dies. He was one of those people whom it is impossible either to hate or to respect. His temper was sweet, his affections warm, his spirits lively, his passions strong, and his principles weak. His life was passed in sinning and repenting; in inculcating what was right, and doing what was wrong. In speculation, he was a man of piety and honor; in practice he was much of the rake and a little of the swindler."1

Thackeray writes of Steele in his most charming vein, but there is one material defect in his description. He tells what might have been instead of what was, and his fanciful sketches of Steele and Addison in "Henry Esmond" are as reliable as his false facts and mistaken inferences in his lectures on the "" English Humorists." Hear him:

"Besides being very kind, lazy, and good-natured, this boy went invariably into debt with the tart woman; ran out of bounds, and entered into pecuniary, or rather promissory, engagements with the neighboring lollipop venders and piemen; exhibited an early fondness and capacity for drinking mum and sack; and borrowed from all his comrades who had money to lend.”2

Here even Thackeray feels that it is due to his reader to state that all these bits of interesting detail are not matters of absolute record, and he continues:

"I have no sort of authority for the statements here made of Steele's early life; but if the child is father of the man, the father of young Steele of Merton, who left Oxford without taking a degree, and entered the Life Guards the father of Captain Steele of Lucas's Fusileers, who got his company through the patronage of my Lord Cutts-the father of Mr. Steele the Commissioner of Stamps, the editor of the Gazette, the Tatler, and Spectator, the expelled Member of Parliament, and the author of the Tender Husband' and the Conscious Lovers;'

-if man and boy resembled each other, Dick Steele must have been one of the most generous, good-for-nothing, amiable little creatures that ever conjugated the verb tupto, I beat, tuptomai, I am whipped, in any school in Great Britain."

He then makes the mistake of supposing that Addison was several years older than Steele (instead of six weeks his junior) and that when Steele went to the Charterhouse he was in a lower form and fagged for Addison (Steele went to this school in 1684 and Addison in 1686). So he proceeds with his false logic, for which, again, he has “no sort of authority":

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'Dick Steele, the Charterhouse gownboy, contracted such an admiration [for the head boy of his school] in the years of his childhood, and retained it faithfully through his life. Through the school and through the world, whithersoever his strange fortune led this erring, wayward, affectionate creature, Joseph Addison was always his head boy. Addison wrote his exercises. Addison did his best themes. He ran on Addison's messages, fagged for him, and blacked his shoes. To be in Joe's company was Dick's greatest pleasure; and he took a sermon or a caning from his monitor with the most boundless reverence, acquiescence, and affection." 2

Every part of Thackeray's article is most delightful reading; but although, unlike Macaulay, he does not excite our scorn of Steele, he arouses only our sympathy -not our admiration.

It has been said that Steele himself is partly responsible for the view of his ability and character that has prevailed. This is true, for while Macaulay contemns and Thackeray commiserates him, he disparages himself repeatedly, and constantly refers to Addison as his superior:

"I fared like a distressed prince, who calls in a powerful neighbor to his aid; I was undone by my auxiliary; 2 Ibid.

1

English Humorists-Steele.

when I had once called him in, I could not subsist without dependence on him." 1

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I shall not carry my humility so far as to call myself a vicious man, but at the same time must confess, my life is at best but pardonable. "2

"The most approved pieces in it [the Tatler] were written by others, and those which have been most excepted against, by myself. The hand that has assisted me in those noble discourses is a person who is too fondly my friend ever to own them; but I should little deserve to be his, if I usurped the glory of them. I must acknowledge at the same time, that I think the finest strokes of wit and humor in all Mr. Bickerstaff's lucubrations, are those for which he is also beholden to him."3

"I am, indeed, much more proud of his [Addison's] long-continued friendship, than I should be of being thought the author of any writings which he himself is capable of producing. I remember when I finished the "Tender Husband," I told him there was nothing I so ardently wished, as that we might some time or other publish a work written by us both, which should bear the name of the Monument, in honor of our friendship. I heartily wish what I have done here were as honorary to that sacred name, as learning, wit, and humanity render those pieces which I have taught the reader how to distinguish for his. When the play above mentioned was last acted, there were so many applauded strokes in it which I had from the same hand, that I thought very meanly of myself that I had never publicly acknowledged them."4

I rejoiced in being excelled, and made those little talents, whatever they are, which I have, give way and be subservient to the superior qualities of a friend whom I loved. But whatever Steele owes to Mr. Addison, the public owes Addison to Steele."5

The only "reputation" of which Steele seemed especially jealous was that of fairness and justice. His preface to Addison's "Drummer" shows that. He is wildly indignant

'Preface to the octavo edition of the Tatler, vol. iv. 2 Tatler No. 271 (last number).

4 Spectator No. 555.

3 Ibid.

5 Preface to the Drummer.

at the imputations of Tickell that he could be "guilty of anything that was disingenuous." But he candidly admits that he always "preferred the state of his mind to that of his fortune;" that Addison "could always send for him, from his natural power over him, as much as he could send for any of his clerks when he was Secretary of State;" and when, in Tatler No. 89, he gives a whimsical picture of himself, he seems perfectly willing to be laughed at.

But tardy justice is at last being done to Steele. John Forster in his "Essay," Mr. Aitken in his extended "Life," and Austin Dobson in his brief one, present the amiable founder of the Tutler in a far more favorable light as to literary ability and especially as to character, so that were Leigh Hunt now living he would have added reason for his famous remark:

"I love Steele with all his faults better than Addison with all his essays.

EUSTACE BUDGELL.

This unfortunate writer was also an Oxford man, and intended to follow the law. But Addison, who was his cousin, and several years his senior, took him to Ireland as a clerk when he himself received his first appointment as Irish Secretary. Budgell developed considerable literary ability, and wrote occasional papers for the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian. Chapters XV. and XXXI. of this collection are from his pen, and it will be seen that he has successfully imitated the Addisonian style. Later he became a member of the Irish Parliament, and not long after was made comptroller-general of the Irish revenues. Macaulay thinks that if Addison had lived, Budgell would have prospered, but he paints a most lurid picture of his closing years. He is said to have lost-one year after Addison's death-£20,000 in the South Sea Bubble, and to have spent £5,000 more in an unsuccessful attempt to enter Parliament. He founded the Bee, a short-lived literary

periodical, endeavored to retrieve his numerous failures by forgery, and finally, in 1636, loading his pockets with stones, leaped into the Thames from a boat near London Bridge and was drowned.

On his table was found a slip of paper containing the words,

"What Cato did and Addison approved, cannot be wrong." 1

'Budgell's inference was untrue. Those who read the words of the dying Cato will see that Addison makes even the stern Roman repent of his deed, and confess the fear that he has been too hasty.