with nests of ants, or with Strada's prolusions? Of this paper
nothing is necessary to be said but that it found many contributors,
and that it was a continuation of the Spectator, with the same
elegance and the same variety, till some unlucky sparkle from a Tory
paper set Steele's politics on fire, and wit at once blazed into
faction. He was soon too hot for neutral topics, and quitted the
Guardian to write the Englishman.

The papers of Addison are marked in the Spectator by one of the
letters in the name of Clio, and in the Guardian by a hand; whether
it was, as Tickell pretends to think, that he was unwilling to usurp
the praise of others, or as Steele, with far greater likelihood,
insinuates, that he could not without discontent impart to others
any of his own. I have heard that his avidity did not satisfy
itself with the air of renown, but that with great eagerness he laid
hold on his proportion of the profits.

Many of these papers were written with powers truly comic, with nice
discrimination of characters, and accurate observation of natural or
accidental deviations from propriety; but it was not supposed that
he had tried a comedy on the stage, till Steele after his death
declared him the author of The Drummer. This, however, Steele did
not know to be true by any direct testimony, for when Addison put
the play into his hands, he only told him it was the work of a
"gentleman in the company;" and when it was received, as is
confessed, with cold disapprobation, he was probably less willing to
claim it. Tickell omitted it in his collection; but the testimony
of Steele, and the total silence of any other claimant, has
determined the public to assign it to Addison, and it is now printed
with other poetry. Steele carried The Drummer to the play-house,