appellations of fashionable and well bred, it might naturally be supposed, that the fair sex were not more seriously disposed, or more solidly accomplished. In the dramatic writings of the day," for the most part a just picture of the times, they are by no means favourably drawn; levity, immodesty, and infidelity, together with an intemperate love of frivolous pursuits, are their usual characteristics. It is to the honour of the sex, however, that we can with truth call these draughts highly overcharged, and in a great measure the caricatures of a licentious and debauched imagination. At a period, indeed, when literature was so little diffused, and when to read with fluency, and spell with correctness were, among the ladies, deemed rare and important acquisitions, much information or acquired knowledge in the female world could not be expected, and one of the best educated ladies of her day, of the first taste and understanding, is represented by Addison as exclaiming, "You men are writers, and can represent us women as unbecoming as you please in your works, while we are unable to return the injury;"* an acquiescence in, and confession of, inability, to which the accomplished women of the present day are no longer under the necessity of submitting.

* Spectator, vol. i. No. 11.

The moral character of the females of Addison's time was, in truth, far superior to that of the other sex, and then, as now, religion and virtue found in their bosoms an asylum. The description, indeed, which the Spectator has given of their employments and usual mode of life, without doubt called for reformation, which was shortly afterwards obtained through the medium of his elegant and instructive admonitions. "Their amusements," says he, 66 seem contrived for them, rather as they are women, than as they are reasonable creatures; and are more adapted to the sex, than to the species. The toilet is their great scene of business, and the right adjusting of their hair the principal employment of their lives. The sorting of a suit of ribands is reckoned a very good morning's work; and if they make an excursion to a mercer's or a toy-shop, so great a fatigue makes them unfit for any thing else all the day after. Their more serious occupations are sewing and embroidery, and their greatest drudgery the preparation of jellies and sweetmeats.' After this picture, I am afraid not exaggerated, of the frivolous consumption of time, let it not be forgotten that he concludes by declaring he knew many ladies in an exalted

*Spectator, vol. i. No. 10.

sphere, who joined all the beauties of the mind to the ornaments of dress.

After this sketch of the national manners, and of the low state of literature among the people at large, during the chief part of the reign of Anne, should we pause to consider what were really the merits of those who professed the acquirements of study, the authors of the same period we shall find, I apprehend, notwithstanding the examples of the preceding century, of a Dryden, a Temple, and a Tillotson, that their language was, in general, unharmonious, and inaccurate, clogged with barbarisms, provincial vulgarisms, and cant phraseology, and that with the exception of Swift, whose composition was for that age comparatively pure and correct, we possessed scarcely a specimen of good style, from the death of Tillotson in 1694 to the appearance of the Tatlers.* One great cause of this defalcation, as hath been hinted before, is to be attributed to the warmth of political contest, which at that time universally agitating and heating the minds of men, withdrew their attention from every

* I should here, perhaps, have excepted also Daniel De Foe, whose prose works, though not elegant, possessed the most impressive simplicity. His best production, however, "The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," was not published until 1719.

pleasing topic, and from all consideration as to beauty of thought or felicity of expression, planting in their place the bitter fruits of rancour, envy, and contention. Hence arose that rough, strong, but slovenly diction, which pervaded almost every political pamphlet, and was at length employed on subjects demanding a very different style; nor was a perfect specimen given of what highly polished composition could effect on topics connected with government, until the admirable “Freeholder" was presented to the world, whose simple elegance and humour, adorning the most thorny paths of party dispute, contributed more than weight of argument to its ultimate popularity and success.

Another cause equally powerful in retarding the acquisition of a graceful and perspicuous style, was the little attention which, previous to the tasteful models of Addison, was paid to criticism, and to the grammatical and analogical construction of language. · Dryden, it is true, had written his prefaces in a rich and varied, though not a very correct, manner; but they were too desultory and contradictory to afford many just rules for the attainment of an accurate style, and were, indeed, chiefly employed in delivering precepts for epic, dramatic, and satyric composition. English poetry had been enriched by the

most splendid monuments of genius, by the dramas of Shakspeare and the epopeia of Milton; but English prose had yet much to acquire from the labours of the critic, the grammarian, and the lexicographer.

The cursory view which we have now taken of the character and merits of periodical writing, and of the general state of literature and manners in our island immediately anterior to the era of Steele and Addison, will, I should hope, impress the reader with a high idea of the value of the instruction which the periodical essay is calculated to afford; and will enable us, likewise, in a succeeding part of our work, clearly to as certain to what amount we are indebted to these papers for the progress of civilization and the diffusion of learning and morality.*

I should, perhaps, when mentioning De Foe's Review, have noticed" The British Apollo," a páper published twice a week, by a Society of Gentlemen, and which commenced February 13th, 1708, and completed its career in March 1711, having attained the bulk of three volumes folio. I have seen none of the numbers, but from the residue of the title I should suppose it worthy of little notice; it proceeds as follows, "Curious Amusements for the Ingenious; to which are added the most material occurrences foreign and domestic; and in a pamphlet ascribed to Gay, he mentions that it still recom mends itself by deciding wagers at cards." +

+ The Present State of Wit.