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selves into club, headed by one Mr Harrison, and trying how they could shoot in this bow of Ulysses; but soon found that this sort of writing requires so fine and particular a manner of thinking, with so exact a knowledge of the world, as must make them utterly despair of success.

They seemed, indeed, at first to think, that what was only the garnish of the former Tatlers was that which recommended them, and not those substantial entertainments which they everywhere abound in.

Accordingly they were continually talking of their maid, nightcap, spectacles, and Charles Lillie. However, there were now and then some faint endeavours at humour, and sparks of wit; which the town, for want of better entertainment, was content to hunt after, through a heap of impertinences; but even those are at present become wholly invisible, and quite swallowed up in the blaze of the Spec

tator.

You may remember I told you before, that one cause assigned for the laying down the Tatler was want of matter; and, indeed, this was the prevailing opinion in town, when we were surprised all at once by a paper called the Spectator, which was promised to be continued every day, and was written in so excellent a style, with so nice a judgment, and such a noble profusion of wit and humour, that it was not difficult to determine it could come from no other hands but those which had penned the Lucubrations.

"

This immediately alarmed these gentlemen; who (as it is said Mr Steele phrases it) had the censorship in commission." They found the new Spectator come on like a torrent, and swept away all before him; they despaired ever to equal him in wit, humour, or learning (which had been their true and certain way of opposing him); and therefore rather chose to fall on the author, and to call out for help to all good Christians, by assuring them, again and again, that they were the first, original, true, and undisputed Isaac Bickerstaff.

Meanwhile, the Spectator, whom we regard as our shelter from that cloud of false wit and impertinence which was breaking in upon us, is in every one's hand, and a constant topic for our morning conversation at tea-tables and coffeehouses. We had at first, indeed, no manner of notion how

a diurnal paper could be continued in the spirit and style of our present Spectators; but, to our no small surprise, we find them still rising upon us, and can only wonder from whence so prodigious a run of wit and learning can proceed; since some of our best judges seem to think that they have hitherto, in general, outshone even the 'squire's first Tatlers. Most people fancy, from their frequency, that they must be composed by a society: I, with all, assign the first place to Mr Steele and his friend.

I have often thought that the conjunction of those two great geniuses (who seem to stand in a class by themselves, so high above all our other wits) resembles that of two famous statesmen in a late reign, whose characters are very well expressed in their two mottos, PRODESSE QUAM CONSPICI ;* and OTIUM CUM DIGNITATE. † Accordingly, the first was continually at work behind the curtain; drew up and prepared all those schemes and designs, which the latter still drove on; and stood out exposed to the world, to receive its praises or censures.

Meantime, all our unbiassed well-wishers to learning are in hopes, that the known temper and prudence of one of these gentlemen, will hinder the other from ever launching out into party, and rendering that wit, which is at present a common good, odious and ungrateful to the better part of the nation.

If this piece of imprudence does not spoil so excellent a paper, I propose to myself the highest satisfaction in reading it with you, over a dish of tea, every morning next winter. As we have yet had nothing new since the Spectator: § it only remains for me to assure you, that I am yours, &c.

J. G.
P. S.-Upon a review of my letter, I find I have quite

* Lord Somers.

+ The Earl of Halifax.

It is well known that Steele at length took fire, and introduced politics, not indeed into the Spectator, but into the Guardian.

"The Spectators are printed in a larger and a smaller volume; so I be lieve they are going to leave them off; and indeed people grow weary of them, though they are often prettily written." Journal to Stella, November 2, 1712.-We fear there was (to say the best of it) some prejudice in this prediction. A similar reflection is thrown out on the Tatler.-N.

forgotten the British Apollo ;* which might possibly happen from its having of late retreated out of this end of the town into the city; where I am informed, however, that it still recommends itself by deciding wagers at cards, and giving good advice to the shopkeepers and their apprentices.

APPENDIX, No. IV.

LIST OF TRACTS COMPOSED BY SWIFT,
In support of Lord Oxford's Administration.

BESIDES Conducting the Examiner from November 1710 to 1711, Swift, during the ministry of Lord Oxford, wrote the following Tracts in prose:

Short Character of the Earl of Wharton. 1710.

Remarks on a Letter to the Seven Lords of the Committee, appointed to examine Gregg. 1711.

1711.

A New Journey to Paris. 1711. Some Advice to the October Club. Some Reasons to Prove, that no one is obliged, by his Principles as a Whig, to oppose the Queen, in a Letter to a Whig Lord [Lord Ashburnham]. To which is annexed, a Supposed Letter from the Pretender to another Whig Lord [Lord Wharton]. 1712.

A Pretended Letter of Thanks from Lord Wharton to the Lord Bishop of St Asaph, in the name of the Kitcat Club; to which are added, Remarks on the Bishop's Preface. 1712.

The Conduct of the Allies, and of the late Ministry, in beginning and carrying on the present War. 1712.

"The British Apollo, or Curious Amusements for the Ingenious; to which are added the most material Occurrences, foreign and domestic. Performed by a Society of Gentlemen."

Some Remarks on the Barrier Treaty between her Majesty and the States General.

1712.

An Appendix to the Conduct of the Allies, and Remarks on the Barrier Treaty. 1712-13.

A complete Refutation of the Falsehoods alleged against Erasmus Lewis, Esq. 1712-13.

A Preface to the Bishop of Sarum's Introduction to the Third Volume of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England. By Gregory Misosarum. 1713. The Importance of the Guardian considered, in a Second Letter to the Bailiff of Stockbridge. By a Friend of Mr Steele. 1713.

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The Public Spirit of the Whigs, set forth in their nerous encouragement of the Author of the Crisis. 1713-14.

Some Free Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs. 1714,

After the death of Queen Anne, he composed or finished the following tracts:

Some Considerations upon the consequences hoped and feared from the Death of the Queen, 9th August 1714. An Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen's last Ministry, with relation to the quarrels among themselves, and the designs charged upon them of altering the succession of the Crown. June 1715.

Memoirs relating to the Change which happened in the Queen's Ministry in the year 1710.

An History of the four last years of the Reign of Queen Anne. [Not published until 1758].

There is another class of prose pieces, which are not wholly or principally the composition of Swift, but which, nevertheless, claim a place in an edition of his works, from his having corrected or revised them. The three marked with the asterisk have obtained this distinction for the first time:

Narrative of what passed at the Examination of the Marquis de Guiscard, 8th March 1710-11. [By Mrs Manly.]

Congratulatory Speech of William Bromley, Esq. Speaker of the House of Commons, to the Right Honourable Robert Harley, Esq. 26th April 1711. [By Mr Bromley.]

Reasons which induced her Majesty to create the Right Honourable Robert Harley, Esq. a Peer of Great Britain. [Drawn up by Harley, and revised, it is supposed, by Swift.]

A Learned Commentary upon Dr Hares' excellent Sermon, preached before the Duke of Marlborough, on the surrender of Bouchain. [By Mrs Manly, from hints by Swift.] 1711.

A New Vindication of the Duke of Marlborough, in answer to a Pamphlet lately published, called Bouchain. 1711. [Stated by Swift to be written entirely by Mrs Manly.]

A true Relation of the several facts and circumstances of the Intended Riot and Tumult on Queen Elizabeth's Birth-day. 1711. [Supposed to be by Mrs Manly, under Swift's revision.]

1712.

The New Way of selling Places at Court, in a Letter from a small Courtier to a great Stockjobber. [Author unknown.] *The St Alban's Ghost, or the Apparition of Mother Haggy. Collected from the best Manuscripts. [Supposed to be by Wagstaffe, Arbuthnot and Swift.] The Character of Richard Steele, Esq. with some remarks by Toby Abel's kinsman. 1713. [Imputed by Smedley to Swift, but supposed to be chiefly written by Dr Wagstaffe.]

* A Letter from the facetious Dr Andrew Tripe at Bath, to the venerable Nestor Ironside. [The author is unknown, but is conjectured to be Arbuthnot with Swift.] Law is a Bottomless Pitt, or the History of John Bull. [By Dr Arbuthnot.]

Proposals for printing a very curious Discourse, entitled the Art of Political Lying. 1712. [Written by Arbuthnot, and revised by Swift.]

Address of the House of Lords to the Queen, April 9, 1713. [Revised by Swift, and composed by Lord Oxford.]

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