"The Reason, probably, may be, because in the Survey of any Object we have only so much of it painted on the Imagination, as comes in at the Eye; but in its Description, the Poet gives us as free a View of it as he pleases, and discovers to us several Parts, that either we did not attend to, or that lay out of our Sight when we first beheld it."
Spectator, No. 416 [Pleasures of the Imagination]
At least 80 entries in ESTC (1711, 1712, 1713, 1714, 1715, 1716, 1717, 1718, 1720, 1721, 1723, 1724, 1726, 1729, 1733, 1734, 1735, 1737, 1738, 1744, 1745, 1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1756, 1757, 1761, 1763, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1771, 1776, 1778, 1785, 1788, 1789, 1781, 1793, 1797, 1799, 1800).<br>
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By Steele, Addison, Budgell and others, <u>The Spectator</u> (London: Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little Britain; and sold by A[nn]. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane, 1711-1714). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/P1724">Link to ESTC</a>&gt; -- No. 1 (Thursday, March 1. 1711) through No. 555 (Saturday, December 6. 1712); 2nd series, No. 556 (Friday, June 18. 1714), ceased with No. 635 (20 Dec. 1714).<br>
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Some text from <u>The Spectator</u>, 3 vols. Ed. Henry Morley (London: George Routledge, 1891). &lt;<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12030/12030-h/12030-h/12030-h.htm">Link to PGDP edition</a>&gt;<br><br>
Reading in Donald Bond's edition: <u>The Spectator</u>, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965).