instance too extraordinary to be omitted, as it affords a very just idea of his patron's character.

"He was once desired by Sir Richard, with an air of the utmost importance, to come very early to his house the next morning. Mr. Savage came as he had promised, found the chariot at the door, and Sir Richard waiting for him, and ready to go out. What was intended, and whither they were to go, Savage could not conjecture, and was not willing to inquire; but immediately seated himself with Sir Richard. The coachman was ordered to drive, and they hurried with the utmost expedition to HydePark-corner, where they stopped at a petty tavern, and retired to a private room. Sir Richard then informed him, that he intended to publish a pamphlet, and that he had desired him to come thither that he might write for him. They soon sat down to the work. Sir Richard dictated, and Savage wrote, till the dinner that had been ordered was put upon the table. Savage was surprised at the meanness of the entertainment, and after some hesitation ventured to ask for wine, which Sir Richard, not without reluctance, ordered to be brought. They then finished their dinner, and proceeded in their pamphlet, which they concluded in the afternoon.

"Mr. Savage then imagined his task over, and expected that Sir Richard would call for the reckoning, and return home; but his expectations deceived him, for Sir Richard told him that he was without money, and that the pamphlet must be sold before the dinner could be paid for; and Savage was therefore obliged to go and offer their new production to sale for two guineas, which with some difficulty he obtained. Sir Richard then returned home, having retired that day only to avoid his creditors, and composed the pamphlet only to discharge his reckoning.

"Mr. Savage related another fact equally uncommon, which, though it has no relation to his life, ought to be preserved. Sir Richard Steele having one day invited to his house a great number of persons of the first quality, they were surprised at the number of liveries which surrounded the table; and after dinner, when wine and mirth had set them free from the observation of rigid ceremony, one of them inquired of Sir Richard, how such an expensive train of domestics could be consistent with his for

tune. Sir Richard very frankly confessed, that they were fellows of whom he would very willingly be rid. And being then asked why he did not discharge them, declared that they were bailiffs, who had introduced themselves with an execution, and whom, since he could not send them away, he had thought it convenient to embellish with liveries, that they might do him credit while they staid. "His friends were diverted with the expedient, and by paying the debt discharged their attendance, having obliged Sir Richard to promise that they should never again find him graced with a retinue of the same kind.

him

"Under such a tutor Mr. Savage was not likely to learn prudence or frugality; and perhaps many of the misfortunes which the want of those virtues brought upon in the following parts of his life, might be justly imputed to so unimproving an example."

The literary character of Sir Richard Steele is established upon less questionable ground, and he is justly intitled to a rank among those, who have projected new methods of instructing and entertaining mankind. The invention and plan of the Tatler are to be ascribed to him solely, and the work may be considered as the parent of innumerable Essays and Reviews, that have enriched the stock of general knowledge, and diffused it through every class of society. The scheme of the Tatler, although original, was rude and of. too mixed a nature. The method of dating the papers from different coffee-houses was awkward and unnatural; and the admission of news and politics was incompatible with the nature of the pure Essay, and, though it gave the work a greater interest among the readers of the day, has diminished its merit and value with posterity. The assumption of the character of Isaac Bickerstaff was fortunately conceived, and well sustained throughout. Sister Jenny forms an amusing personage in the plot: her feminine garrulity and self complacent importance are agreeably described; while her marriage is an event that is happily seized for moral purposes, and is made the theme for inculcating proper sentiments respecting the connubial state.

The first numbers of the Tatler are very unpromising: there is a confusion of subjects. and levity of style, which gave little hope that it would ever attain a lasting reputa

VOL. I.

tion. But by greater practice in his undertaking, and by the valuable aid of Addison, Steele improved the work in its progress, and with very creditable success accomplished what he had engaged to perform. The great object of reforming the sentiments and conduct of the age, he undertook with boldness and vigour. The moral tone of the Tatler is in general unimpeachable. The gross vices of the age, duelling and gaming, are assailed with indignant severity, or with a sarcastic ridicule, more likely to reform them, than the bitterness of reproof. Bull-baiting, and other cruel sports are freely considered: while the lighter offences of foppery, snuff, canes, eye-glasses, red-heeled shoes, and red stockings, together with the unreasonable dimensions of the petticoat, give scope for a constant exercise of humorous censure. In inculcating the minor virtues, in rendering the intercourse of life agreeable, and making conversation rational and courteous, Steele has employed a great portion of his literary labour: but in no subject is he more zealous than in expatiating upon the happiness, and enforcing the duties of marriage, in rescuing that state from the ridicule of wits, and shewing by the example of the greatest men how congenial it is to the dig-. nity as well as comfort of our species. Although seldom assuming the character of a very grave censor, he has occasionally touched upon the most serious and important of all subjects. Number 135 of the Tatler, is an admirable paper against the Freethinkers, and describes with great exactness that monstrous disposition, which is instigated by empty vanity alone to controvert the sublime and consoling doctrines of religion. It has often been remarked as a subject of wonder, that the celebrated writer David Hume should have been so virtuous and regular a character, while he maintained the wildest reveries of scepti→ cism. The union however of moral decorum and infidelity appeared no unaccountable phenomenon to Steele, although Mr. Hume had not appeared to furnish the striking illustration. "There is, indeed," he observed, "nothing in the world so ridiculous as one of these grave philosophical Freethinkers, that hath neither passions nor appetites to gratify, no heats of blood, no vigour of constitution, that can turn his system of infidelity to his advantage, or raise pleasures out of them, which are inconsistent with the

belief of an hereafter. One that has neither wit, gallantry, mirth, nor youth, to indulge by these notions, but only a poor, joyless, uncomfortable, vanity of distinguishing himself from the rest of mankind, is rather to be regarded as a mischievous lunatic, than a mistaken philosopher. A chaste infidel, a speculative libertine, is an animal that I should not believe to be in nature, did I not sometimes meet with this species of men, that plead for the indulgence of their passions in the midst of a severe studious life, and talk against the immortality of the soul over a dish of coffee!"

The taste of Steele is sound and unsophisticated, established more upon the intuition of a correct judgment, than the dogmas of learned criticism. He had a strong perception of what is just and natural, and has sagaciously exercised it in judging of the productions of the stage, and subjects of general literature. When he began his Tatlers, the theatre stood in great need of reformation, both in the conduct of the audience, and in the nature of the dramas. Gambling was carried on within the very walls of the playhouse, as he laments in his first paper: "This place is very much altered since Mr. Dryden frequented it: where you used to see songs, epigrams, and satires, in the hands of every man you met, you have now only a pack of cards; and instead of the cavils about the turn of the expression, the elegance of the style and the like, the learned now dispute only about the truth of the game." Besides this immorality in the audience, there was a lewd tendency and unnatural style in the dramas which were then in vogue, and which Steele endeavoured to supplant by the noble productions of Shakspeare. That this great bard, now so universally admired, was but little valued at the beginning of the last century is evident from the manner in which Steele labours to introduce him to the attention of his readers. In number 35 he has given the whole of Hamlet's speech to the players verbatim; although in the present days such a selection would scarcely be admitted into any but a book of education.

He con

tributed however to give the first impulse to that admiration which Shakspeare now enjoys from all classes of his countrymen: the poet's exact delineation of character, and his glowing exhibition of the passions of the human

soul, were felt and commended by Steele, at a time when a greater part of the nation were ignorant of such unrivalled excellences.

The criticism of Steele is not equalled by his learning. He could scarcely have been a deep reader: the irregularities of his life prevented a close attention to study, and his stores are drawn more from his own observations on men, than from the perusal of books. The little exhibition of his learning in which he has indulged, has not been remarkably fortunate. The observations upon the epithets of Homer and Virgil in number 6, are just, but were gained from Addison; while the section that follows, containing a journal of part of the Iliad, would appear weak and vapid to scholars, and but little interesting to other readers. His quotations of the learned authors are generally appropriate, but they are selected from common sources, and are for the most part well-known passages from Sallust, Cicero, and Pliny.

Steele has not failed to enliven his work with a considerable portion of wit and humour: but what he is still more distinguished for, is his great display and invention of character. The incidents of his own chequered life' would make him acquainted with human nature in its various modifications and eccentricities; and he has embodied his knowledge in a correct manner, and with all the liveliness of dramatic representation. The supernatural characters, however, which he has introduced into his works, must be considered as blemishes. For however much we may admire the truths which Pacolet is made to disclose, and though it is impossible not to be pleased with the humorous description of his birth and death; yet it is a demand upon our credulity, which we cannot admit even from the renowned astrologer Isaac Bickerstaff, that he should tell his contemporaries, he meets with his guardian and familiar spirit sitting on the benches of Lincoln's-innwalks,* that he parades with him on Tower-hill, and is introduced by him to the shades of Conscience and Honour, whom he watches in human shape perambulating the streets of London!+

VI

The style in which Steele has clothed his lucubrations