Page:The Guardian (Vol 1).pdf/193

 N° 22.

THE GUARDIAN.

131

goodneſs in others, though we ourſelves want it. uch charmed This is the reaſon why we are with the pretty prattle of children, and even the

expreſſions of pleaſure or uneaſineſs in ſome part ofthe brute creation. They are without artifice or malice ; and we love truth too well to reſiſt

the charms of fincerity. A third reaſon is our love of the country.

Health, tranquillity and pleaſing objects are the growth of the country, and though men, for the general good of the world, are made to love

populouscities, the country hath the greateſt

ſhare in an uncorrupted heart. When we paint, defcribe, or any way indulge our fancy, the country is the ſcene which ſupplies us with the moſt lovely images. This ſtate was that wherein

God placed Adam when in Paradiſe ; nor could

all the fanciful wits of antiquity imagine any thing that could adminiſter more exquiſite de light in their Elyſium “. с

This, and the following papers on paſtoral poetry, ex cepting Nº 40, are attributed to Steele, for want of good au thority to afcribe them to any other writer or writers. They have been aſcribed to Mr. Thomas Tickell, and it does not appear that there is much to be ſaid for or againſt the pro

priety of this aflignment. It is conjectured that Mr. Am

brofe Philips was concerned in them, and that he was the author of this paper in particular. Philips is ſuppoſed to have lived in the ſame houſe with Addiſon about this time,

and the papers on paſtoral poetry were probably among the above-mentioned to Steele's new paper, to which it may well be ſuppoſed that Addiſon was the warmeſt well-wiſher, earlieſt joint contributions of Addiſon, and the two gentlemen and if not the firſt, at leaſt among the earlieſt contributors.

Nevertheleſs, Nº 29. is the firſt paper in the Guardian fo much in Addiſon's manner throughout, as to engage the an K 2