The English familiar essay; representative texts

Preface

Probably no one will undertake to controvert the statement that a definition of the essay has not yet been made both inclusive enough to cover all the different kinds of prose to which the name has been given and still sufficiently restrictive to mark out any particular qualities which distinguish the essay from any other comparatively brief composition. An attempt to discover the characteristics common to Locke's " Essay on the Human Understanding," Lamb's " Dissertation on Roast Pig," Macaulay's '' Warren Hastings," Carlyle's " Essay on Burns," and Arnold's "Sweetness and Light" would pretty surely (demonstrate that these various pieces of literature do not belong to any "single, unified genre. There are, however, a large number of writings :ommonly called " essays " which have traditionally been felt to constiute a distinct type. These are characterized by a personal, confidential ittitude of the writers toward their subjects and their readers, by an nformal, familiar style, and by a concern with everyday manners and norals or with individual emotions and experiences rather than with > U'lic affairs or the material of systematic thinking. It is with the •ssay of this more narrowly limited type — perhaps best called the 'amiliar Essay — that the present volume is exclusively concerned. In treating the Familiar Essay the editors have designed not to /"arnish models for a course in English composition or to compile an anthology, but to present such a selection of texts as will exhibit clearly the development of the genre in England. The complete ac- C'-jmplishment of this purpose has made it necessary, of course, to begin outside of England with Montaigne, the originator of the type, and to include specimens of his essays. A similar consideration has led to the inclusion of a brief extract from La Bruyere. But with these exceptions only British writers are represented. However delightful or stimulating are the essays of Irving and Emerson and Lowell, they have not affected the development of the type ; and regard for unity of purpose, combined with lack of space, compels their exclusion. Further, instead of presenting one or two essays each by a great

iii iv THE ENGLISH FAMILIAR ESSAY

number of writers, the collection is confined to the works of the most significant and influential essayists, in the belief that an adequate representation of their work is the truest way of making clear the evolution of the type. The selection of the individual essays, however, has been made with as much regard to their intrinsic interest and charm as to their historical significance.

As this collection is prepared not for the scholar-specialist but for the general reader and the college undergraduate, the spelling and the punctuation have been revised wherever adherence to earlier usage would baffle or seriously annoy the reader. The essays of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries have been modernized to this extent ; those of the nineteenth century, in this respect, have been left almost wholly untouched. In every case the texts of the essays are those of standard editions, and they have been carefully collated wherever collation has seemed advisable.

The introduction tries to present in the briefest possible com^ ^ an ordered account of the historical development of the Fami Essay in England ; and for this sketch especial effort has been ma to secure accuracy in matters of both fact and inference. For l section on Montaigne, and Bacon's relationship to Montaigne, 1 editors are deeply indebted to the careful and illuminating monograp of M. Pierre Villey; their obligations to other studies of the vai ;<- essayists, though very considerable, do not demand here such [y,- ticularization. A large part of the material for the introduction th / have gathered from the original sources.

The notes, it is hoped, will contribute directly to an intelligent ;ppreciation of the text. Quotations and allusions have been definitely placed, in order to throw light upon the extent and the character of the reading of the various essayists ; and wherever it has appeared that an explanation or a statement of fact would really be of servivfe to the reader, a note has been supplied. The notes, though full, are not compendiums of general information, but each concerns immediately the passage in the text to which it is related. All foreign words and phrases have been translated ; the meaning of an English word, however, has been given only when the word is used in a sense not made clear in the sort of dictionary presumably owned by any person who wishes to read intelligently. The bibliographical essay, like the notes, is intended to be of practical utility to the general student and

PREFACE V

reader. It includes the titles of only the most notable complete editions, of the most satisfactory inexpensive editions of the essays or of selections from them, and of a small number of studies which contain pertinent and valuable information on the development of the type or on the individual essayists, or which will be of definite assistance to the reader who desires fuller information than he can obtain from the necessarily compacted introduction and notes of this volume.

Throughout this work both editors have collaborated closely, and both are equally responsible for selection and arrangement ; but each acknowledges a more definite accountability for certain sections. The preparation of the text for the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, with the accompanying notes and the corresponding section of the introduction, is the work of Dr. Crane ; for the material of the nineteenth century Dr. Bryan is similarly responsible.

The editors desire to acknowledge gratefully their obligations to Charles Scribner's Sons for permission to reprint Stevenson's ''The Lantern Bearers," and to the Newberry Library and the libraries of Harvard University and of Northwestern University for services that have made the work possible. To their former colleague, Mr. Herbert K. Stone, now of the University of Illinois, and to their present colleagues and friends. Professor Keith Preston, Messrs. George B. Denton, J. B. McKinney, and Arthur H. Nethercot, they desire also to express their appreciation of assistance generously given. Almost every page of the introduction owes something to Mr. Denton's

keen and thoughtful criticism.

W. F. B.

EvANSTON, Illinois R. S. C.

CONTENTS!

PAGE

A History of the English Familiar Essay

I. Montaigne and the Beginnings of the Essay in England . . . xi

II. The Periodical Essay of the Eighteenth Century .... xxiv

III. The New Magazine Essay of the Nineteenth Century . . . xli

The Author to the Reader i

Of Sorrow 2

Of Repentance 5

Of Studies 22

Of Empire 24

Of Truth 30

Of Death , 32

Of Adversity 34

Of Envy 35

Of Travel 39

Of Friendship .42

Of Plantations 48

/ Of Gardens 51

The Dangers of an Honest Man in Much Company 58

Of Myself 63

Seventeenth Century Characters

A Mere Young Gentleman of the University .... Earle 69

A Contemplative Man Earle 70

[The Character of Arrias] La Bruyere 70

No. I. [Prospectus] Steele 73

No. 29. [On Duelling] Steele 75

^ Titles of essays in brackets have been supplied by the editors.

vii ■

Vlll

No. 95. [Happy Marriage] Steele

No. 132. [The Club at the Trumpet] Steele

No. 158. [The Character of Tom Folio] .... Addison

No. 181. [Recollections] Steele

No. 230. [False Refinements in Style] . . . Steele and Swift

No. 244. [On Conversation] Steele

No. I.

No. 2.

No. 7.

[The Character of Mr. Spectator] . . . Addison

[The Spectator Club] Steele

[Popular Superstitions] Addison

[The Purpose of The Spectator'] .... Addison

[Ill-Nature in Satire] Addison

[Meditations in Westminster Abbey] . . Addison

[Coffee-house Company] Steele

[The Journal of the Indian Kings] . . . Addison

[The Education of Girls] Steele

[Sir Roger de Coverley at Home] . . . Addison [The Character of Will Wimble] .... Addison [The Story of Eudoxus and Leontine] . . Addison

[The Vision of Mirza] Addison

[A Coquette's Heart] Addison

[Clarinda's Journal] Addison

[Cheerfulness] Addison

[Literary Taste] Addison

[On Raillery] Steele

[On Gardens] Addison

The Rambler Johnson

No. 29. [The Folly of Anticipating Misfortunes]

No. 42. [The Misery of a Fashionable Lady in the Country]

PAGE

86 89

93 96

05 10

14 17 21 24

31 33

37 40

44 48

171 175

The Citizen of the World Goldsmith