The World's Greatest Books — Volume 20 — Miscellaneous Literature and Index

(signed) Matthew Arnold
JOINT EDITORS ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge J. A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia
VOL. XX
MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE
INDEX
Wm. H. Wise & Co.


The Spectator, the most popular and elegant miscellany of English literature, appeared on the 1st of March, 1711. With an interruption of two years—1712 to 1714—during part of which time The Guardian, a similar periodical, took its place, The Spectator was continued to the 20th of December, 1714. Addison's fame is inseparably associated with this periodical. He was the animating spirit of the magazine, and by far the most exquisite essays which appear in it are by him. Richard Steele, Addison's friend and coadjutor in The Spectator, was born in Dublin in March, 1672, and died at Carmarthen on September 1, 1729. (Addison biography, see Vol. XVI, p. 1.)
Addison's Spectator is one of the most interesting books in the English language. When Dr. Johnson praised Addison's prose, it was specially of The Spectator that he was speaking. His page, he says, is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected splendour. His sentences have neither studied amplitude nor affected brevity; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to Addison.
Johnson's verdict has been upheld, for it is chiefly by The Spectator that Addison lives. None but scholars know his Latin verse and his voluminous translations now. His Cato survives only in some half-dozen occasional quotations. Two or three hymns of his, including The spacious firmament on high, and When all Thy mercies, O my God, find a place in church collections; and his simile of the angel who rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm is used now and again by pressmen and public speakers. But, in the main, when we think of Addison, it is of The Spectator that we think.