these let us add the Vision of Aurelia's heart in the Guardian *, which, in point of fancy and satire,emulates the Dissections of the Beau's Head and Coquette's Heart alluded to by Dr. Aikin.

If we wish, however, to enjoy the humour of Addison in all its various shades.and tintings, in its utmost state of perfection, indeed, as combining the species we have just considered, we must dwell at some length on the justly-celebrated characters of Sir Roger de Coverley and the Tory Fox-Hunter. Of these, the former, though the favourite of every reader of the Spectator, has been much misapprehended, and has, therefore, occasioned much disparity of opinion among the critics with regard to its consistency and keeping. After citing therefore the sentiments of three most ingenious writers, Doctors Johnson, Beattie, and Aikin, I shall endeavour so to arrange the papers including this inimitable portrait as to evince the inviolable integrity with which Addison conducted his part of the design.

"Of the characters feigned or exhibited in the Spectator," observes Johnson, "the favourite of Addison was Sir Roger de Coverley, of whom he had formed a very delicate and discriminated idea, which he would not suffer to be violated; and therefore when Steele had shewn him inno* N° 106.

cently 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 sola nacio Don Quixote, y yo para el, made Addison declare, with undue vehemence of expression, 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 may be doubted whether Addison ever filled up his original delineation. He describes his knight as having his imagination somewhat warped; but of this perversion he has made very little use. 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 pressure of some overwhelming idea, as of habitual rusticity, and that negligence which solitary grandeur naturally generates.

"The variable weather of the mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time cloud reason without eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit, that Addison seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own design *."

* Lives of the Poets, vol. ii. p. 87, 88.

Dr. Beattie, who, perhaps, too hastily gave an unqualified approbation of Johnson's definition of Addisonian humour, has nevertheless chosen to differ widely from our poetical biographer in pourtraying the character of Sir Roger de Coverley.

"I am inclined to suppose," he remarks, “that the learned biographer had forgotten some things relating to that gentleman.

"He seems to think that Addison had formed an idea of Sir Roger, which he never exhibited complete; that he has given a small degree of discomposure to the knight's mind, but made very little use of it; that Sir Roger's irregularities are the effects of habitual rusticity, and of negligence created by solitary grandeur; and, in short, that Addison was deterred from prosecuting his own design with respect to Sir Roger.

"Now I beg leave to observe, in the first place, that it never was, or could be, Addison's purpose to represent Sir Roger as a person of disordered understanding. This would have made his story either not humorous at all, or humorous in that degree of extravagance, which Addison always avoided, and for avoiding which Dr. Johnson justly commends him. Sir Roger has peculiarities; that was necessary to make him a comic charaeter; but they are all amiable, and tend to

good and there is not one of them that would give offence, or raise contempt or concern, in any rational society. At Sir Roger we never laugh, though we generally smile; but it is a smile, always of affection, and frequently of esteem.

"Secondly, I cannot admit that there is in this character any thing of rusticity, (as that word is generally understood) or any of those habits or ways of thinking that solitary grandeur creates. No man on earth affects grandeur less, or thinks less of it, than Sir Roger; and no man is less solitary. His affability, good humour, benevolence, and love of society, his affection to his friends, respect to his superiors, and gentleness and attention to his dependents, make him a very dif ferent being from a rustic, as well as from an imperious landlord, who lives retired among flatterers and vassals. Solitary grandeur is apt to engender pride, a passion from which our worthy baronet is entirely free; and rusticity, as far as it is connected with the mind, implies aukwardness and ignorance, which, if one does not despise, one may pity and pardon, but cannot love with that fondness with which every heart is attached to Sir Roger.

"How could our author be deterred from prosecuting his design with respect to this personage? What could deter him? It could only be

the consciousness of his own inability; and that this was not the case he had given sufficient proof, by exemplifying the character so fully, that every reader finds himself intimately acquainted with it. Considering what is done, one cannot doubt the author's ability to have supported the character through a much greater variety of conversations and adventures. But the Spectator, according to the first plan of it, was now drawing to a conclusion; the seventh volume being finished about six weeks after the knight's death; and perhaps the tradition may be true, that Addison, dissatisfied with Steele's idle story of Sir Roger at a tavern * swore (which he is said never to have done but on this one occasion) that he would himself kill Sir Roger, lest somebody else should murder him †.”

The sentiments of Dr. Aikin on the character of Sir Roger display, as is usual with that writer, much ingenuity; he alludes to the apparent inconsistency of the portrait, and places the design of Addison, in the attribution of certain incidents and conduct to the knight, in a new point of view.

"An acute judge of moral propriety observed * Spectator, No 410.

+ Beattie's edition of Addison's Works, vol. i.-Notes on the Life of Addison.