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PREFATORY NOTE

TO THE EDITION OF 1885.

AIMING chiefly at conciseness in the Introduction which follows, I have not always recapitulated those statements of my predecessors for which I have substituted what seem to me to be more accurate versions of the facts. Sufficient references to my authorities will, however, be found in the foot notes. Upon certain aspects of Steele's relations with Swift and Addison I have refrained from touching, because, in the first place, the discussion is not essential to the brief memoir here intended; and secondly, because I hope to enter upon it more fully hereafter. Meanwhile, by careful consultation of the newspapers of the day and other contemporary records, I have endeavoured to make the Chronology of Steele's Life' as rigorously exact as possible.

Although the field of choice is not restricted to the Spectator, but includes the Tatler and Guardian, it will doubtless be observed that the number of papers in this volume is smaller than the number of those which Mr. Arnold, in his excellent Selections from Addison, has borrowed from the Spectator alone. Notwithstanding the admitted inequality of Steele's work, it would be unjust to attribute this entirely to the inferiority of the material. The truth is, that the evidence for Addison's authorship is far better than that for Steele's, and many papers and letters, which in all probability were written by the latter, cannot, in the absence of direct proof to that effect, be authoritatively assigned to him.

In the Notes I have freely made use of the labours of the earlier annotators, as well as of such modern memoirs and books of reference as bear upon the age of Anne. But I

am in justice to myself bound to say that at least threefourths of the illustrations and explanations here given will not be found in any previous edition of the Essayists; and I take pleasure in adding that I am indebted for several valuable suggestions to two enthusiastic students of Steele, Colonel F. Grant, and Mr. Edward Solly, F. R. S.

A. D.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE first appearance of these 'Selections' was succeeded in 1886 by that fuller study of Steele (English Worthies Series) of which mention is made in the foregoing 'Prefatory Note.' To the fresh information which this biography contained, further particulars were added by the laborious and exhaustive Life of Richard Steele published three years later by Mr. George A. Aitken, who has since issued an edition of Steele's Plays (Mermaid Series, 1894). By the aid of these recent researches the 'Introduction' to the present volume has been attentively examined, while the 'Notes '--with a few exceptions—have been verified throughout. Although the bulk of alteration has not been great, I trust that the revision which the book has undergone will be found to have increased its value.

AUSTIN DOBSON.

EALING, January, 1896.

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