "of thinking nothing a diminution

to me, but what argues a depravity "of my will... I have been present "with him among men of the most "delicate taste a whole night, and "have known him (for he saw it was "desired) keep the discourse to himself "the most part of it, and maintain "his good humour with a counte'nance, in a language so delightful, "without offence to any person or 'thing upon earth, still preserving "the distance his circumstances "obliged him to ;-I say, I have seen "him do all this in such a charming

66

direction of politics. "He has been mighty impertinent "of late in his Spectators," wrote Swift to Stella," and "I believe he will very soon lose his employment." That was, to Steele, the last and least thing at present. What he wanted was a certain freedom for himself which hardly consisted with the plan of the Spectator, and he therefore resolved to substitute an entirely new set of characters. He closed it in December 1712, and he announced a new daily paper, called the Guardian, for the following March.

Into this new paper, to which Addison (engaged in preparing Cato for the stage) did not for a considerable time contribute, he carried the services of the young poet whose surprising genius was now the talk of the town. Steele had recognised at once Pope's surpassing merit, and in his friendly critic Pope welcomed a congenial friend. He submitted verses to him, altered them to his pleasure, wrote a poem at his request, and protested himself more eager to be called his little friend, Dick Distich, than to be complimented with the title of a great genius or an eminent hand.' He was so recreated, in short, as he afterwards wrote to Addison, with " the "brisk sallies and quick turns of wit which Mr. Steele "in his liveliest and freest humours darts about him," that he did not immediately foresee the consequence of engaging with so ardent a politician. Accordingly, just as Swift broke out into open quarrel with his old associate, we find Pope confessing that many honest Jacobites were taking it very ill of him that he continued to write with Steele.

The dispute with Swift need not detain us. It is enough if we use it to show Steele's spirit as a gentleman, who could not retort an injustice, or fight wrong with

1 An ingenious friend of mine has lately gone far (in Athenæum and Notes and Queries) to prove that the various letters in Pope's Correspondence professing to have been interchanged between himself and Steele at this time, and on which the statement in the text is based, only assumed their

existing shape in later years, when it suited Pope's purpose so to place them before the world. But that the truth generally is expressed in those letters, however open to particular correction as to dates and occasions, I entertain no doubt whatever.

wrong. When, after a very few months, he stood up in the House of Commons to justify himself from libels which had exhausted the language of scurrility in heaping insult upon him and his, the only personal remark he made was to quote a handsome tribute he had formerly offered to their writer, with this manly addition: "The gentleman "I here intended was Dr. Swift. This kind of man I "thought him at that time: we have not met of late, but "I hope he deserves this character still." And why was he thus tender of Swift? He avowed the reason in the last paper of the Englishman, where he says that he knew his old friend's sensibility of reproach to be such that he would be unable to bear life itself under half the ill language he had given others. Swift himself had formerly described to him those early days when he possessed the sensitive fear of libel to an extraordinary degree, and this had not been forgotten by his generous adversary.

66

But what really was at issue in their quarrel ought to be stated, since it forms the point of departure taken by Steele, not simply from those who differed but from many who agreed with him in politics. Principles are out of "the case," said Swift, "we dispute wholly about per"sons." "No," rejoined Steele, "the dispute is not "about persons and parties, but things and causes." Such had been the daring conduct of the men in power, and such their insolent success, that Steele, at a time when few had the courage to speak out, did not scruple to declare what he believed to be their ultimate design. Nothing," he wrote to his wife some few months after the present date, "nothing but Divine Providence can "prevent a Civil War within a few years." Swift laughed, and said Steele's head had been turned by the success of his papers, and that he thought himself mightily more important than he really was. This may have been so; but whatever imaginary value he gave himself he was at least ready to risk, for the supposed duty he thought also incumbent on him. Nor was it little for him, in his position at that time, to surrender literature for politics; to resign his

66

VOL. II.

K