९ is now tranflating Homer's Iliad by fubfcription. He has given good proof of his ability for the work; and the men of greateft wit and learning of this nation, of all parties, are, according to their different abilities, zealous encouragers, or folicitors for the work. But to my prefent purpofe. The letter from Gnatho, of the cures performed by flattery, and that of comparing drefs to criticism, are Mr. Gay's. Mr. Martin, Mr. Philips, Mr. Tickell, Mr. Carey, Mr. Eufden, Mr. Ince, and Mr. Hughes, have obliged the town with entertaining difcourfes in thefe volumes; and Mr. Berkeley, of Trinity-college in Dublin, has embellished them with many excellent arguments in honour of religion and virtue. Mr. Parnell will, I hope, forgive me, that without his leave I mention, that I have feen his hand on the like occafion. There are fome difcourfes of a lefs pleafing nature which relate to the divifions amongft us; and fuch (left any of thefe gentlemen should fuffer from unjuft fufpicion) I muft impute to the right author of them, who is one Mr. Steele of Llangunnor in the county of Carmarthen in South Wales. (1) THE GUARDIAN1. N° 1. Thursday, March 12, 1713. BY STEELE. -Ille quem requiris. MART. Epig. ii. 1. THERE is no paffion fo univerfal, however diverfified or disguised under different forms and appearances, as the vanity of being known to the rest of mankind, and communicating a man's a · The Guardian, with its fequel The Englishman, originally came out in half-fheets, during the fpace of time that intervened between the publication of the seventh and eighth volumes of the Spectator. Steele was the editor, and often the author of these papers; and Addison gave great affistance, whether occasionally or by previous engagement,' fays Dr. Johnson, is not known.' It will be feen from the notes in this edition, that the Guardian. found many contributors. It was a continuation of the Spectator with the fame elegance and the fame variety. The papers of Addison in the Spectator were marked, at their first publication in folio, by one or other of the letters in the name of CLIO, and perhaps merely because the initials of the place from which they were dated happened to compofe that word. In the Guardian as it first appeared in half-fheets, Addifon's papers were not diftinguished by any fignature, but Steele marked them by a hand, in the first edition of the Guardian in 8vo. in which he likewife pointed out Mr. E. Budgell's papers by a star. Many of VOL. I. B parts, virtues, or qualifications, to the world: this is fo ftrong upon men of great genius, that they have a restless fondness for fatisfying the world in the mistakes they might poffibly be under, with relation even to their phyfiognomy. Mr. thefe papers (of Addison in the Spectator and Guardian) were written,' fays Dr. Johnson, with powers truly comic, with nice difcrimination of character, and accurate obfervation of natural or accidental deviations from propriety.' The fame may be said with equal truth and propriety of many of Steele's own papers. To the title of this work, the doctor starts the following objection, which feems to have originated in the captious head of Mr. Dennis: The character of Guardian was too narrow and too ferious: it might properly enough admit both the duties and decencies of life, but feemed not to include literary fpeculations, and was in fome degree violated by merriment and burlesque. What had the Guardian of the Lizards to do with clubs of tall or of little men, with nefts of ants, or with Strada's Prolufions?' Guard. N° 115, N° 119, N_122, N° 108, N° 153, 156, 157, and 160. The Guardian's own account of his character, of his nomination to his office, and of what was expected from him as attached to a collegiate life, feems to fuggeft a fatisfactory answer to this flight objection, and to justify the propriety of literary fpeculations, and even the introduction of politics, which the doctor brands as factious. See Lives of English Poets, Vol. II. p. 435, ed. 8vo. 1781. 4 vols. Mr. Ironfide on his entrance into the family of the Lizards appears to have been vefted with powers fufficiently ample and uncircumfcribed. In a real fituation not very diffimilar to the imaginary one in which Steele here reprefents himself, the doctor in the family of the Thrales, took upon him at a greater rate; and the character of Guardian, as he managed it, was not too narrow, or too serious. Steele it feems, thought himself not at liberty to pay his addreffes to lady Lizard, after the death of her hufband, his constituent. See Guardian, N° 1, N° 2, N° 5, &c. and Letters to and from Dr. Johnson, 8vo. 2 vols. 1788, paffim. Airs, that excellent penman, has taken care to affix his own image oppofite to the title-page of his learned treatise, wherein he inftructs the youth of his nation to arrive at a flourishing hand. The Author of The Key to Interest, both fimple and compound, containing practical rules plainly expreffed in words at length for all rates of intereft and times of payment for what time foever, makes up to us the miffortune of his living at Chester, by following the example of the above-mentioned Airs, and coming up to town, over-against his title-page, in a very becoming periwig, and a flowing robe or mantle, inclosed in a circle of foliages; below his portraiture, for our farther fatisfaction as to the age of that useful writer, is fubfcribed ' Fohannes Ward de civitat. Ceftria, atat. fuæ 58. An. Dom. 1706.' The ferene aspect of these writers, joined with the great encouragement I observe is given to another, or what is indeed to be fufpected, in which he indulges himself, confirmed me in the notion I have of the prevalence of ambition this way. The author whom I hint at shall be nameless, but his countenance is communicated to the public in feveral views and aspects drawn by the most eminent painters, and forwarded by engravers, artists by way of mezzo-tinto, etchers, and the like. There was, I remember, fome years ago, one John Gale, a fellow that played upon a pipe, and diverted b See Tat. with notes, N° 261, and the additional notes, Vol. VI. Dr. Sacheverell, who was highly honoured in this way, being placed in effigy on handkerchiefs, fans, urinals, &c. the multitude by dancing in a ring they made about him, whose face became generally known, and the artists employed their skill in delineating his features, because every man was a judge of the fimilitude of them. There is little else, than what this John Gale arrived at, in the advantages men enjoy from common fame; yet do I fear it has always a part in moving us to exert ourselves in fuch things, as ought to derive their beginnings from nobler confiderations. But I think it is no great matter to the publick what is the incentive which makes men bestow time in their service, provided there be any thing useful in what they produce; I fhall proceed therefore to give an account of my intended labours, not without fome hope of having my vanity, at the end of them, indulged in the fort abovementioned. I should not have affumed the title of Guardian, had I not maturely confidered, that the qualities, neceffary for doing the duties of that character, proceed from the integrity of the mind, more than the excellence of the understanding. The former of these qualifications it is in the power of every man to arrive at; and the more he endeavours that way, the lefs will he want the advantages of the latter; to be faithful, to be honest, to be just, is what you will demand in the choice of your Guardian; you find added to this, that he is pleasant, ingenious, and agreeable, there will overflow fatisfactions which make for the ornament, if not fo immediately to the ufe of your life. As to the diverting part of this paper, by what or if |