The Town was very far from being satisfied with this reason, and most people judged the true cause to be, either

    That he was quite spent, and wanted matter to continue his
    undertaking any longer; or

    That he laid 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 disappearance seemed to be bewailed as some general calamity.  Every one wanted so agreeable an amusement, and the Coffee-houses began to be sensible that the Esquire’s Lucubrations alone had brought them more customers, than all their other News Papers put together.

It must indeed be confessed that never man threw up his pen, under stronger temptations to have employed it longer.  His reputation was at a greater height, than I believe ever any living author’s was before him.  It is 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 impressed 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 a noble difference between him and all the rest of our Polite and Gallant Authors.  The latter have endeavoured to please the Age by falling in with them, and encouraging them in their fashionable vices and false notions of things.  It would have been a jest, some time since, for a man to have asserted that anything witty could be said in praise of a married state, or that Devotion and Virtue were any way necessary to the character of a Fine Gentleman. BICKERSTAFF ventured to tell the Town that they were a parcel of fops, fools, and coquettes; but in such a manner as even pleased them, and made them more than half inclined to believe that he spoke truth.

Instead of complying with the false sentiments or vicious tastes of the Age—­either in morality, criticism, or good breeding—­he has boldly assured them, that they were altogether in the wrong; and commanded them, with an authority which perfectly well became him, to surrender themselves to his arguments for Virtue and Good Sense.

It is incredible to conceive the effect his writings have had on the Town; how many thousand follies they have either quite banished or given a very great check to! how much countenance, they have added to Virtue and Religion! how many people they have rendered happy, by shewing them it was their own fault if they were not so! and, lastly, how entirely they have convinced our young fops and young fellows of the value and advantages of Learning!