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THE

SPECTATOR

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

GEORGE A. AITKEN

AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF RICHARD STEELE," ETC.

WITH EIGHT ORIGINAL PORTRAITS

AND EIGHT VIGNETTES

IN EIGHT VOLUMES

VOLUME THE SECOND

LONDON

JOHN C. NIMMO

NEW YORK: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.

MDCCCXCVIII

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6-21-43
47828

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

CHARLES LORD HALIFAX 1

MY LORD,

IMILITUDE of manners and studies is usually mentioned as one of the strongest motives to affection and esteem; but the passionate veneration I have for your Lordship I think flows from an admiration of qualities in you, of which in the whole course of these papers I have acknowledged myself incapable. While I busy myself as a stranger upon earth, and can pretend to no other than being a looker-on, you are conspicuous in the busy and polite world, both in the world of men and that of letters: while I am

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1 Charles Montagu, afterwards Earl of Halifax, was born in 1661. He joined with Prior in writing The Hind and the Panther Transversed' in 1687, and under William III. he became a Lord of the Treasury, and in 1694 introduced a bill by which the Bank of England was established. Montagu then became Chancellor of the Exchequer (1694) and First Lord of the Treasury (1697). In consequence of attacks made upon him

1

silent and unobserved in public meetings, you are admired by all that approach you as the life and genius of the conversation. What an happy conjunction of different talents meets in him whose whole discourse is at once animated by the strength and force of reason, and adorned with all the graces and embellishments of wit? When learning irradiates common life, it is then in its highest use and perfection; and it is to such as your Lordship that the sciences owe the esteem which they have with the active part of mankind. Knowledge of books in recluse men, is like that sort of lanthorn which hides him who carries it, and serves only to pass through secret and gloomy paths of his own; but in the possession of a man of business, it is as a torch in the hand of one who is willing and able to show those who are bewildered, the way which

he resigned these posts in 1699, but in the following year he was made Baron Halifax of Halifax. In 1701 he was impeached by the House of Commons, but the impeachment was dismissed by the Lords. Halifax was one of the Commissioners for negotiating the Union with Scotland in 1706, but he did not again hold office until the accession of George I., when he again became first Lord of the Treasury, and was given the title of Earl of Halifax (1715). A few weeks later he died, after a short illness, of inflammation of the lungs. Halifax took much interest in science and literature, and many writers of the day were indebted to him for patronage. Steele dedicated the fourth volume of the Tatler to Halifax, writing from 'The Hovel at Hampton Wick, where I have frequently had the honour of your Lordship's company.' Halifax had been an early patron of Addison's, and he was a member of the Kit-Cat Club. In 1710 he acted as godfather to Steele's son Richard.

leads to their prosperity and welfare. A generous concern for your country and a passion for everything which is truly great and noble, are what actuate all your life and actions; and I hope you will forgive me that I have an ambition this book may be placed in the library of so good a judge of what is valuable, in that library where the choice is such that it will not be a disparagement to be the meanest author in it. Forgive me, my Lord, for taking this occasion of telling all the world how ardently I love and honour you; and that I am, with the utmost gratitude for all your favours, My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obliged,

Most obedient, and most humble servant,

THE SPECTATOR.

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