as they were among the earliest. Priority is, in fact, as important a thing in Literature, as precedence is thought to be in life. The first writers are generally the best; at all events they are the freshest and most original. In point of delicate humor, Addison is unsurpassed, though his serious writing, which is sometimes almost tame, has been equalled. Steele is more unique such naturalness, so easy and uniform a style, a vein of sentiment SO fresh and manly, such charming pleasantry, such elegance of compliment and heartiness at the same time, we find in no one other essayist. Not a few periodical writers might be mentioned, more brilliant, more ingenious, with greater learning and capacity, more profound, more exact, yet none who are so delightful as Steele is invariably. Happy on any topic, he is perfectly delicious where he is most at home, and writes from his heart. The greater fame of Addison has arisen in part from higher pretensions and as much from the serious nature of his moral essays. Addison, too, aimed more at being the censor; Steele was content with the reputation of sociality, and to be loved rather than be admired. Addison was perhaps a more cultivated man, but Steele had wit and spirit, that needed slight aids from scholarship-yet he would, at the present day, be called a scholar. Steele had less art and policy than his associate, was more open and credulous, a generous dupe, though deceived by no lack of sense, but of stratagem. Addison was author all over; Steele was more of the man than of the writer. Both were admirable in their respective manners. Addison's elegance and humor gave an additional beauty to the subjects fullest of it, naturally; while Steele's fine sense and airy style played with easy grace upon the most barren theme.

Besides the Spectator, Tattler and Guardian, Addison was

concerned in other periodical publications. He was not only the creator of Sir Roger de Coverly, the satirist of the beau monde, the elegant sermonizer, the tasteful critic; but also, the warm partizan and leading political writer. "The Freeholder" was a strong whig paper, edited and conducted by Addison, who furnished all the papers, under that title, which are collected into a single volume. It consists of fifty-five essays, and was commenced in the year '15, celebrated for the first rising in favor of the Pretender-and is filled with arguments in favor of the House of Hanover, the Protestant succession, and a number of elegant artifices (compliments garnished with eloquent flattery) to bring in the fair portion of the inhabitants of Great Britain to the side of the existing government. These papers are the best of the series, As a specimen of the work we make the following extracts from it, and which are in the Freeholder's happiest vein. They are transcribed from the fourth number, entitled, "Reasons why the British Ladies should side with the Freeholder:" "It is with great satisfaction I observe that the women of our island, who are the most eminent for virtue and good sense, are in the interest of the present government. As the fair sex very much recommended the cause they are engaged in, it would be no small misfortune to a sovereign, though he had all the male part of a kingdom on his side, if he did not find himself king of the most beautiful half of his subjects. Ladies are always of great use to the party they espouse, and never fail to win over numbers to it.

"Lovers, according to Sir William Petty's computation, make at best the third part of the sensible men of the British nation; and it has been an unontroverted maxim in all ages, that though a husband is sometimes a stubborn sort of a creature, a lover is always at the devotion of his mistress.

By this means it lies in the power of every fine woman to secure at least half a dozen able-bodied men to his majesty's service.The female world are likewise indispensably necessary in the best cause, to managethe controversial part of them, in which no man of tolerable breeding is ever able to refute them. Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable. There

are many reasons why the women of Great Britain should be on the side of the Freeholder, and enemies to the person who would bring in arbitrary government and Popery. As there are several of our ladies who amuse themselves in the reading of travels, they cannot but take notice what uncomfortable lives those of their own sex lead where passive obedience is professed and practised in its utmost perfection. In those countries the men have no property but in their wives, who are the slaves to slaves; every married woman being subject to a domestic tyrant who requires from her the same vassalage that he pays to his sultan. If the ladies would seriously consider the evil consequences of arbitrary power, they would find that it spoils the shape of the foot in China, where the barbarous politics of the men so diminish the basis of the human figure, as to unqualify a woman for an evening walk or a country dance. In the East Indies, a widow who has any regard to her character, throws herself into the flames of her husband's funeral pile, to show, forsooth, that she is faithful and loyal to the memory of her deceased lord. In Persia, the daughters of Eve, as they call them, are reckoned in the inventory of their goods and chattels and it is a usual thing when a man sells a bale of silk, or a drove of camels, to toss half a dozen women into the bargain. Through all the dominions of the great Turk, a woman thinks herself happy if she can but get the twelfth share of a husband, and is thought to be of no use in the

creation, but to keep up a proper number of slaves for the Commander of the Faithful. I need not set forth the illusage which the fair ones meet with in those despotic governments that lie nearer to us. Every one hath heard of the several ways of locking up women in Spain and Italy; where, if there is any power lodged in any of the sex, it is not among the young and the beautiful, whom nature seems to have formed for it, but among the old and withered matrons, known by the frightful names of Gouvernantes and Duennas. If any should allege the freedoms indulged to the French ladies, he must own that these are owing to the natural gallantry of the people, not to their form of government, which excludes by its very constitution every female from power, as naturally unfit to hold the sceptre of that kingdom. Women ought in reason to be no less averse to Popery than to arbi. trary power. Some merry authors have pretended to demonstrate, that the Roman Catholic religion could never spread in a nation where women would have more modesty than to expose their inuocent liberties to a confessor. Others of the same turn have assured us that the fine British complexion, which is so peculiar to our ladies, would suffer very much from a fish diet; and that a whole Lent would give such a sallowness to the celebrated beauties of this island as would scarce make them distinguishable from those of France. I shall only leave to the serious consideration of my fair countrywomen, the danger any of them might have been in (had Popery been our national religion) of being forced by their relations to a state of perpetual virginity. The most blooming toast in the island might have been a nun; and many a lady who is now a mother of fine children, condemned to a condition of life disagreeable to herself, and unprofitable to the world. To this I might add the melancholy ob·

jects they would be daily entertained with, of several sightly men delivered over to an unavoidable celibacy. Let a young lady imagine to herself the brisk embroidered officer, who now makes love to her with so agreeable an air, converted into a monk; or the beau, who now addresses himself to her in a full-bottomed wig, distinguished by a little leather black scull-cap. I forbear to mention many other objections, which the ladies, who are no strangers to the doctrines of Popery, will easily recollect though I do not in the least doubt but those I have already suggested will be sufficient to persuade my fair readers to be zealous in the Protestant cause." We read no such political writing at the present day; elegance of style is considered as quite a subordinate matter, and pleasantry rarely passes from a paragraph into an article.

The Lover, of Steele, is concerned with the policy of Passion, and the strategy of Love. It is a work of sentiment, and peculiarly a lady's journal. The passion of Love in all its multiplied forms; the affections of the heart with all their subtle windings; the various aspects of friendship are painted with masterly skill. Tales of real life, and characters so natural as to seem almost living, occupy a large space, with a rich fund of sense and unpretending sincerity of feeling. The purest sentiment, a facile wit, and polished gallantry, are its marked features. The Lover is an avowed imitation of the Tattler, which is a surety for the style of its author. Like that delightful collection, it contains its club, and had letters written to its author, Marmaduke Myrtle, gent. Thoroughly acquainted with city life, and the ways of the town, the book is full of good advice of the kind most needed in a great city. It is, besides this, a chart of the shoals and quicksands of the tender passion, that should be studied by all youthful navigators. Beyond this, it has the additional attraction of