Some

The next contributor to the TATLER whom we shall notice, is Mr. JOHN HUGHES, who is said to have been the author of the letter signed Josiah Couplet in No 64; that signed Will Trusty in N° 73; a letter on the tendency of the work in N° 76; and the inventory of a beau's effects in N° 118. farther notice will be taken of Mr. HUGHES among the authors of the SPECTATOR. The 'Medicine, a Tale,' in N° 2, was written by Mr. WILLIAM HARRISON, a young gentleman of great promise. The very humorous genealogy of the family of Bickerstaff, in N° 11, is ascribed by STEELE in his Preface to the Octavo Edition, 1710,' to Mr. TWISDEN, who died at the battle of Mons, and has a monument in Westminster Abbey. The character of Aspasia, in N° 42, was written by CONGREVE. The paper on gluttony, N° 205, is ascribed by STEELE, in the Theatre, N° 26,' to a Mr. FULLER. The letter on language, education, &c. in N° 234, was written by Mr. JAMES GREENWOOD, author of an Essay towards a practical English Grammar,' and teacher of a boarding-school at Woodford in Essex..

These are the names of all the contributors whose writings can be ascertained with any degree of probability. When their contributions are deducted, it will be seen that the continual supply of the work rested chiefly on STEELE.

We shall conclude these preliminary remarks by a few observations on the merit and utility of Periodical Writings, extracted from the excellent Essays illustrative of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, by Dr. Drake.

"Few contrivances," says this writer, "have been found more effectual toward correcting the foibles and lighter vices of mankind, or better calculated to diffuse a taste for literature and refinement, than the periodical publication of short essays. To comprehend the intricacies. of speculative science, or to relish the elaborate productions of genius, requires not only the education of many years, but much subsequent leisure through life; and such are the neces sary duties assigned to Man, so much of his time is occupied in the mere preservation of existence, that there are not many, even in the most civilized state of society, who, by inheriting property, enjoy an exemption from personal labour adequate to the pursuit; neither among

those privileged is it common to find many who possess the ability or inclination to improve the opportunities which opulence has bestowed, either in extending the limits of knowledge, or expatiating in the fields of imagination. To every one, however, whatever may be his rank, some portion of leisure is allotted, and it is of infinite importance to the happiness and prosperity of society that that leisure be properly employed.

"In a country just rising into consequence by commercial efforts, where, with the exception of a few individuals devoted to an academical or professional life, the higher and middle classes are but little acquainted with the . pleasures and advantages of literature; where to form the character of the gentleman no more grammatical knowledge is required than may be found in the common mechanic; it will be in vain that attention is called to philological inquiry or studied exhortation. On men busied in the acquirement of wealth, merely for its own sake, or revelling in the grossest sensualities, no formal display of the value of science, or the beauty and utility of virtue, can be supposed to produce much effect. Under these

circumstances it should be our endeavour not

to present the solemn disquisition or scholastic tome, but to insinuate, under the garb of entertainment, a relish for and a love of letters, and to meliorate or remove by ridicule those minuter vices and follies on which neither law nor religion has fixed. It was in this stage of society, when refinement and general knowledge had made a very partial progress, that our earliest periodical papers were written; when the chief difficulty was to induce the gay, the thoughtless, and the busy, to read even a short essay. He who would have trembled at the idea of commencing a volume, mustered courage, however, to peruse a single sheet, which terminating the subject discussed, and occupying no greater portion of time than could conveniently be spared during the intervals of business or dissipation, offered attractions which no publication in the general walk of literature had hitherto displayed. To allure those who were not otherwise to be acquired, politics were at first mingled with the miscellaneous matter, until the attention being by various means once gained, and the heart and imagination awakened, all the benevolent purposes which these admirable compositions were intended to effect were at length happily obtained.

"To introduce, therefore, and support a taste for elegant literature; to paint virtue in her most alluring form; to inculcate attention to the decencies, proprieties, and minuter graces of domestic life, and to dissipate by well-turned ridicule and humour those fashionable follies and lighter shades of vice, which, though apparently trivial, undermine the foundations of our happiness, form the legitimate objects of a periodical paper. That these, however, may produce their full effect, no common-rate ability is demanded on the part of the author. To beauty, accuracy, and vivacity of composition, must be added strength of imagination and versatility of style. The tale, the allegory, the vision, should relieve or clothe the dryness of didactic precept; and the pages animated by the glow of sentiment, or the brilliancy of description, should be succeeded by the smile of satire, and the pleasantries of comic painting.

A

"Mere fancy and erudition, however exalted or however profound, will be found unequal to the production of a work such as we have now described. The labour of the closet, where taste is not wanting, may indeed accumulate and display with critical acumen the beauties of a d