the initials T, or R, are annexed; though the former letter is generally supposed to imply that the number was merely transcribed. Independent of this appropriation, however, and although curiosity and enquiry have not been deficient in their researches, there are fifty-three papers in the Spectator, of which the authors are totally unknown. It is probable that several of them are the compositions of Budgell and Tickell.

PART V.

ESSAY III.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE EFFECTS OF THE TATLER, SPECTATOR, AND GUARDIAN, ON THE TASTE, LITERATURE, AND MORALS OF THE AGE.

To the periodical writings of Steele and Addi

son, we are indebted for a most faithful and masterly delineation of the taste, the manners, and morals, which prevailed during the eventful reign of Queen Anne; a portrait, indeed, by many degrees more highly finished than any which can be produced of preceding or subsequent periods. Of this picture a reduced, but, we hope, an accurate copy, will be found in our introductory essay, where we have endeavoured to present a clear, though compressed, view of literature and manners as they existed in 1709.

That it was the constant endeavour of Steele and Addison to correct the vices, ridicule the follies, and dissipate the ignorance which too generally prevailed at the commencement of the