afterwards reflected upon it with exultation and triumph; and in his answer to Dennis, who had ridiculed his birth and education, he thus, under an assumed character, and in the latter period of his life, replies to the sarcasms of the intemperate critic: "It may, perhaps, fall in my way to give an abstract of the life of this man, whom it is thought thus necessary to undo, and disparage. When I do, it will appear, that when he mounted a war-horse, with a great sword in his hand, and planted himself behind King William the Third, against Lewis XIV. he lost the succession to a very good estate in the county of Wexford, in Ireland, from the same humour which he has preserved ever since, of preferring the state of his mind, to that of his fortune. When he cocked his hat, and put on a broad sword, jack-boots, and shoulder-belt, under the command of the unfor tunate Duke of Ormond, he was not acquainted with his own parts, and did not then know he should ever have been able (as he has since appeared to be in the case of Dunkirk,) to demolish a fortified town with a goose-quill.” * !

In the cause of virtue and of justice, such pertinacity of conduct and dereliction of interest had been praiseworthy; but Steele should have

Theatre, No. 11, written by Steele, under the name of Sir John Edgar.

reflected, and when time and experience had matured his knowledge, it might have been expected from him, that the impulse of youthful enthusiasm, when it breaks through all restraint, and runs headlong toward its own degradation, can admit of no excuse. The only consolatory idea arising from this transaction is, that the future moralist became familiar in a department of life, with which, had he not taken this step, he had probably never been acquainted; we can all testify that his knowledge of the human character, in all its varieties, was ultimately subservient to the best purposes; and though his life may not be termed absolutely exemplary, his pen was ever employed in aiding and promoting the noblest efforts of morality.

It was the business of Steele, however, now that he had chosen his situation, to render it as pleasant to himself and his companions as possible; toward this attainment his openness and frankness of temper, his brilliancy and viva city of wit, very rapidly led; and in a short time he became such a favourite with the whole regiment, that the officers, wishing to include him in their own body, united all their influence, and the private speedily obtained the honours of an Ensign of the Guards.

This elevation, by opening a road to the indul

gence of every sensual appetite, soon plunged our author into the vortex of dissipation and intemperance. The charms of his conversation were so poignant and inexhaustible, his humour so lively and rich, that no party in this gay circle was relished unless the Ensign formed one of the company. These frequent scenes of revelry and mirth were, however, on the part of Steele, intermingled with the most galling reflections on his weakness and folly, on his perpetual waste of talents and of time.

To render the hours of repentance and contrition more effectual for reformation, and to impress the salutary truths of virtue and religion more strongly on his mind, he employed the intervals snatched from the orgies of voluptuousness in composing, for his own private use, a valuable little Manual, entitled The Christian Hero. The effort was, alas! unavailing; for however laudable and well intended were the resolutions of his solitude, the succeeding day saw him minister to the mirth of vice, and protract the revels of debauchery; and he returned to his closet with a heart wrung with keener anguish, and a mind more deeply depressed by a sense of its own humiliation.

After a fruitless struggle of some years with the strength of habit and of passion, he determined

upon the publication of his Christian Hero, under an idea that by turning the eyes of the world upon his principles and professions, a severe check would be given to his former propensities; and that his conduct must necessarily, if he would avoid the derision of the public, be accordant with the precepts he had taught. Accordingly he printed this treatise in 1701, and dedicated it to Lord Cutts, whose private secretary he was, and who had procured for him a company in Lord Lucas's régiment of Fusileers.

The result of the experiment was this: our author went on as he had done before, with the additional misery of perceiving that he had become an object of ridicule and raillery to his associates, and to the world at large. They, of course, compared him with the Hero whom he had so admirably delineated; and the contrast was so striking, that it could not fail, among the thoughtless and intemperate, to excite the sneer of malignant triumph, and the risibility of vacant mirth.

Were it not a common occurrence in life, it would be deemed altogether impossible, that the theory and practice of the same individual should be so completely opposed. No man knew better than Steele the value of religion and virtue, no man was better acquainted with the distinctions of right and wrong. From him the friendless and

the unfortunate were sure to receive the protection within his power; and where he could not alleviate, his sympathy was ever ready to share the afflictions of his brethren. His misfortune, the cause of all his errors, was, not to have clearly seen where his deficiencies lay; they were neither of the head nor of the heart, but merely of volition. Instead of writing a treatise to convince the understanding, which he wanted not, had he left the army and his seductive companions, he had immediately effected the cure he was in search of. The capability of doing this, however, at the period we are now recording, had been lost by neglect and want of habitual energy; he possessed the wish, but not the power of volition, to carry his purposes into execution.

I know no imbecility so truly to be commiserated as this. Steele, who felt, even with aggravation, all the bitterness of his folly, has in the Tatler, with an amiable candour, and with unsparing censure, drawn a perfect portrait of himself, though, as just observed, he ascribes his weakness to a wrong cause. It concludes in the following emphatic manner: "Thus, with all the good intentions in the world to amendment, this creature sins on against Heaven, himself, his friends, and his country, who all call for a better use of his talents. There is not a being under the sun