Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/86

 50 A D D I S O N. To the Tatler, in about two months, fucceeded the Spec- tator; a feries of effays of the fame kind, but written with ]efs levity, upon a more regular plan, and published daily [A], The next year, 1713, in which Cato came upon the ftage, was the grand clir^a^lerick. of Addifon's reputation. Upon the death of Cato, he had, as is faid, planned a tragedy in the time of his travels, and had for feveral years ihe four firft adls finifhed, which were {hewn to fuch as were likely to fpread their admiration. By a requeft, which perhaps lie wifhed to be denied, he deftred Mr. Hughes to add a fifth a6l. Hughes fuppofed him ferious ; and, undertaking the fupplement, brought in a few days feme fcenes for his examination j but he had in the mean time gone to work himfelf, and produced half an adl, which he afterwards completed, but with brevity irregularly disproportionate to the foregoing parts. The great, the important day came on, when Addifon was to ftand the hazard of the theatre. That there might, however, be left as little to hazard as was pofiible, on the laft night Steele, as himfelf relates, undertook to pack an audience. The danger CA] The author of the DilTertation fur la Poefie Anuloife, in the Journal Literaire, fye,king of this work, fays, " The fireft geniufes in England have 14 exerted in the Speclatcr all :he force " of their reflections, ail the delicacy of " ftyle, and all the fire of imagination " "hat can be conceived. It is anadmi-
 * rible work; and it hae prefervcd a

'' great part of its original grates and " There Cuch a prodigious variety in " it, bcth with repaid to the ftyle and " the fubjrels which it treats of, that " we juftly affirm, the French narion " has mining to oppofe fo this work, " that can be considered equal to it." Tom. IX p. 159, jo. To teach the m'nuter decencies and inferior duties, to regulate the practice of daily cohverfation, to correct thofc de- pravities wh : ch are rather ridiculous than criminal, and remove thoie grievances which, ir they produce no lafting calami- lies, imprefs hourly vexation, was firft attempted in Italy by C*fa in his " Eook " of Manners," and Ciftklione in his " Courtier," two books yet celebrated in I?')y for purity and elegance. This fpecies of inftn>i"n wjs con- tinued, 2nd p;rhaps advanced, by the French ; among whom La Bruyere's " Manners of the Age," though written without connedicn, deferves great praife^ Before ths Tatler and Speflaror, if th? writers for the theatre are excepted, England had no matters of common lile. No writers had yet undertaken to reform either the favagenefs of neglecl, or the impertinence oi civility : lo teach when to fptak, or to be filent ; how to refufe, or how to comply. We wanted nor books to teach us more impoitant duties, and to fet'le opinior.i in philofbphy or politicks; Lut an Arbiter elegantiarium, a judge of propriety w^is yrt wantfrrg, wh^ (TiO')Jd furvey the track of daily converfation, and free it from (horns and prickles, which teaze the p^lTsr, though they do not wound him. For this purpofe no- thing is fo ptoper as the frequent publi- ca'ion of lhart papers, which we read not ?s iludy but amufement. If the fubjtifk Lt flight, ihe irejtile likewife is fimrr. The bnfy ni<iy find time, and the idle rrwy find patience. The Tstler and Sp?t3tor reduced, like CaTi, the unfeitled practice of daiU in- tercuurie to propriety and pol teii^-A ; aijd, like La Bruvere, exhibited the " Chataclers and Manners of the Age." But to lay that thry united the plans o' two or three eminent w:iters, is to give them but t. fmall part of their due prjife; they fi)peradd--d literature and cr.ficifm, and forrettmea towered far above their p e.iecrfTors, and taught, wiih preat juftr.ei ot argument and uig- nity of lanuuape, the mcft important ciutics and fublime '.ruths. JOHNSON. was
 * ' beauty in the French truncation.