anxiety, discord, and confusion; and either the turbulence of the
times, or the satiety of the readers, put a stop to the publication
after an experiment of eighty numbers, which were actually collected
into an eighth volume, perhaps more valuable than any of those that
went before it. Addison produced more than a fourth part; and the
other contributors are by no means unworthy of appearing as his
associates. The time that had passed during the suspension of the
Spectator, though it had not lessened his power of humour, seems to
have increased his disposition to seriousness: the proportion of
his religious to his comic papers is greater than in the former
series.

The Spectator, from its re-commencement, was published only three
times a week; and no discriminative marks were added to the papers.
To Addison, Tickell has ascribed twenty-three. The Spectator had
many contributors; and Steele, whose negligence kept him always in a
hurry, when it was his turn to furnish a paper, called loudly for
the letters, of which Addison, whose materials were more, made
little use--having recourse to sketches and hints, the product of
his former studies, which he now reviewed and completed: among
these are named by Tickell the Essays on Wit, those on the Pleasures
of the Imagination, and the Criticism on Milton.

When the House of Hanover took possession of the throne, it was
reasonable to expect that the zeal of Addison would be suitably
rewarded. Before the arrival of King George, he was made Secretary
to the Regency, and was required by his office to send notice to
Hanover that the Queen was dead, and that the throne was vacant. To
do this would not have been difficult to any man but Addison, who
was so overwhelmed with the greatness of the event, and so