A Grinning Match
Trust in God




INTRODUCTION.



The sixty-fourth volume of this Library contains those papers from
the Tatler which were especially associated with the imagined
character of ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, who was the central figure in that
series; and in the twenty-ninth volume there is a similar collection
of papers relating to the Spectator Club and SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY,
who was the central figure in Steele and Addison's Spectator. Those
volumes contained, no doubt, some of the best Essays of Addison and
Steele. But in the Tatler and Spectator are full armouries of the
wit and wisdom of these two writers, who summoned into life the army
of the Essayists, and led it on to kindly war against the forces of
Ill-temper and Ignorance. Envy, Hatred, Malice, and all their first
cousins of the family of Uncharitableness, are captains under those
two commanders-in-chief, and we can little afford to dismiss from
the field two of the stoutest combatants against them. In this
volume it is only Addison who speaks; and in another volume,
presently to follow, there will be the voice of Steele.

The two friends differed in temperament and in many of the outward
signs of character; but these two little books will very distinctly
show how wholly they agreed as to essentials. For Addison,