A LIST OF THE WRITERS OF THE SPECTATOR, AS FAR AS IS KNOWN. Those marked with an Asterisk are unknown. Those marked with more than one Initial Letter are the work of those Writers whose names are indicated by the Initial Letters. 48 Stoele 49 14 141 Steele 95. 142 66 201 Addison 202 Steele, т. 203 Addison 204 Steele, T. 205 Addison 206 Steele, т. 207 Addison 208 Steele, Т. 209 Addison. 210 John Hughes 211 Addison 212 Steele, Т. 213 Addison 214 Steele.T. 215 Addison 272 Steele, T. 273 Addison 274 Steele 343 The same as 329, etc. 275 This No. the same as 269 344 Steele, T. and 271 276 Steele, Т. 277 Eustace Budgell 278 Steele, T. 279 Addison 414 " 490 Steele, T. 563 * 564 * 565 Addison 566 * 567 Addison 568 " 569 " 419 " 420 " 421 " 122 Steele, r 423 " 499 Addison 570 * 571 Addison 572 Dr Z. Pearce 573 * 574 Addison : THE SPECTATOR. MT LORD, ORIGINAL DEDICATIONS OF THE SUCCESSIVE VOLUMES. TO LORD JOHN SOMERS, BARON OF EVESHAM. I SHOULD not act the part of an impartial Spectator, if I dedicated the following papers to one who is not of the most consummate and acknowledged merit. None but a person of a finished character can be a proper patron of a work which endeavors to cultivate and polish human life, by promoting virtue and knowledge, and by recommending whatsoever may be either useful or ornamental to society. I know that the homage I now pay you, is offering a kind of violence to one who is as solicitous to shun applause, as he is assiduous to deserve it. But, my Lord, this is perhaps the only particular in which your prudence will be always disappointed. While justice, candor, equanimity, a zeal for the good of your country, and the most persuasive eloquence in bringing over others to it, are valuable distinctions: you are not to expect that the public will so far comply with your inclinations as to forbear celebrating such extraordinary qualities. It is in vain that you have endeavored to conceal your share of merit in the many national services which you have effected. Do what you will, the present age will be talking of your virtues, though posterity alone will do them justice. Other men pass through oppositions and contending interests in the ways of ambition; but your great abilities have been invited to power, and importuned to accept of advancement. Nor is it strange that this should happen to your Lordship, who could bring into the service of your sovereign the arts and policies of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the most exact knowledge of our own constitution in particular, and of the interests of Europe in general; to which I must also add, a certain dignity in yourself, that (to say the least of it) has been always equal to those great honors which have been conferred upon you. It is very well known how much the church owed to you, in the most dangerous day it ever saw, that of the arraignment of its prelates; and how far the civil power, in the late and present reign, has been indebted to your counsels and wisdom. But to enumerate the great advantages which the public has received from your administration would be a more proper work for a history, than for an address of this nature. Your Lordship appears as great in your private life, as in the most important offices which you 3 have borne. I would, therefore, rather choose to speak of the pleasure you afford all who are admitted to your conversation, of your elegant taste in all the polite arts of learning, of your great humanity and complacency of manners, and of the surprising influence which is peculiar to you, in making every one who converses with your Lordship prefer you to himself, without thinking the less meanly of his own talents. But if I should take notice of all that might be observed in your Lordship, I should have nothing new to say upon any other character of distinction. I am, my Lord, Your Lordship's most devoted, TO CHARLES LORD HALIFAX. MY LORD, SIMILITUDE 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 silent and unobserved in public meetings, you are admired by all that approach you, as the life and genius of the conversation. What a 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 lantern 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 were bewildered the way which leads to their prosperity and welfare. A generous concern for your country, and a passion for everything that is truly great and noble, are what actuate all your life and actions; and I hope you will forgive me when I have an ambition this book may be placed in the library of so good a judge of |