estate; whether this was occasioned by the terms of his father's will, or any other reason which rendered the profession of a soldier a disqualification to inherit, we are not told. His conduct, however, soon procured him the post of ensign.

During this period of his life, in which he was probably forsaken by those friends who had opposed his entering into the army, he fell into the company of gay and unthinking young men, to whose principles and example he yielded rather from easiness of temper than depravity, but in whoɛe follies and vices he participated with a freedom for which his conscience frequently reproached him. To counteract the force of temptations thus continually presenting themselves, he had recourse to a very singular expedient. He tells us that, 'being thoroughly convinced of many things which he often repented, and as often repeated, he wrote, for his own private use, a little book, called "The Christian Hero," with a design principally to fix upon his mind a strong impression of virtue and religion, in opposition to a stronger propensity to unwarrantable pleasures.'

In this he appears to have followed, I know not whether intentionally, the example of the Puritans, in their forms of personal covenanting, a practice not uncommon in more modern times with the pious of a certain class, but for which the authority has been thought doubtful, and which in many cases

will prove dangerous. A great judge of the human heart has well observed, that a man who proposes schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear, is in the same state with him that teaches upon land the art of navigation, to whom the sea is always smooth, and the wind always prosperous*.

STEELE Soon discovered at least one mistake in this experiment; he discovered that the support of this little book was too weak, while his engagement to be virtuous was voluntary and unknown. To render it more binding, he reprinted the book with his name, and endeavoured to live as well as he wrote, appealing boldly to the world for the consistency of his principles and practice. But this, we are told, had no other good effect than that, from being thought a pleasant companion, he was reckoned a disagreeable fellow. One or two of his companions thought fit to misuse him, and try their valour upon him; and every body measured the least levity in his words and actions with the character of a Christian Hero.'

Rambler, No. 14. DENHAM, the poet, was another instance of a man attempting to write himself out of his follies. To show, that he repented and was reclaimed from gaming, he published an Essay on that vice; but a few years proved that he was not reclaimed, and had again to repent.

This little work was printed in 1701, with a dedication to lord CUTTS, who had not only appointed him his private secretary, but procured for him a company in lord LUCAS's regiment of fuzileers. It consists chiefly of a review of the characters of some celebrated Heathens, contrasted with the life and principles of our blessed Saviour, and of St. Paul, from which it is his object to prove, that none of the heroic virtues, or 'true greatness of mind,' can be maintained, unless upon Christian principles. The language is far from being regular, and, perhaps, he may seem deficient in powers of argument: but his address has much of that honest zeal and affection which comes from the heart. It has been often reprinted and circulated among the middling class of readers, but in his own time probably redounded more to his honour as an author, than to his advantage as a man; for he informs us that the rebuffs he met with, instead of encouragements for his declarations in regard to religion, laid him under a necessity of enlivening his character; and with this view, he wrote his first play, called 'The Funeral, or Grief Alamode,' which was very successfully performed the same year, and is yet a favourite with the publick. This play is said to have procured him the regard of KING WILLIAM, who intended to have bestowed some mark of favour upon him, which the death of that monarch prevented. By the friendship, however, of

lord HALIFAX, and of the Earl of SUNDERLAND, to whom he had been recommended by ADDISON, he was, in the beginning of QUEEN ANNE's reign, appointed GAZETTEER. ADDISON is said also to have assisted him in the comedy of the Tender husband, or the Accomplished Fools,' which was acted with great success in 1704. The friendship between these two illustrious characters commenced when they were school-fellows at the Charterhouse. I remember,' says STEELE, when I finished the "Tender Husband," I told him (ADDISON) there was nothing I so tenderly 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 memory of our friendship.'

His next play was The Lying Lover,' which, he tells us, 'was damned for its piety;' a fate which it does not appear to deserve on that, or any other account more within the province of a dramatic tribunal. There is great regularity in the fable of all his plays, and the characters are well sketched and preserved; but in the dialogue he is sometimes tedious. He wants the quick repartee of CONGREVE; and though possessed of humour, falls into the style rather of an essay than a drama. Much of that point which appears in his TATLERS may be discovered in his Comedies.

After the condemnation of this play, he commenced the TATLER, on the 12th of April,

1709. During its publication, in 1710, he was appointed a commissioner of the Stamp Duties, which he retained after that ministry was dismissed by whose favour the place had been conferred. The TATLER was almost immediately followed by the SPECTATOR and GUARDIAN. In the course of the GUARDIAN, he began to take a greater share in the politics of the day, and engaged with considerable warmth against the ministry, though rather covertly but at length resigning his place in the Stamp Office, and a pension which he had enjoyed as belonging to the household of PRINCE GEORGE OF DENMARK, he declared open war against the ministers, by publishing a GUARDIAN on the demolition of Dunkirk, and other political tracts. On the dissolution of parliament he was returned member for Stockbridge, in Hampshire; but was expelled the house a few days after he took his seat, for some publications which were voted to be seditious and scandalous libels. The most celebrated of these, The Crisis,' requires some notice here, that its proper author may be assigned.

That

STEELE'S name appeared to it, and that he was punished for it, is certain; but a letter published lately by Dr. SOMERVILLE, in his "History of the Reign of Queen Anne,' proves that it was written by Mr. WILLIAM MOORE, a lawyer, and a coadjutor of STEELE'S in the ENGLISHMAN,' and perhaps in other political effusions. This letter, dated June 6, 1716,