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ADVERTISEMENT

In presenting to the American public this new edition of the writings of Joseph Addison, the publishers hold it altogether superfluous and unnecessary to say anything in commendation of the works themselves, or make any reference to the established and increasing celebrity of the author. That celebrity has been deliberately conferred by a succession of generations, and the name of Addison is permanently enrolled among the brightest that adorned the Augustan age of English literature. A few words, however, of comment upon the peculiar advantages of this edition may be permitted, it is hoped, if on no other ground, at least as showing the anxiety of the publishers to provide the community with the best which they can obtain, and the most suited to gratify the wants and wishes of every reader.

The superiority of this edition over any heretofore published in this coun try, or, indeed, in England, consists in its convenience of form, its low price, its accuracy, its neatness of mechanical execution, and, above all, its completeness. It comprises not only all the essays, letters, poems, criticisms, tales, descriptions, and dramatic works of Addison, but also the whole of the Speccator this last being a new and very useful arrangement, inasmuch as many of the finest essays, narratives, and characters in that admirable series were contributed jointly by Addison and others. The delightful character of Sir Roger de Coverley, for instance, was frequently taken up by Steele; and the pens of Steele, Budgell, and several others of the contributors, were quite as often employed in the beautiful papers relating to "The Club" as was that of Addison. It is evident that, by separating those of the latter from the others, as has been done in former editions of his works, the continuity of the story is destroyed and the pleasure of the reader materially diminished. In this point of view alone the edition now offered must be considered vastly preferable.

Care has been taken, nevertheless, to designate not only the papers con tributed by Addison, but also those furnished by each of the other writers; and in all other respects the edition of the Spectator comprised within these volumes is as complete and perfect as any ever published. The publishers have only to add the expression of their hope, that the favour of the public te this undertaking may be such as shall encourage them to the production of other English classics, in a corresponding style of excellence, literary and mechanical.

THE

SPECTATOR.

THE SPECTATOR.

No. 1.] Thursday, March 1, 1710-11.

Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem
Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat.
Hor. Ars Poet. ver. 143.
One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke ;
Another out of smoke brings glorious light,
And, (without raising expectation high)
Surprises us with dazzling miracles.

Roscommon.

I HAVE observed that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure, till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce ry much to the right understanding of an author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural to a reader, I design this paper and my next, as prefatory discourses to my following writings, and shall give some account in them of the several persons that are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling, digesting and correcting will fall to my share, I must do myself the justice to open the work with my own history. I was born to a small hereditary estate, which according to the tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at present, and has been delivered down from father to son, whole and entire, without the loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, during the space of six hundred years. There runs a story in the family, that when my mother was gone with child of me about three months, she dreamt that she was brought to bed of a judge. Whether this might proceed from a lawsuit which was then depending in the family, or my father's being a justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighbourhood put upon it. The gravity my behaviour at my very first appearance in the world, and all the time that I sucked, seemed to favour my mother's dream for, as she has often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was two months old, and would not make use of my coral until they had taken away the bells from it.

of

it over in silence. I find, that during my
nonage, I had the reputation of a very sul-
len youth, but was always a favourite with
my schoolmaster, who used to say, 'that
my parts were solid, and would wear well.
I had not been long at the university, be-
fore I distinguished myself by a most pro-
found silence; for during the space of
eight years, excepting in the public exer-
cises of the college, I scarce uttered the
quantity of an hundred words; and indeed
do not remember that I ever spoke three
sentences together in my whole life,
Whilst I was in this learned body, I ap-
plied myself with so much diligence to my
studies, that there are very few celebrated
books, either in the learned or the modern
tongues, which I am not acquainted with.

Upon the death of my father, I was resolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the university, with the character of an odd, unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would but show it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the countries of Europe, in which there was any thing new or strange to be seen; nay, to such a degree was my curiosity raised, that having read the controversies of some great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the measure of a pyramid: and as soon as I had set myself right in that particular, returned to my native country with great satisfaction.*

I have passed my latter years in this city, where I am frequently seen in most public places, though there are not above half a dozen of my select friends that know me; of whom my next paper shall give a more particular account. am not so vain particular account. There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my appearance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of politi cians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child's, † and whilst I

As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I shall pass

astronomical professor at Oxford, who in 1646 publish * This is, probably, an allusion to Mr. John Greaves, ed a work entitled' Pyramidographia.'

Child's coffee-house was in St. Paul's church-yard,

and much frequented by the clergy; St. James's is in

its original situation; Jonathan's was in Change alley, and the Rose was on the west side of Temple-bar

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