of perfonal characters more oppofite than thofe of Wharton and Addifon, could not easily be brought together. Wharton was impious, profligate, and shamelefs, without regard, or appearance of regard, to right and wrong whatever is contrary to this, may be faid of Addifon; but as agents of a party they were connected, and how they adjusted their other fentiments we cannot know.

Addison must however not be too haftily condemned. It is not neceffary to refufe benefits from a bad man, when the acceptance implies no approbation of his crimes; nor has the fubordinate officer any obligation to examine the opinions or conduct of thofe under whom he acts, except that he may not be made the înftrument of wickednefs. It is reasonable to fuppofe that Addison counteracted, as far as he was able, the malignant and blasting influence of the Lieutenant, and that at least by his intervention fome good was done, and fome mischief prevented.

When he was in office, he made a law to himself, a's Swift has recorded, never to remit his regular fees in civility to his friends: "For," faid he, "I may "have a hundred friends; and, if my fee be two "guineas, I fhall, by relinquishing my right, lofe two "hundred guineas, and no friend gain more than two; "there is therefore no proportion between the good "imparted and the evil fuffered."

k

He was in Ireland when Steele, without any communication of his defign, began the publication of the Tatler but he was not long concealed: by inferting a remark on Virgil, which Addison had given him, he discovered himself. It is indeed not eafy for any inan to write upon literature, or common life, fo as

not

hot to make himself known to thofe with whom he familiarly converses, and who are acquainted with his track of study, his favourite topick, his peculiar notions, and his habitual phrafes.

If Steele defired to write in fecret, he was not lucky; a fingle month detected him. His first Tatler was publifhed April 22 (1709), and Addifon's contribution appeared May 26. Tickell obferves, that the Tatler began and was concluded without his concurrence. This is doubtlefs literally true; but the work did not fuffer much by his unconsciousness of its commencement, or his abfence at its ceffation; for he continued his affiftance to December 23, and the paper stopped on January 2. He did not diftinguish his pieces by any fignature; and I know not whether his name was not kept fecret, till the papers were collected into volumes.

To the Tatler, in about two months, fucceeded the Spectator; a series of effays of the fame kind, but written with lefs levity, upon a more regular plan, and published daily. Such an undertaking fhewed the writers not to diftruft their own copioufnefs of materials or facility of compofition, and their performance juftified their confidence. They found, however, in their progrefs, many auxiliaries. To attempt a fingle paper was no terrifying labour; many pieces were offered, and many were received.

Addison had enough of the zeal of party, but Steele had at that time almost nothing elfe. The Spectator, in one of the first papers, fhewed the political tenets of its authors; but a refolution was foon taken, of courting general approbation by general topicks, and fubjects on which faction had produced no diverfity of E 2

fen

fentiments; fuch as literature, morality, and familiar life. To this practice they adhered with few deviaations. The ardour of Steele once broke out in praise of Marlborough; and when Dr. Fleetwood prefixed to fome fermons a preface, overflowing with whiggifh opinions, that it might be read by the Queen, it was reprinted in the Spectator.

To teach the minuter decencies and inferior duties, to regulate the practice of daily converfation, to correct thofe depravities which are rather ridiculous than criminal, and remove thofe grievances which, if they produce no lafting calamities, impress hourly vexation, was first attempted by Cafa in his book of Manners, and Caftiglione in his Courtier; two books yet celebrated in Italy for purity and elegance, and which, if they are now lefs read, are neglected only because they have effected that reformation which their authors intended, and their precepts now are no longer wanted. Their usefulness to the age in which they were written is fufficiently attefted by the tranflations which almost all the nations of Europe were in hafte to obtain.

This fpecies of inftruction was continued, and perhaps advanced by the French; among whom La Bruyere's Manners of the Age, though, as Boileau remarked, it is written without connection, certainly deferves great praife, for liveliness of defcription, and juftnefs of observation.

Before the Tatler and Spectator, if the writers for the theatre are excepted, England had no mafters of common life. No writers had yet undertaken to reform either the favagenefs of neglect, or the impertinence of civility; to fhew when to fpeak, or to be lent; how to refufe, or how to comply. We had

many

many books to teach us our more important duties, and to fettle opinions in philosophy or politicks; but an Arbiter elegantiarum, a judge of propriety, was yet wanting, who fhould furvey the track of daily converfation, and free it from thorns and prickles, which teaze the paffer, though they do not wound him.

For this purpofe nothing is fo proper as the frequent publication of fhort papers, which we read not as ftudy but amufement. If th: fubject be flight, the treatife likewife is thort. The bafy may find time, and the idle may find patience.

This mode of conveying cheap and eafy knowledge began among us in the Civil War, when it was much the interest of either party to raise and fix the prejudices of the people. At that time appeared Mercurius Aulicus, Mercurius Rufticus, and Mercurius Civicus. It is faid, that when any title grew popular, it was ftolen by the antagonist, who by this ftratagem conyeyed his notions to those who would not have received him had he not worn the appearance of a friend. The tumult of thofe unhappy days left scarcely any man leifure to treasure up occafional compofitions; and fo much were they neglected, that a complete collection is no where to be found.

These Mercuries were fucceeded by L'Eftrange's Obfervator, and that by Leley's Rehearsal, and perhaps by others; but hitherto nothing had been conveyed to the people, in this commodious manner, but controverfy relating to the Church or State; of which they taught many to talk, whom they could not teach to judge.

It has been fuggefted, that the Royal Society was inftituted foon after the Restoration, to divert the atten

tion of the people from publick discontent. The Tatler and Spectator had the fame tendency; they were published at a time when two parties, loud, restlefs, and violent, each with plausible declarations, and cach perhaps without any diftinct termination of its views, were agitating the nation; to minds heated with political conteft, they fupplied cooler and more inoffenfive reflections; and it is faid by Addison, in a fubfequent work, that they had a perceptible influence upon the conversation of that time, and taught the frolick and the gay to unite merriment with decency; an effect which they can never wholly lofe, while they continue to be among the first books by which both fexes are initiated in the elegances of knowledge.

The Tatler and Spectator adjusted, like Casa, the unfettled practice of daily intercourse by propriety and politeness; and, like La Bruyere, exhibited the Characters and Manners of the Age. The perfonages introduced in these papers were not merely ideal; they were then known, and confpicuous in various ftations. Of the Tatler this is told by Steele in his laft paper, and of the Spectator by Budgell in the Preface to Theophraftus, a book which Addifon has recommended, and which he was fufpected to have revifed, if he did not write it. Of those portraits, which may be fuppofed to be fometimes embellished, and fometimes aggravated, the originals are now partly known, and partly forgotten.

But to fay that they united the plans of two or three eminent writers, is to give them but a small part of their due praise; they fuperadded literature and critigifm, and fometimes towered far above their prede

ceffors;