as the incidents appeared to suggest; aware that, in biography so well known as that of Steele and Addison, much of the novelty to be hoped for and expected must take its rise from this

source.

With regard to the Occasional Correspondents, and who in number amount to more than thirty, I have chosen, I flatter myself, the only plan which the limits and nature of my undertaking would admit. To have entered at large into their biography would have stript the work of all symmetry, integrity, and proportion; and the lives of Swift, of Pope, and of Young, who contributed so little in quantity to periodical composition, must have contained a body of criticism on productions totally extrin

sic and irrelevant to the subject of illustration. I have dwelt, therefore, at no great length on the biographical part of this division; and, in general, according to the number and importance of the papers of the respective individuals; reserving, with few exceptions, the major portion of each article for that province which more immediately falls in with the unity and spirit of our design -the critical consideration of their contributions.

I trust also that, with a view to consistency and propriety, the criticism employed on the productions of Steele and Addison, bears the same proportion, in length and elaboration, to that expended on the assistant literati, which it is intended the department of biogra

phy should exhibit. It is here, indeed, if any where, that I may possibly be charged with too excursive a flight into the regions of criticism; but such is the important light in which the periodical writers must be contemplated in the annals of English Literature, whether we consider their style, their genius, or their morality, that I am induced to suppose no discussion, however copious, if it lead to a more just and accurate appreciation of their merit, can be unfavourably received.

It was under this conviction, that in the essays on the style and critical powers of Addison, I have ventured to present the reader with views of what had previously been effected in these branches of our literature. Hence the

progress of English style and criticism, their gradual improvement, and their obligations to the elegant pen of our author, will, I hope, be evolved in a clear and satisfactory manner.

The introduction of oriental fable, and especially of the fictions of Arabia, into Europe, and this island, appeared to me so intimately blended with a very favourite province of Addisonian literature, as to require little or no apology for a cursory detail of the means which, from an early period, had been employed to create a taste for this wild but interesting imagery. The digression struck me, indeed, as sufficiently warranted by Addison's acknowledged love for these productions, and by the great influence which his example exerted in

rendering them still more popular and pleasing.

It has been my endeavour that the commencing and concluding essay should powerfully assist toward binding the parts into a whole; the former, after a dissertation on the origin, the merit, and utility of periodical writing, stating the situations of manners and literature in this island, previous to the appearance of the Tatler; the latter, the salutary effect which this and the two succeeding series of papers ultimately produced on every rank of society, and every department of elegant litera

ture.

Such is the outline of the plan I have adopted; how far it is calculated to