his mother's guidance of his childhood, and wished to suggest that
there were mothers less wise in their ways, he was checked, he said,
by the unwillingness to join thought of her "with any thought that
looks at others' blame." So Addison felt towards his mother Nature,
in literature and in life. He attacked nobody. With a light,
kindly humour, that was never personal and never could give pain, he
sought to soften the harsh lines of life, abate its follies, and
inspire the temper that alone can overcome its wrongs.

Politics, in which few then knew how to think calmly and recognise
the worth of various opinion, Steele and Addison excluded from the
pages of the Spectator. But the first paper in this volume is upon
"Public Credit," and it did touch on the position of the country at
a time when the shock of change caused by the Revolution of 1688-89,
and also the strain of foreign war, were being severely felt.

H. M.



PUBLIC CREDIT.



- Quoi quisque fere studio devinctus adhaeret
Aut quibus i rebus multum sumus ante morati
Atque in quo ratione fuit contenta magis mens,
In somnis cadem plerumque videmur obire.
LUCR., iv. 959.