I. NEW-OLD ESSAYS OF ADDISON AND STEELE. : Ir is not an unfrequent occurrence in the case of voluminous writers, that a proportional moiety of their productions become after a short period succeeding to their decease, little known and in the progress of a century, or even a still briefer space of time, almost obsolete. After the enthusiasm of party feeling, or the excitement of novelty has gradually cooled down into a sober appreciation of real merit, from a previous extravagant estimate of it-we begin to learn the true secret of excellence, to discriminate the peculiar and characteristic traits of the author and award him the palm which shall continue fresh and green in the eyes of posterity. Of many copious authors, how little is now generally read-a few versified translations, an ode, some satires, and a prose essay or two, with one play of Dryden; only two or three, out of the score of volumes that complete the edition of Swift. Of Voltaire's three score, a few satirical tales and historical compends: some two or three dialogues of Plato: the Essays and Advancement, of Bacon: the Essay of Locke: a play, here and there, of the Old Dramatists: an occasional sonnet of a writer of a volume of sonnets. These are illustrations at hand: a very long list might be made of the very fertile authors who have been popularly known as the writers of but one work of pre-eminent ability. Bunyan, Defoe and Butler are striking instances. For the gratification of personal amusement, or the curious eye of the diligent antiquary, we might add a copious appendix of this sort, but such might not be so generally acceptable, as these occasional reflections illustrated by fewer examples. The writers of the present century, this age of authors and books, will in all probability experience a very great diminution in the extent and character of their fame with the coming age. Countless volumes of fiction will soon be laid on the shelf for ever; whilst a class of writers, read by few and whose names have not yet gone abroad into general esteem, will, we venture to predict, become classical, not only or so much from the capacity of their genius, as from its direction to the permanently classical forms of writing. Except Scott (a vast deal of whose writings, it has been confessed by more than one even cautious critic, cannot last) what novelist will gain in fame, as the Critic and Essayist Hazlitt? We have had, for more than a century, no humorist like Lamb; and Hunt treads closely upon the heels of Steele. Many authors too will become famous in spite of their elaborate attempts at avoiding fame: the squib, the pamphlet, the newspaper editorial, will throw in the shade, heavy Epics and dull histories; a picturesque sketch of manners, a fresh and spirited portrait of character, true and genial criticism, speculations on life and the principles and motives of human actions; these form the favorite reading of the best class of readers in all ages— and although the readers of Addison and Steele may, at the present day, comprise a small body, still they have |