aving off writing, was, that
having been so long look'd on in all publick Places and Companies as the
Author of those Papers, he found that his most intimate Friends and
Acquaintance were in Pain to Act or Speak before him. The Town was very
far from being satisfied with this Reason; and most People judg'd the
true cause to be, either that he was quite spent, and wanted matter to
continue his undertaking any longer, or that he lay'd it down as a sort
of Submission to, and Composition with the Government for some past
Offences; Or lastly, that he had a Mind to vary his Shape, and appear
again in some new Light.

However that were, his disappearing seem'd to be bewailed as some
general Calamity, every one wanted so agreeable an Amusement, and the
Coffee-houses began to be sensible that the Esquires Lucubrations alone,
had brought them more Customers than all their other News papers put
together.

It must indeed be confess'd, that never Man threw up his Pen under
Stronger Temptations to have imployed it longer: His Reputation was at a
greater height than, I believe, ever any living Author's was before him.
'Tis reasonable to suppose that his Gains were proportionably
considerable; Every one Read him with Pleasure and Good Will, and the
Tories, in respect to his other Good Qualities, had almost forgiven his
unaccountable Imprudence in declaring against them.

Lastly, It was highly improbable that if he threw off a Character, the
Ideas of which were so strongly impress'd in every one's mind, however
finely he might write in any new form, that he should meet with the same
reception.

To give you my own thoughts of this Gentleman's Writings, I shall in the
first place observe, that there is this noble difference between him and
all the rest of our Polite and Gallant Authors: The latter have
endeavour'd to please the Age by falling in with them, and incouraging
them in their fashionable Vices, and false notions of things. It would
have been a jest, sometime since, for a Man to have asserted, that any
thing Witty could be said in praise of a Marry'd State, or that Devotion
and Virtue were any way necessary to the Character of a fine Gentleman.
Bickerstaff ventur'd to tell the Town, that they were a parcel of Fops,
Fools, and vain Cocquets; but in such a manner, as even pleased them,
and made them more than half enclin'd to believe that he spoke Truth.

Instead of complying with the false Sentiments or Vicious tasts of the