of Don Abbondio, the shrewishness of Perpetua, the enlarged benevolence of Federigo, with the episodes of extreme human misery, and the final happy fortunes of the humble lovers, gradually win upon our calm attention, and become, at last, endeared to our remembrance.

The Censor.

STEELE.

ONE day, early in the last century, if an Asmodeus had peeped into a certain respectable-looking house in London, he would have seen a lady in whose beautiful countenance pride and tenderness were rarely mingled, seated alone in profound reverie, with an open letter in her hand, and writing materials on the table beside her. Her attitude and expression might have furnished captivating hints for a graceful artist. Now she nibbles the feathered end of her pen, and looks up to the ceiling, as if expecting a resolution to descend; now she disposes herself as if to write; and, anon, rises with an impatient air, and walks to and fro while perusing, for the twentieth time, the unanswered epistle; one moment she breathes a gentle sigh, and the next her fair lip is wreathed with a complacent smile. At last she re-seats herself, and begins to scribble after the manner of a wayward girl in a sentimental quandary. Although not given to rhyming, she half-unconsciously traces a couplet:

Ah! Dick Steele, that I were sure,

Your love, like mine, would still endure!

A good psychologist might thence infer her lover's whole character. The exclamatory note suggests desire, attraction, a mesmeric influence; in fact that he was what she, at once, declared him to be to her friends-"as agreeable a man as any in the kingdom;" and what she felt him to be in her own heart, a master of the art of love." The familiarity of the appellation indicates that he was an accessible, open-hearted, sociable fellow; while the doubt of his constancy reveals an impulsive nature. Such were,

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in truth, the characteristics of Steele. His numerous dedications present a versatility and tact in compliment, that show how aptly he could touch every note of elegant flattery; a vivid sense of the beautiful, especially in manners and character, displayed in his writings, evidence one of those thoroughly appreciative minds upon which no trait of female attractiveness is lost; and his own confession that, while a youth, he wrote and published the "Christian Hero," in order to commit himself before the world, to virtue and religion, and thus be shamed into consistency of demeanour, is an impressive proof of his consciousness of moral weak

ness.

The father of Steele was private secretary to James, first Duke of Ormond, lord lieutenant of Ireland; and his son was born in Dublin, came to

England when a child, was educated at the CharterHouse School; and his first recognised literary effort was a poem called the Procession, for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. A naturally chivalric temper inclined him to military life; and having entered the army, he rode privately in the Guards; while ensign, he, however, made two important discoveries: one was, that his pen was likely to be a far more useful weapon than his sword; the other, that the career of a soldier would confirm ruinous habits of dissipation already contracted. It was under these impressions that he put forth the treatise to which we have alluded, an act that subjected him to frequent ridicule. In 1702, a play intended to satirize the affectation of mourning then prevalent, which he had offered to the manager of Drury, attracted the King's notice, who gave its author the post of Gazetteer. Then followed the "Tender Husband," and other successful dramatic pieces; the appointments of Stamp Commissioner, Surveyor of the Royal Stables, Governor of the Royal Company of Comedians, &c. Steele became an active pamphleteer; and in March, 1713, was expelled the House of Commons, where he represented Stockbridge, for objectionable partisan writings. Soon after the accession of George I., he was knighted, elected a member of Parliament from Yorkshire, and, after suppressing a rebellion at the North, was named one of the commissioners of forfeited estates in Scotland. He obtained a patent for his project for bringing fish to market

alive; and the great popularity of the "Conscious Lovers" gained him a royal douceur of five hundred pounds. He retired to Wales, after becoming paralytic; and died there on the first of September, 1729. Statistics like these, however, only serve to point out the landmarks of Steele's career. His political life has been severely criticised, although his intimates urge that he lived when party spirit ran high, and integrity was little valued; and they claim that no illiberal or ungentlemanly invectives, and no weak abuse deform his controversial papers; and that there, as in his other relations, is visible "an enthusiasm of honour." The anecdotes of his improvidence are curious and familiar; the two related by Savage, of his hiding in a tavern to get up a pamphlet to pay for his dinner, and inducing the bailiffs, who were quartered at his house, to enact the part of servants before his guests, are characteristic alike of his ready wit and painful exigencies. His domestic affections were strong, as shown in his conjugal sentiment, and fidelity to his illegitimate daughter. He built a residence in which he could not afford to live; and received, with the utmost courtesy and good nature, his friend Addison's practical reproof, administered in the shape of an execution upon the house and furniture, for an old debt of a thousand pounds, which failed however of its intent, "to awaken him from a lethargy which must end in his inevitable ruin." His social advanNot only was he

tages were of the highest order.