it was a continuation of the Spectator, with the fame elegance, and the fame variety, till fome unlucky fparkle from a Tory paper fet Steele's politicks on fire, and wit at once blazed into faction. He was foon too hot for neutral topicks, and quitted the Guardian to write the Englishman.

The papers of Addison are marked in the Spectator by one of the letters in the name of Clio, and in the Guardian by a hand; whether it was, as Tickell pretends to think, that he was unwilling to ufurp the praise of others, or as Steele with far greater likelihood infinuates, that he could not without discontent impart to others any of his own. I have heard that his avidity did not fatisfy itself with the air of renown, but that with great eagerness he laid hold on his proportion of the profits.

Many of these papers were written with powers truly comick, with nice difcrimination of characters, and accurate obfervation of natural or accidental deviations from propriety; but it was not supposed that he had tried a comedy on the ftage, till Steele, after his death, declared him the author of the Drumthis however he did not know to be true by any cogent teftimony; for when Addison put the play into his hands, he only told him it was the work of a Gentleman in the Company;

mer;

and

and when it was received, as is confeffed, with cold disapprobation, he was probably less willing to claim it. Tickell omitted it in his collection; but the teftimony of Steele, and the total filence of any other claimant, has determined the publick to affign it to Addison, and it is now printed with his other poetry. Steele carried the Drummer to the play-house, and afterwards to the press, and fold the copy for fifty guineas.

To the opinion of Steele may be added the proof supplied by the play itself, of which the characters are fuch as Addifon would have delineated, and the tendency fuch as Addison would have promoted. That it should have been ill received would raise wonder, did we not daily fee the capricious distribution of theatrical praise.

He was not all this time an indifferent fpectator of publick affairs. He wrote, as different exigencies required (in 1707,) The present State of the War, and the Neceffity of an Augmentation; which, however judicious, being written on temporary topicks, and exhibiting no peculiar powers, has naturally funk by its own weight into neglect. This cannot be faid of the few papers entitled The Whig Examiner, in which is exhibited all the force of malevolence and humorous fatire. Of

gay

this paper, which just appeared and expired, Swift remarks with exultation, that it is now down among the dead men. He might well rejoice at the death of that which he could not have killed. Every reader of every party, fince perfonal malice is past, and the papers which once inflamed the nation are read only as effufions of wit, must wish for more of the Whig Examiners; for on no occafion was the genius of Addison more vigorously exerted, and on none did the fuperiority of his wit more evidently appear. His Trial of Count Tariff, written to expose the Treaty of Commerce with France, lived no longer than the question that produced it.

Not long afterwards an attempt was made to revive the Spectator, at a time indeed by no means favourable to literature, when the fucceffion of a new family to the throne filled the nation with anxiety, difcord, and confufion; and either the turbulence of the times or the fatiety of the readers put a stop to the publica tion, after an experiment of eighty numbers, which were afterwards collected into an eighth volume, perhaps more valuable than any one of those that went before it: Addison produced more than a fourth part, and the other contributors are by no means unworthy of pearing as his affociates. The time that had paffed during the fufpenfion of the Spectator,

ap

though

though it had not leffened his power of humour, seems to have increased his difpofition to ferioufnefs: the proportion of his religious to his comick papers is greater than in the former series.

The Spectator, from its recommencement, was published only three times a week, and no difcriminative marks were added to the papers. To Addison Tickell has afcribed twenty-three*.

The Spectator had many contributors; and Steele, whose negligence kept him always in a hurry, when it was his turn to furnish a paper, called loudly for the Letters, of which Addison, whofe materials were more, made little ufe; having recourse to sketches and hints, the product of his former studies, which he now reviewed and completed: among these are named by Tickell the Essays on Wit, those on the Pleasures of the Imagination, and the Criticism on Milton.

When the House of Hanover took poffeffion of the throne, it was reasonable to expect that the zeal of Addison would be suitably rewarded. Before the arrival of king George he was made secretary to the regency, and was required by his office to fend notice to Hanover that

the

Numb. 556. 557. 558. 559. 561. 562. 565. 567. 568. 569. 571. 574 575 579. 580. 582. 583. 584. 585. 590. 592. 598. 600.

the Queen was dead, and that the throne was vacant. To do this would not have been difficult to any man but Addison, who was fo overwhelmed with the greatness of the event, and fo distracted by choice of expression, that the lords, who could not wait for the niceties of criticism, called Mr. Southwell, a clerk in the house, and ordered him to dispatch the meffage. Southwell readily told what was neceffary, in the common ftile of business, and valued himself upon having done what was too hard for Addison.

He was better qualified for the Freeholder, a paper which he published twice a week, from Dec. 23, 1715, to the middle of the next year. This was undertaken in defence of the established government, fometimes with argument, fometimes with mirth. In argument he had many equals; but his humour was fingular and matchlefs. Bigotry itself must be delighted with the Tory Foxhunter.

There are however some strokes less elegant, and lefs decent; fuch as the Pretender's Journal, in which one topick of ridicule is his poverty. This mode of abuse had been employed by Milton against king Charles II.

Jacobæi

Centum exulantis vifcera Marsupii règis.

And