All these topicks were happily varied with elegant fictions and refined allegories, and illuminated with different changes of style and felicities of invention.

It is recorded by Budgell, that of the cha racters feigned or exhibited in the Spectator, the favourite of Addifon was Sir Roger de Coverley, of whom he had formed a very delicate and difcriminated idea, which he would not fuffer to be violated; and therefore when Steele had fhewn him innocently picking up a girl in the Temple, and taking her to a tavern, he drew upon himself so much of his friend's indignation, that he was forced to appease him by a promise of forbearing Sir Roger for the time to come.

The reason which induced Cervantes to bring his hero to the grave, para mi fola nacio Don Quixote, y yo para el, made Addison declare, with an undue vehemence of expreffion, that he would kill Sir Roger; being of opinion that they were born for one another, and that any other hand would do him wrong.

It

It may be doubted whether Addison ever filled up his original delineation. He defcribes his Knight as having his imagination somewhat warped; but of this perverfion he has made very little ufe. The irregularities in Sir Roger's conduct, seem not so much the effects of a mind deviating from the beaten track of life, by the perpetual preffure of fome overwhelming idea, as of habitual rufticity, and that negligence which folitary grandeur naturally generates,

The variable weather of the mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time cloud reason, without eclipfing it, it requires fo much nicety to exhibit, that Addison feems to have been deterred from profecuting his own defign,

To Sir Roger, who, as a country gentleman, appears to be a Tory, or, as it is gently expreffed, an adherent to the landed intereft, is oppofed Sir Andrew Freeport, a new man, a wealthy merchant, zealous for the moneyed interest, and a Whig. Of this contrariety of opinions, it is probable more confequences

were at first intended, than could be produced when the refolution was taken to exclude party from the paper, Sir Andrew does but little, and that little feems not to have pleafed Addifon, who, when he difmiffed him from the club, changed his opinions. Steele had made him, in the true fpirit of unfeeling commerce, declare that he would not build an hofpital for idle people; but at last he buys land, fettles in the country, and builds not a manufactory, but an hofpital for twelve old husbandmen, for men with whom a merchant has little acquaintance, and whom he commonly confiders with little kindness.

Of effays thus elegant, thus inftructive, and thus commodiously distributed, it is natural to suppose the approbation general and the fale numerous. I once heard it obferved, that the fale may be calculated by the product of the tax, related in the last number to produce more than twenty pounds a week, and therefore stated at one and twenty pounds, or three pounds ten fhillings a day: this, at a half-penny a paper, will give fixteen hundred and eighty for the daily number.

This fale is not great; yet this, if Swift be credited, was likely to grow lefs; for he declares that the Spectator, whom he ridicules for his endless mention of the fair fex, had before his recefs wearied his readers.

The next year (1713), in which Cato came upon the ftage, was the grand climacterick of Addison's reputation. Upon the death of Cato, he had, as is faid, planned a tragedy in the time of his travels, and had for several years the four first acts finished, which were fhewn to fuch as were likely to spread their admiration. They were feen by Pope, and by Cibber; who relates that Steele, when he took back the copy, told him, in the defpicable cant of literary modefty, that, whatever fpirit his friend had thewn in the compofition, he doubted whether he would have courage fufficient to expose it to the cenfure of a British audience.

The time however was now come, when those who affected to think liberty in danger, affected likewife to think that a stageplay might preferve it: and Addison was importuned, in the name of the tutelary dei

ties of Britain, to fhew his courage and his zeal by finishing his defign,

To resume his work he feemed perversely and unaccountably unwilling; and by a requeft, which perhaps he wished to be denied, defired Mr. Hughes to add a fifth act, Hughes fuppofed him ferious; and, undertaking the supplement, brought in a few days some scenes for his examination; but he had in the mean time gone to work himself, and produced half an act, which he afterwards completed, but with brevity irregularly disproportionate to the foregoing parts; like a task performed with reluctance, and hur ried to its conclufion,

It may yet be doubted whether Cato was made publick by any change of the author's purpose; for Dennis charged him with raising prejudices in his own favour by false pofitions of preparatory criticism, and with poifaning the town by contradicting in the Spectator the established rule of poetical juftice, because his own hero, with all his virtues, was to fall before a tyrant. The fact is certain; the motives we must guess.

Addifon