But tho’ no _English_ Author has attempted a Performance in this Kind,
yet it must be confess’d that in some late diurnal Papers we have had
excellent Specimens in the Characteristic-Way. The Papers, which I
mean to point out, are the _Tatlers_ and the _Spectators_. They are of
the miscellaneous Kind, and were design’d for the universal Delight
and Instruction of the _British_ Nation. In these Papers are contained
Abundance of true Wit and _Humour_, lively Descriptions of human
Nature in its various Forms and Disguises, the Praises of Virtue,
and pointed Satir against Vice; and here and there are interspers’d
Characters of Men and Manners compleatly drawn to the Life.--If the
great Authors, who were concerned in the Composition of those Papers,
would have join’d their Abilities to form a Work of this Kind, I doubt
not but it would have been inimitable, and deserv’d the next Place,
in Point of Fame, to that of _Theophrastus_: For this is the highest
Pitch to which Moderns can aspire. A greater Design would be
Presumption, and would only serve to shew the greater Vanity of the
Attempt. An establish’d Reputation of above two thousand Years cannot
be easily shaken. _Theophrastus_ is, and ever will be, an Original in
_Characteristic-Writings_. His Fame still lives in our Memory, and the
Main of his Characters still subsists in our Actions.


_FINIS._


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PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY
FIRST YEAR (1946-47)