the history of its life and the motives of its deeds.

Finally, the _Spectator_ has a permanent value as a human document.
'Odd and uncommon characters are the game that I look for and most
delight in,' [Footnote: _Spectator_ 103. ] he tells us, but, with
the exception of the sketch of Tom Touchy [Footnote: _Spectator_
122.], none of his persons are lifeless embodiments of a single trait,
like the 'humours' of the early part of the preceding century. Sir
Roger, who 'calls the servants by their names, and talks all the way
upstairs to a visit', [Footnote: _Spectator_ 2.] who is too
delicate to mention that the 'very worthy gentleman to whom he was
highly obliged' was once his footman, [Footnote: _Spectator_ 107.]
who dwells upon the beauty of his lady's hand [Footnote:
_Spectator_ 113.] and can be jealous of Sir David Dundrum
[Footnote: _Spectator_ 359.] after thirty odd years of courtship,
who hardly likes to contemplate being of service to his lady, because of
'giving her the pain of being obliged', [Footnote: _Spectator_
118.] who addresses the court and remarks on the weather to the judge in
order to impress the _Spectator_ and the country, [Footnote:
_Spectator_ 122.] who will not own to a mere citizen among his
ancestors, [Footnote: _Spectator_ 109.] and 'very frequently'
[Footnote: _Spectator_ 125.] repeats his old stories--Sir Andrew,
with his joke about the sea and the British common, [Footnote:
_Spectator_ 2.] and his tenderness for his old friend and opponent
[Footnote: _Spectator_ 517.]--the volatile Will Honeycomb, whose
gallantry and care of his person [Footnote: _Spectator_ 2, 359.]
remind us of his successor, Major Pendennis--these are all in their
degree intimate friends or acquaintances, as living in our imagination
and in the actual world now as they were two hundred years ago, and
immortal as everything must be which has once been inspired with the