a
likeness of the painter. The Spectator is a gentleman who, after passing
a studious youth at the University, has travelled on classic ground, and
has bestowed much attention on curious points of antiquity. He has, on
his return, fixed his residence in London, and has observed all the
forms of life which are to be found in that great city, has daily
listened to the wits of Will's, has smoked with the philosophers of the
Grecian, and has mingled with the parsons at Child's, and with the
politicians at the St. James's. In the morning, he often listens to the
hum of the Exchange; in the evening, his face is constantly to be seen
in the pit of Drury Lane Theatre. But an insurmountable bashfulness
prevents him from opening his mouth, except in a small circle of
intimate friends.

These friends were first sketched by Steele. Four of the club, the
templar, the clergyman, the soldier, and the merchant, were
uninteresting figures, fit only for a background. But the other two, an
old country baronet and an old town rake, though not delineated with a
very delicate pencil, had some good strokes. Addison took the rude
outlines into his own hands, retouched them, colored them, and is in
truth the creator of the Sir Roger de Coverley and the Will Honeycomb
with whom we are all familiar.

The plan of the Spectator must be allowed to be both original and
eminently happy. Every valuable essay in the series may be read with
pleasure separately; yet the five or six hundred essays form a whole,
and a whole which has the interest of a novel. It must be remembered,
too, that at that time no novel, giving a lively and powerful picture of
the common life and manners of England, had appeared. Richardson was
working as a compositor. Fielding was robbing birds' nests. Smollett was
not yet born. The narrative, therefore, which connects together the
Spectator's Essays, gave to our ancestors their first taste of an
exquisite and untried pleasure. That narrative was indeed constructed
with no art or labor. The events were such events as occur every day.
Sir Roger comes up to town to see Eugenio, as the worthy baronet always
calls Prince Eugene, goes with the Spectator on the water to Spring
Gardens, walks among the tombs in the Abbey, and is frightened by the
Mohawks, but conquers his apprehension so far as to go to the theatre
when the Distressed Mother is acted. The Spectator pays a visit in the
summer to Coverley Hall, is charmed with the old ho