puted that STEELE wrote the second paper in the SPECTATOR. It is true, TICKELL printed it with ADDISON's Works, because of its inseparable connexion with his matter; but he accompanied it with an explanation and an apology, assigning it expressly to STEELE. BEATTIE has even reprinted the apology and explanation, yet takes up with this unaccountable error*.

The SPECTATOR'S CLUB consisted of six members, who, with the exception of Sir Roger de Coverley and Will Honeycomb, were left mainly to the management and fancy of STEELE. Will Honeycomb is, after Sir Roger de Coverley, the personage of most frequent recurrence. The character is amusingly sustained, and evidently meant as a satire upon dissipated old bachelors.

We shall conclude this Preface to the SPECTATOR with one more of those admirable passages from Dr. DRAKE, which points out, with a peculiar eloquence and truth of criticism, the supreme claims of ADDISON to the gratitude and veneration of his country.

Of the literary character of ADDISON, the preceding essays have attempted to delineate the leading features, and will, it is probable, impress upon the mind of the reader a very high idea of its excellence and utility. It may be necessary, how

* Mr. CHALMERS has published a paper, at the end of his meritorious preface to the SPECTATOR, on the originality of Sir Roger de Coverley's perverse widow.' It was communicated by the Rev. DUKE YONGE, of Plympton, to Mr. Archdeacon NARES; and is a plausible and ingenious essay, written to identify Sir Roger's widow with Mrs. CATHARINE BOEVEY, of Flaxley Abbey in Gloucestershire, an ancestor of Sir THOMAS CRAWLEY BOEVEY: but it leaves us where we were.

ever, ere we conclude this portion of our labours, to enumerate, in a more compressed form, the various obligations which learning, wisdom, and virtue, have to acknowledge in the writings of this great and good man.

TO ADDISON, in the first place, may we ascribe the formation of a style truly classical and pure, whose simplicity and grace have not yet been surpassed, and which, presenting a model of unprecedented elegance, laid the foundation for a general and increasing attention to the beauty and harmony of composition.

"His critical powers were admirably adapted to awaken and inform the public mind; to teach the general principles by which excellence may be attained, and, above all, to infuse a relish for the noblest productions of taste and genius.

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In humour, no man in this country, save SHAKSPEARE, has excelled him; he possessed the faculty of an almost intuitive discrimination of what was ludicrous and characteristic in each individual, and, at the same time, the most happy facility in so tinting and grouping his paintings, that, whilst he never overstepped the modesty of nature, the result was alike rich in comic effect, in warmth of colouring, and in originality of design.

Though his poetry, it must be confessed, is not remarkable for the energies of fancy, the tales, visions, and allegories, dispersed through his periodical writings, make abundant recompense for the defect, and very amply prove, that in the conception and execution of these exquisite pieces, no talent of the genuine bard, except that of versification, lay dormant or unemployed.

It is, however, the appropriate, the transcendant praise of ADDISON, that he steadily and uniformly, and in a manner peculiarly his own, exerted these great qualities in teaching and disseminating a love for morality and religion. He it was, who, following the example of the divine Socrates, first stripped philosophy in this island of her scholastic garb, and bade her, clothed in the robes of elegant simplicity, allure and charm the multitude. He saw his countrymen become better as they became wiser; he saw them, through his instructions, feel and own the beauty of holiness and virtue; and for this, we may affirm, posterity, however distant or refined, shall revere and bless his memory.'

I SHOULD not act the part of an impartial Spectator, if I dedicated the following papers to one who is not of the most consummate and most acknowledged merit.

None but a person of a finished character can be a proper patron of a work which endeavours to cultivate and polish human life, by promoting virtue and knowledge, and by recommending whatsoever may be either useful or ornamental to society.

I know that the homage I now pay you, is offering a kind of violence to one who is as solicitous to shun applause, as he is assiduous to deserve it. But, my Lord, this is perhaps the only particular in which your prudence will be always disappointed.

While justice, candour, equanimity, a zeal for the good of your country, and the most persuasive eloquence in bringing over others to it, are valuable distinctions: you are not to expect that the public will so far comply with your inclinations, as to forbear celebrating such extraordinary qualities. It is in vain that you have endeavoured to conceal your