hath planted in this nation, I have ever prayed unto thee, that it might have the first and the latter rain, and that it might stretch her branches to the seas, and to the floods. The state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious in mine eyes; I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart; I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men. If any have been my enemies, I thought not of them, neither hath the sun almost set upon my displeasure; but I have been as a dove, free from superfluity of maliciousness. Thy creatures have been my books, but thy scriptures much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens, but I have found thee in thy temples.

"Thousands have been my sins, and ten thousands my transgressions, but thy sanctifications have remained with me, and my heart (through thy grace) hath been an unquenched coal upon thine altar.

"O Lord, my strength! I have since my youth met with thee in all my ways, by thy fatherly compassions, by thy comfortable chastisements, and by thy most visible Providence. As thy favours have increased upon me, so have thy corrections; so as thou hast been always near me, O Lord! And ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me; and when I have ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before thee. And now when I thought most of peace and honour, thy hand is heavy upon me, and hath humbled me according to thy former loving kindness, keeping me still in thy fatherly school, not as a bastard, but as a child, Just are thy judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but have no proportion to thy mercies; for what are the sands of the sea? Earth, heavens, and all these, are nothing to thy mercies. Besides my innumer able sins, I confess before thee, that I am debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces, which I have neither put

into a napkin, nor put it (as I ought) to exchangers, where it might have made best profit, but mis-spent it in things for which I was least fit so I may truly say, my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Saviour's sake, and receive me unto thy bosom, or guide me in thy ways."

THE GUARDIAN,

BY NESTOR IRONSIDE, ESQ.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS,

THE Guardian, which in order of date should follow the Spectator, was begun March 12, 1713, and continued to the first of October. Addison's first contribution appeared in May, from which time he seems to have taken the same active interest in it which he had done in the Tatler and Spectator. Of the one hundred and seventy-five numbers fifty-three are from his pen. In this work, too, Steele has the merit of the original conception, though the happy thought of the "Lion's mouth was Addison's, whose papers were distinguished, in the original edition, by a hand. —-G.

THE GUARDIAN.

No. 67. THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1713.

Ne fortè pudori

Sit tibi musa lyræ solers, et cantor Apollo.-HOR.

b

IT has been remarked, by curious observers, that poets are generally long-lived, and run beyond the usual age of man, if not cut off by some accident or excess, as Anacreon, in the midst of a very merry old age, was choked with a grape-stone. The same redundancy of spirits, that produces the poetical flame, keeps up the vital warmth, and administers uncommon fuel to life. I question not but several instances will occur to my reader's memory, from Homer down to Mr. Dryden. I shall only take notice of two who have excelled in lyrics, the one an ancient, and the other a modern. The first gained an immortal reputation by celebrating several jockeys in the Olympic games; the last has signalized himself on the same occasion, by the ode that begins with-To horse, brave boys, to Newmarket, to

a The part which Mr. Addison took in the Guardian, seems to have been accidental, and owing to the desire he had of serving poor D'Urfey: for his first appearance is on that occasion, at No. 67, though, when he had once broken through his reserve, for this good purpose, we, afterwards, find his hand very frequently in it.

↳ Run beyond. i. e. Their lives run beyond: so that the substantive is understood to be contained in the adjective, long-lived. This way of speaking is very incorrect. It should be,-and out-last the usual age of man,—that is—the poets out-last.