20. But in these numbers Steele had little if any part, and Sir Roger de Coverley and the Club were likewise absent. The Tatler and the Spectator will always remain among the gems of English literature. No amount of reading about them will give one an adequate idea of their exquisite grace and perennial interest. If we adopt the view of Hazlitt, we shall consider their authors as belonging to the school of Montaigne-writers who "do not treat of minerals and fossils, of the virtues of plants or the influence of planets," but "make us familiar with the world of men and women, record their actions, assign their motives, exhibit their whims, and play the game of human life before us. Of course it is life two centuries ago—we must never forget that fact; and whether we believe that the good times are all old times, or whether we have a brighter faith in coming years, we all are ready to admit that the days of Queen Anne were different from our own, and that, to appreciate the literature of that era, we must adjust our thought to those different conditions.

Both Addison and Steele could say with Terence,

"Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto."

1

Both were inspired with a sincere wish to make the world. better. They attempted this by attacking evil on its own ground. To be witty, when Addison and Steele began to write, was often synonymous with being indecent. Men of genius were not bold enough to defy the prevalent taste, and weakly pandered to it and became penitent, like Dryden; or else attempted to beat down the bulwarks of sin, like Jeremy Collier, and became unpopular. Addison and Steele took a different course. They dealt good-humored but telling blows at all the fads and follies of the times; they shot, between the joints of many a respectable harness, arrows of sarcasm pointed with wit and winged with mirth; they smilingly dissected the empty brain of the

1 HAZLITT, On the Periodical Essayists.

beau and the frivolous heart of the coquette; they held up the vicious and the vain to the scorn of the thoughtful; and they ended by making morality respectable and vice ridiculous. One writer says that the Spectator "civilized England more, perhaps, than any one book."1 Another

declares that " It is not so very much of a hyperbole to call the English eighteenth century the century of the Spectator; and it may be doubted whether any one man or any group of men has ever, through literature, exercised such an extensive and durable influence over life as Addison and Steele did by means of those little sheets issued originally day by day, to be served up with the teapot and the chocolate cups.

2

Taine did not admire Addison's literary abilities. French wit is so unlike English humor that French critics cannot appreciate English humorists. Taine calls Addison "characteristically mediocre ” and “useful because he is narrow.” But he admits that he wrought a great work through his essays (for he almost ignores Steele and seems to consider Addison the soul of the Spectator). He says: "It is no small thing to make morality fashionable. Addison did it, and it remained in fashion. Formerly honest men were not polished, and polished men were not honest; piety was fanatical, and urbanity depraved; in manners, as in letters, one could meet only Puritans or libertines. For the first time Addison reconciled virtue with elegance, taught duty in an accomplished style, and made pleasure subservient to reason.

Most readers consider the Spectator a greater work than the Tatler, but there is at least one notable exception. Hazlitt says: "I have always preferred the Tatler to the Spectator. Whether it is owing to my having been earlier or better acquainted with the one than the other, my

'T. S. PERRY, English Literature in the Eighteenth Century, p. 179. 2 TRAILL, Social England, iv., p. 579.

TAINE, English Literature. Translated by Van Laun, vol. ii., book iii., chap. iv., section v.

pleasure in reading these two admirable works is not at all in proportion to their comparative reputation.” 1

The central figure in the Spectator is undeniably that of Sir Roger de Coverley. In fact, the papers which sketch his life and describe his amiable character and inurbane urbanity may almost be considered the first great English novel. That he is drawn from life, no one can for a moment doubt; that he is a portrait, it seems incredible that any one should believe. But he becomes real to us as we proceed, and we see his characteristics in a score of living men to-day.

II. THE AUTHORS OF THE DE COVERLEY PAPERS.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

On May-day, 1672, two years before Milton died, in the little town of Milston, near Amesbury, England, there was born to the rector, Lancelot Addison, a son. It seemed improbable that the babe would live; in fact, there is a story that at first he was laid out as dead. In consequence of his feeble vitality he was baptised on the day of his birth; he was christened Joseph.

Little is known of Joseph's boyhood. There are traditions of childish escapades which would have passed unnoticed, even if true, in the case of any common man. Finally he went to the Charterhouse and there made the acquaintance of Richard Steele, who was six weeks his senior. The two became fast friends, and, in after years, Steele wrote a pleasing description (Tatler No. 235) of a visit evidently made during their school-days-to Addison's home. In 1687 Addison preceded Steele to Oxford, where he entered Queen's College. Through his superior scholarship he soon became a demy of Magdalen College. 1 On the Periodical Essayists.

2

2 Pronounced de-mi'. Å half-fellow; one who partakes of the founder's benefaction and is in the line of succession to become a fellow.

In 1693 he became Master of Arts, and in 1698 a Fellow. He added to his means by taking pupils, and gained a wide reputation for classical scholarship. His Latin poetry attracted especial attention, and a poem written on the Peace of Ryswick was called by an able critic the finest of its kind since Virgil's "Eneid." His first English publication (1693) was an address to Dryden, praising that famous poet's translations from the classics. This was followed by a translation of part of the fourth Georgic, which Dryden commended as if he believed it equal to his own work.

It seems clear that Addison at first expected to become a clergyman, but circumstances changed his purpose. Congreve introduced him to Charles Montague, Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Earl of Halifax, and he afterwards gained the favor of Lord Somers by dedicating to him a poem "To the King" (1695): through the intervention of these two noblemen he secured a pension of £300, with which he set out to travel on the continent.

In 1699 he left England for France. For about a year he lived in comparative retirement, studying the French language. In Paris he met Boileau, who, it is said, first formed a favorable opinion of English ability to write poetry, by reading Addison's Latin verses. In 1700 Addison proceeded to Italy, made a tour of its principal cities, and finally came to Geneva. There he expected to receive an appointment from King William to attend Prince Eugene's army as a Secretary. But William died in March, 1702, and Addison found himself not only without employment but without his pension.

"Thus Addison, by lords caress'd,

Was left in foreign lands distress'd ;
Forgot at home, became for hire
A travelling tutor to a squire:
But wisely left the Muse's hill,
To business shaped the poet's quill,

Let all his barren laurels fade,
Took up himself the courtier's trade,

And, grown a minister of state,

Saw poets at his levees wait,"

wrote one of his contemporaries in later years.1

But there

66

was less truth than poetry (or rhyme) in these lines: for Addison was not "forgot at home, did not become a "travelling tutor; " did not "leave the Muse's hill," but climbed higher; had not had "barren" honors and they didn't "fade;" and was never in any true sense a courtier." He did "shape his quill" to business, however, and later in life became a high "minister of state." Still, it must be confessed that when Addison returned to England, late in 1703, the outlook was somewhat dismal. His father had died during his absence, so that to Joseph's fallen fortunes was added the sorrow of personal bereavement. But the inuate genius of the author soon found an opportunity for its display, and from that moment his upward career was almost continuous.

While Addison was living in poverty,

"Great praise the Duke of Marlborough won,
And our good Prince Eugene,"

by gaining the "famous victory" at Blenheim. The Lord Treasurer of England one day said to the Earl of Halifax that he wished to find a poet worthy to celebrate the event. At the earl's recommendation the commission was given to Addison, who wrote his "Campaign." It has been maintained that during the whole of the so-called "Augustan age of English Literature "-the reign of Queen Anneonly two poems of note were written in Great Britain, and that of these two the "Campaign" was one.2 The poem

1 SWIFT. A Libel on Dr. Delany.

2 The other was Pope's Essay on Criticism. See Spectator, No.

253.