“In vain he jests in his unpolished strain,
And tries to make his readers laugh in vain.”
[574]. “His moral lay so bare that it lost the effect” (Ess. on Po., iii. 420, ed. cit. sup.) Indeed it has been suggested that Addison’s debt to Temple here is not confined to this.
[575]. He proposes to give an account of “all the Muse possessed” between Chaucer and Dryden; and, as a matter of fact, mentions nobody but Spenser between Chaucer and Cowley.
[576]. In the last paragraph of Sp. 409. The whole paper has been occupied by thoughts on Taste and Criticism: it contains the excellent comparison of a critic to a tea-taster, and it ends with this retrospect, and the promise of the “Imagination” Essays (v. ed. cit., iii. 393).
[577]. Sp. 58-63.
[578]. Sp. 39, 40, 42, 44, 45.
[579]. These began in Sp. 267, and were the regular Saturday feature of the paper for many weeks. References to Milton outside of them will be found in the excellent index of the ed. cit. or in that of Mr Gregory Smith’s exact and elegant reproduction of the Spectator (8 vols., London, 1897).
[580]. Sp. 411, ed. cit., iii. 394.
[581]. This phrase is originally Dryden’s (dedication to King Arthur, viii. 136, ed. cit.), who, however, has “kind” for “way”.