Greece and Rome; as well as the most exact Knowledge of our own Constitution in particular, and of the Interefts of Europe in general; to which I must also add, a certain Dignity in Your felf, that (to say the least of it) has been always equal to those great Honours which have been conferred upon You. It is very well known how much the Church owed to you in the most dangerous Day it ever faw, that of the Arraignment of its Prelates; and how far the Civil Power, in the Late and Prefent Reign, has been indebted to your Counfels and Wifdom. But to enumerate the great Advantages which the Publick has received from your Administration, would be a more proper Work for for an History, than for an Address of this Nature. Your Lordship appears as great in your Private Life, as in the most Important Offices which You have born. I would therefore rather chuse to speak of the Pleafure You afford all who are admitted into your Conversation, of Your Elegant Taste in all the Polite Parts of Learning, of Your great Humanity and Complacency of Manners, and of the furprising Influence which is peculiar to You in making every one who Converses with your Lordship prefer You to himself, without thinking the lefs meanly of his own Talents. But if I fhould take notice of all that might be obferved in your Lordship, I should have nothing new to say A 4 upon upon any other Character of Diftinction. I am, My LORD, Your Lordship's moft Obedient, moft Devoted Humble Servant, The SPECTATOR. THE SPECTATOR. VOL. I. N° 1. Thursday, March 1. 1710-11. Non fumum ex fulgore, fed ex fumo dare lucem Hor. Have obferved, that a Reader feldom perufes a Book with Pleafure, till he knows whether the Writer of it be a black or a fair Man, of a mild or cholerick Difpofition, Married or a Batchelor, with other Particulars of the like Nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an Author. To gratify this Curiofity, which is fo natural to a Reader, I defign this Paper and my next as Prefatory Difcourfes to my following Writings, and fhall give fome Account in them of the feveral Perfons that are engaged in this Work. As the chief Trouble of Compiling, Digefting, and Correcting will fall to my Share, I must do my felf the Ju ftice to open the Work with my own History. I was born to a fmall Hereditary Eftate, which, accor ding to the Tradition of the Village where it lies, was bounded by the fame Hedges and Ditches in William the Conqueror's Time that it is at prefent, and has been A 5 de. delivered down from Father to Son whole and entire, without the Lofs or Acquifition of a fingle Field or Meadow, during the Space of fix hundred Years. There runs a Story in the Family, that when my Mother was : gone with Child of me about three Months, fhe dreamt that he was brought to Bed of a Judge: Whether this might proceed from a Law-Suit which was then depending in the Family, or my Father's being a Justice of the Peace, I cannot determine; for I am not fo vain as to think it prefaged any Dignity that I should arrive at in my future Life, though that was the Interpretation which the Neighbourhood put upon it. The Gravity of my Behaviour at my very first Appearance in the World, and all the time that I fucked, feemed to favour my Mother's Dream: For, as fhe has often told me, I threw away my Rattle before I was two Months old, and would not make ufe of my Coral till they had taken away the Bellsfrom it.. AS for the rest of my Infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I fhall pafs it over in Silence. I find, that during my Nonage, I had the Reputation of a very fullen Youth, but was always a Favourite of my School-mafter, who used to fay, that my Parts were folid, and would wear well.. I had not been long at the University, before I diftinguifhed my felf by a moft profound Silence; for during the Space of eight Years, excepting in the publick Exercises of the College, I fcarce uttered the Quantity of an hundred Words; and indeed do not remember that I ever fpoke three Sentences together in my whole Life, Whilft I was in this learned Body, I applied my felf with fo much Diligence to my Studies, that there are very few celebrated Books, either in the learned or the modern Tongues, which I am not acquainted with. UPON the Death of my Father, I was refolved to aravel into foreign Countries, and therefore left the Univerfity, with the Character of an odd unaccountable Fellow, that had a great deal of Learning, if I would but fhew it.. An infatiable Thirft after Knowledge, carried me into all the Countries of Europe in which there was any thing new or ftrange to be feen; nay, to fuch a Degree was my Curiofity raifed, that having read the Conoverfies of fome great Men concerning the Antiquities off |