THE TATLER: LUCUBRATIONS O F ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, Efq; VOLUME THE FOURTH. LONDON: Printed for C. BATHURST, J. BUCKLAND, W. STRAHAN, J. and PRALE NAR. To the Right Honourable CHARLES, LORD HALIFA X. From the Hovel at Hamptonwick, April 7, 1711. My LORD, Whonour, I could not but indulge a certain va WHEN I first refolved upon doing myself this nity in dating from this little covert, where I have frequently had the honour of your Lordship's company, and received from You very many obligations. The elegant folitude of this place, and the greatest pleafures of it, I owe to its being fo near those beautiful manors wherein you fometimes refide: It is not retiring from the world, but enjoying its most valu able bleffings, when a man is permitted to fhare in your Lordship's converfations in the country. All the bright images which the Wits of past ages have left behind them in their writings, the noble plans which the greatest Statesmen have laid down for adminiftration of affairs, are equally the familiar objects of your knowledge. But what is peculiar to your Lordship, above all the illuftrious perfonages that have appeared in any age, is, that wit and learning have, from your example, fallen into a new Era. Your patronage has produced those arts, which before fhunned the commerce of the world, into the service of life; and it is to You we owe, that the man of wit has turned himself to be a man of business. The falfe delicacy of men of genius, and the objections which others were apt to infinuate against their abilities for entering into affairs, have equally vanished. And experience has fhewn, that men of letters are not only qualified with a greater capacity, but also a greater integrity in the dispatch of bufinefs. Your own ftudies have been diverted from being the highest ornament, to the highest use. to mankind; and the capacities which would have rendered You the greatest Poet of your age, have to the advantage of Great Britain been employed in pursuits which have made You the most able and unbiaffed patriot. A vigorous imagination, an extenfive apprehenfion, and a ready judgment, have distinguished You in all the illuftrious parts of adminiftration, in a reign attended with fuch difficulties, that the fame talents, without the fame quickness in the poffeffion of them, would have been incapable of conquering. The natural fuccefs of fuch abilities, has advanced You to a feat in that illuftrious house, where You were received by a crowd of your relations. Great as you are in your honours, and perfonal qualities, I know You will forgive an humble neighbour, the vanity of pretending to a place in your friendship, and fubfcribing himfelf, My LORD, Your Lordship's moft obliged, and moft devoted fervant, RICHARD STEELE THE PREFACE. N the laft Tatler I promised fome explanation of well, as fome account of the affiftances I have had in the performance. I fhall do this in very few words;. for when a man has no defign but to speak plain truth, he may say a great deal in a very narrow compafs. I have, in the dedication of the firft Volume, made my acknowledgments to Doctor Swift, whofe pleafant writings, in the name of Bickerstaff, created an inclination in the town towards any thing that could appear in the fame difguife. I muft acknow-. ledge also, that at my firft entering upon this work, a certain uncommon way of thinking, and a turn in conversation peculiar to that agreeable Gentleman, rendered his company very advantageous to one whose imagination was to be continually employed upon obvious and common fubjects, though at the fame time: obliged to treat of them in a new and unbeaten me-. thod. His verfes on the Shower in Town, and the Defcription of the Morning, are inftances of the happinefs of that genius, which could raife fuch pleafing. ideas upon occafions fo barren to an ordinary invention.. When I am upon the houfe of Bickerstaff, I must not forget that genealogy of the family fent to me by A 3 the |