saved the lives of millions. I was confined with fifty three innocent individuals (whose fate I was to share) doomed to suffer on a scaffold, and expected every hour the mandate of that tribunal, which was at once the accuser, the judge, and I may add, the executioner; which assumed the forms of justice; but to be acquitted by which was more degrading, than to die, in such a moment, had been painful.' r. 163.

ART. VII.-The British Essayists; with Prefaces, historical and biographical, by Alexander Chalmers, A. M. 45 Vols, 18mo. 91. Boards. Robinsons. 1803.

ESSAYS, addressed to the heart and to the understanding, combining, at the same time, entertainment with instruction, philosophy with the minor morals, and rules of taste with lessons of decorum and good breeding, are the peculiar growth of this island. Though Germany and France have attempted imitations, they have been few and unsuccessful: the former are peculiarly dull and didactic; and of the latter we can scarcely give any comprehensive character-they are in general lively, but trifling. This form of publication is now, however, rareperhaps the fashion is exhausted-the soil must remain fallow, to recover its fertility, new follies must arise, and the energy of new satyrists be exerted, to give a zest and spirit to the obsolete forms. At this era, therefore, the re-publication seems peculiarly proper; and the whole is embodied with great judgement, in a very elegant and uniform edition. It ends with the 'Observer.' The Microcosm' was perhaps too trifling an attempt it was an honourable monument to the abilities of some young authors, and added lustre to their seminary, but was probably thought too slight an ornament even for the capital of so massy a column. The Speculator,' of which we have seen only one volume, is an unfinished work; but the remarks on the German literature, though somewhat too favourable to its harsher beauties, were, we thought, interesting. There is a later periodical collection, whose title has escaped us, of inferior merit, but which contains some papers that deserve to be remembered. One on epitaphs we recollect to have copied in this journal.

It is more easy to say why some periodical publications, of temporary fame at the time of their publication, are omitted in this collection. While the Examiner' is forgotten, the 'Reader,' an antagonist in politics, will not be interesting. The Spinster, the Lover,' and the Censor,' are not without merit, but, in modern perusal, will appear to drag a slow length along.' We cannot blame, indeed; but we may sleep. Many years have elapsed since we waded with difficulty through them; yet this

at least, was the impression they left. The Plebeian,' and the Theatre,' we are not acquainted with.

The present collection is comprised in forty-five volumes, in< cluding a general index in the last. Of these, five volumes contain the Tatler;' ten the 'Spectator three the Guardian;' four the 'Rambler;' three the Adventurer;' four the 'World;' three the Connoisseur;' two the Idler;' three the Mitror;' three the 'Lounger;' and four theObserver.' These essays are scattered through the greater part of a century; for they began in April 1709, and the last volume of the Observer appeared near the end of 1790, a period of more than fourscore years. It cannot but be pleasing to cast an eye over thesubjects of these volumes, to survey the changes they evince of tastes and manners, of sentiments and style. The rugged energy of Johnson carried the didactic form to its utmost height; and his successors, the Wartons, Moore, lord Chesterfield, Thornton, and Colman, amused with lighter essays, less gigantic language, and more polished criticism. But we cannot pursue this train, which would lead us from our present object, viz. the collection, and the prefaces, historical and biographical,' prefixed to each work.

It is singular that few years pass away, before the minuter circumstances of objects that greatly interested us fade in our recollection; that the events of the lives of those we loved and revered begin to assume an undistinguished form; and that many circumstances, which curiosity is at different periods eagerly alive to recover, are remembered imperfectly and with difficulty. In Dr. Johnson's prefaces, the meagre narratives of many lives are instances of this kind; and no little diligence and labour have been employed, to recover the accounts we have received of Pope and Dryden, Steele and Addison are obtruded on our notice, by their political transactions as well as their literary labours; but even of Swift we should have known little, except from his own journals, the gossiping tales of Mrs. Pilkington, and some others of his admirers. Few have had such literary attendants.

The first of these prefaces, which are elegant and judicious compositions, is introduced by the following observa

tions.

The commencement of the eighteenth century was distinguished by the appearance of a class of writers so eminent for wit, elegance, and taste, that the period in which they flourished has, almost by universal consent, been recorded as the Augustan age of English literature; criticism, however, has since endeavoured to explode a term which, while it consigned the past to oblivion, might check the hope of future improvement; yet if we fairly estimate the writings of the principal ornaments of that time, we must at least allow that they formed a combination which has not often graced the annals of litera

ture, and that they have bestowed upon the world labours whose intrinsic worth must be great, since they have' outlived many revolutions of taste, and have attained unrivalled popularity and classic fame, while hundreds, their contemporaries, successors, and imita tors, have perished, with the accidents, or caprice, or fashion, which procured them any share of public attention.

To this pre-eminence the writers whose works are now before us, seem justly entitled from the importance of the task they undertook, and the manner in which they executed what has seldom been attempted but with a repulsive and unaccommodating sternness. The more serious duties of religion had not been neglected by those who wrote to reform the age; but for common life and manners, no precepts were laid down, except what were too general or too precise. The instructions contained in the systematic writers on morality, were not devoid of force, or argument; but their style was unpolished, and with the gay and idle their tediousness was ill-calculated to agree. Abuses crept in, which were beneath the attention of the pulpit, or the bar. Public amusements, which are not indifferent to the manners of a nation, were encumbered with absurdities, which impeded their usefulness even as vehicles of mere entertainment. Though pu rified from much of their licentiousness by the indefatigable zeal of Collier, they were not yet rational; and beyond the waste of an hour, which to the idle is certainly of great importance, their influence was unperceived. Foreign fopperies, ignorance, and indecorous affectations had introduced many improprieties into public and private life, for which no remedy was provided in the funds of general instruction, and which consequently prevailed with impunity until the appearance of the Essayists, who, struck with the necessity of supplying the lesser wants of society, determined to subdivide instruction into such por tions as might suit those temporary demands, and casual exigencies, which were overlooked by graver writers, and more bulky theorists: or, in the language of Addison," to bring philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea tables, and in coffee-houses." Vol. i. P. xi.

Though Johnson attributed the praise of original design to Casa in his book of Manners, and Castiglione in his Courtier, yet, during the civil wars, there were many works which were designed to catch the attention of general readers, in order to inculcate, imperceptibly, their own political tenets; and Mr. Chalmers adds the Essays of lord Bacon, as philosophical instructions, and Peacham, Braithwaite, and sir Francis Vere, as censores morum, and regulators of the minuter decencies of manners. It was the purpose of the first essayists, he adds, to detach the public from political controversies. We have rather thought that they led mankind to more important subjects: they spoke to their own business and bosoms, by flattering their political bias; and, when they had read the articles from St. James's coffee-house, they might perhaps, from want of other employment, accompany the author to his own apartment.' In either view, the political por

·

tions, in the earlier periods, will be the largest. The writers were however soon led, by the multiplicity of subjects, to general discussions, to satyrise foibles and follies, the gaudia, discursus, &c. of mankind.

No man can make a just estimate of the literature of any country who does not take into his consideration its political government, and the advantages or obstructions which that may present to its writers. If our Essayists have excelled in humour, they owe their means and their opportunities to circumstances that are not known in other countries to the freedom of our constitution, which interferes with no man's peculiarities of acting or thinking, while they do not injure his neighbour-to the vast extension of commerce, which has created a new race of men, more independent of sct forms and modes than any other class of the community, and productive of that infinite variety of character, of which a writer of humour knows how to avail himself, and which he cannot easily exhaust-to the forms of social intercourse, the growing relish for conversation, and unconstrained interchange of sentiments; to a taste for dress, sometimes reasonable and sometimes capricious; to the intermixture of the sexes in all companies;-and to the operation of wealth, whether acquired by labour or inheritance, on minds of strong or weak texture. All these circum. stances afford a numerous class of characters; which, as they display themselves openly, without fear and without shame, become the prey of the wit, and present him with such opportunities of turning improprieties and wrong notions into ridicule, as no systematic study, or philosophical contemplation could suggest. Vol. I. P. xviii.

What might be the usual topics of essayists, and what have been those of the authors before us, are next noticed; and Mr. Chalmers proceeds to the father and prototype of periodical essayists-Steele and the Tatler. The life of Steele first occurs, in which we meet with little novelty of incident or extent of research the latter would have been, indeed, misplaced. To relate with propriety and fidelity what is known must have been Mr. Chalmers's chief object. We are, however, surprised that he has omitted what relates to the comedy of the Drummer. The united voice of criticism has now, indeed, given it to Addison; yet, to have been the reputed and ostensible author is an event, in Steele's life, which merited notice; and his preface to one of the later editions, in the rambling style of Dryden, neither claims the drama, nor wholly denies the imputation. Yet the tenor of that preface shows that Addison wrote the greatest part or the whole, and that Steele was only his amanuensis. In that edition also, published by himself, Addison's name is in the title, though he strangely perplexes the question, if the whole be examined.

Some other works of Steele are not noticed; and we think Mr. Chalmers might have detailed, at greater length, numerous

Published for Tonsen, 1735.

instances of his affectionate friendship, of his regard, of his fraternal affection for Addison. Steele bore a brother near his throne, a legitimate heir, claiming superior honours, and was contented to play an under part, without jealousy or hesitating dislike; exhibiting, on the contrary, an ardour of esteem which showed that Addison's fame was an object superior, in his views, to his own. Through the whole of the connexion, Steele's heart appears with undiminished lustre-warm, friendly, and affectionate. In a literary view, his character rises, when we consider that we are still in doubt respecting many papers, whether they be Steele's or Addison's. From internal evidence, critics still differ; and Steele, as an author, must proportionally increase in fame. This is a new part of his character, to which we shall soon return: it is, however, put by Mr. Chalmers in a fair, but probably not in its strongest, light.

The main design of all these papers is briefly expressed by Hughes in No. 64. to be "a wholesome project of making wit useful," a project the more to be commended as of all talents wit is the most liable to be abused; and as for many years preceding the date of the Tatler, the most celebrated wits had prostituted their talents in the service of the grosser vices. Few men could be better qualified than Steele to employ this endowment in useful designs. Notwithstanding his personal failings, he appears to have uniformly entertained the purest principles of religion and morals: a strong sense of propriety in words as well as in action: and an abhorrence of gross vices as offensive to the Deity, and dangerous to the eternal welfare of man. When betrayed by liveliness of temper into an expression inconsistent with piety or decency, he was ever ready to apologize and to revoke: if he committed errors, he certainly defended none. In manners he had a quick sense of what was ridiculous, and exposed it with easy playfulness, or humorous gravity. Availing himself of the many shapes an essayist may assume, he exposed levity of conduct, absurd fashions, improprieties of dress and discourse, in every various light; and laid the foundation for a change in manners and in thinking, which has contributed beyond all calculation to the refinement of society.

It has already been noticed that he is not to be accounted the writer of every paper to which his name has been prefixed or appended. Those which appear in the regular form of essay are certainly his; those consisting of letters, &c. were sometimes the contributions of correspondents. With respect to his able coadjutor, we are less liable to mistake. Addison's papers have been correctly ascertained, but – the frequent resemblance between these two writers in style and manner is a circumstance which deserves particular notice. We have seen that Steele was the original author of the Tatler, that he was the first who prescribed a mode of periodical writing, new to the world from the nature of its subjects, and that he had made some progress before he received or appears to have expected assistance from Addison, who was then in a distant country and in an official situation not likely to afford him the requisite leisure. Yet from the time they began to