THE

INTRODUCTION.

Το

HE Eighteenth-Century Essayists, even in the compact editions of Chalmers and Berguer, occupy some forty or fifty volumes. These, again, are only a part of those whose names are given in the laborious list compiled by Dr. Nathan Drake. compress any representative selection from such a mass of literature within the limits of the Parch'ment Library' is clearly out of the question; and it must therefore be distinctly explained that we are here concerned only with a particular division of the subject. That grave and portentous production— the essay critical,' 'metaphysical,' 'moral,' which so impressed our forefathers, has become to us a little lengthy a little wearisome. Much of it is old

fashioned; something is obsolete.

With the march

of time philosophy has taken fresh directions; a new apparatus criticus has displaced the old; and if we are didactic now, we are didactic with a difference. But

the

the sketches of social life and character still retain their freshness, because the types are eternal. Le jour va passer; mais les badauds ne passeront pas ! As the frivolous chatter of the Syracusan ladies in Theocritus is still to be heard at every Hyde-Park review, as the Crispinus and Suffenus of Horace and Catullus still haunt our clubs and streets, as the personages of Chaucer and Molière and La Bruyère and Shakespeare still live and move in our midst,-so the Will Wim'bles' and 'Ned Softlys,' the 'Beau Tibbs's' and the Men in Black,' are as familiar to us now as they were to the be-wigged and be-powdered readers of the Spectator' and the Citizen of the World.' We laugh at them; but we sympathise with them too; and find them, on the whole, more enduringly diverting than dissertations on the Non-locality of 'Happiness' or the Position of the Pineal Gland.'

In the conviction, therefore, that the majority of the graver essays have lost their interest for the general public, the present gathering is mainly confined to sketches of character and manners, and those chiefly of the humorous kind. The examples chosen will speak so plainly for themselves that any lengthy introduction would only needlessly occupy space; but a few rapid indications with respect to the earlier collections

collections and the succession of the leading writers, will not be superfluous. Setting aside for the moment the Scandal Club' of Defoe's 'Review,' the Eighteenth-Century Essay proper may be said to begin with the Tatler' by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.'-the first number of which is dated Tuesday, April 12th, 1709.' In appearance it was a modest-looking sheet enough, and not entirely free from the imputations of

tobacco-paper' and 'scurvy letter' cast upon it by an injured correspondent.* Its price was a penny; and it was issued three times a week. To the first and many subsequent papers was prefixed that wellworn Quicquid agunt homines' which has recently entered upon a new career of usefulness with Lord Beaconsfield's Endymion;' and its general pur'pose,' as discovered in the Preface' to vol. i., was 'to expose the false arts of life; to pull off the disC guises of cunning, vanity, and affectation; and to ⚫ recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour.' Steele's first idea seems to have been to combine the latest news (for which his position as 'Gazetteer' gave him exceptional facilities) with familiar sketches and dramatic and literary notes. But after eighty numbers had

* 'Tatler,' No. 161.

appeared

appeared, he was permanently joined by Addison, and the essay began to assume the definite form which it retained for a century, namely,—that of a short paper, generally on one subject, and headed with a Greek or Latin motto. Then, in January 1711, the 'Tatler' came to an end. Its place was filled, in the following March, by the more famous 'Spectator,' which ran its career until December, 1712. After this, in 1713, came the 'Guardian;' and in 1714 an eighth volume of the 'Spectator' was issued by Addison alone. He was also the sole author of the 'Freeholder,' 1715, which contains the admirable sketch of the Tory 'Foxhunter.' Steele, on his side, followed up the 'Guardian' by the 'Lover,' the 'Reader,' and half-adozen abortive efforts; but his real successes, as well as those of Addison, were in the three great collections for which they worked together.

Any comparison of these two masters of the Eighteenth-Century Essay is as futile as it will probably be perpetual. While people continue to pit Fielding against Smollett, and Thackeray against Dickens, there will always be a party for Addison and a party for Steele. The adherents of the former will draw conviction from Lord Macaulay's famous defiance in the Edinburgh' à-propos of Aikin's 'Life;' those

of

of the latter from that vigorous counterblast which (after ten years' meditation) Mr. Forster sounded in the 'Quarterly.' But the real lovers of literature will be content to enjoy the delightfully distinctive characteristics of both. For them Steele's frank and genial humour, his chivalrous attitude to women, and the engaging warmth and generosity of his nature, will retain their attraction, in spite of his literary inequalities and structural negligence; while the occasional coldness and restraint of Addison's manner will not prevent those who study his work from admiring his unfailing good taste, the archness of his wit, his charming subhumorous gravity, and the perfect keeping of his character-painting. It is needless to particularise the examples here selected from these writers, for they are all masterpieces.

About four-fifths of the Tatler,' 'Spectator,' and 'Guardian' was written by Addison and Steele alone. The work of their coadjutors was consequently limited in extent, and, as a rule, unimportant. Budgell, Addison's cousin, whose memory survives chiefly by his tragic end, and a malignant couplet of Pope, was one of the most regular. Once, working on Addison's lines, and aided, it may be, by Addison's refining pen, he made a respectable

addition