320 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



on the other hand, was from first to last the same in character. 

 The daily sheet contained always an essay on some subject 

 literary or social, a satire on some popular vice or folly, a story, 

 a fable, sometimes even a religious meditation. The "whole 

 is connected together by the slight framework of a group of 

 ideal characters, whose impressions and opinions are brought 

 before us in successive numbers. The imaginary Spectator 

 himself, who provides us with this fare, is a man who has 

 seen much of the world, who, now living in London, takes his 

 part in all its pleasures and pursuits, but who through all 

 remains a silent observer. He is at home and at ease only in 

 the society of the club, formed by a small circle of intimate 

 friends. Among these friends the most notable is Sir Roger 

 de Coverley, a beautiful picture of an old-fashioned country 

 gentleman. The Spectator himself, with his bashful silence, 

 his close observation of men and things, and his quiet humour, 

 has been thought to be a portrait of Addison himself drawn by 

 his own hand. 



The Spectator had many contributors ; but it was to Addi- 

 son's genius that its popularity was mainly due, and it is his 

 genius that gives it its permanent value. He contributed more 

 than one-third of the whole series of papers. 



The Spectator was succeeded by the Guardian. But the new 

 periodical never achieved, and indeed never deserved, anything 

 like the success of its predecessor. Addison had little share in 

 it ; at the commencement, none. Within a year it ceased to 

 appear. In 1714 Addison, no longer in literary partnership 

 with Steele, revived the Spectator for about six months, issuing 

 three papers in the week. With the final extinction of the 

 Spectator, Addison' s connection with this form of literature 

 closed. 



Nothing is more remarkable about Addison's Spectators than 

 their variety of range the infinite fertility cf imagination and 

 thought of which they give evidence. A considerable number 

 of them deal with subjects of pure literary criticism ; and so 

 different is the taste of the present day from that of Addison's 

 time, that these critical papers have comparatively little value to 

 a modern reader. But they were of great service in instructing 

 the judgment and forming the taste of those for whose im- 

 mediate use they were written. In a series of essays, Addison 

 examined with the eye of a critic and in the spirit of genuine 

 admiration the works of Milton. And there can be little doubt 

 that these essays did more than anything else to restore the 

 great Puritan poet to that deserved eminence from which he 

 had been swept by the tide of popular passion and prejudice at 

 the Restoration, and from which ignorance and oblivion had 

 ever since excluded him. 



Those of the essays which treat of grave questions of morality, 

 and other like subjects, have a dignity and simplicity very 

 characteristic of their author. In truth, there has seldom been 

 a great writer whose life and writings are so entirely in 

 harmony, whose works so accurately reflect not only the more 

 deliberate thoughts but the whole spirit and character of the 

 man. And in such papers as those of which we now speak we 

 see in strong relief that purity and elevation of thought and 

 feeling, that singularly calm judgment and conscientious spirit, 

 which distinguished Addison from all other writers of his day ; 

 those qualities which secured for him the respect, almost the 

 veneration, even of his bitterest opponents, in an age when con- 

 troversy was unusually bitter ; and enabled him alone, amid all 

 the heat of political controversy, to abstain from anything 

 approaching to personal unfairness towards his antagonists. ' 



A large number of Addison's papers in the Spectator are ad- 

 dressed to topics of the moment, tlie changes of fashion, and 

 the amusements, habits, and follies of the hour. These have, 

 for us, lost much of their interest and attraction, for the 

 fashions and follies of the present day are not the fashions and 

 follies which Addison saw and laughed at. But these essays are 

 absolutely perfect of their kind. No man, perhaps, has ever 

 been so consummate a master as Addison of satire in its purely 

 kindly form, without one drop of the bitterness and contempt 

 the presence of which changes its whole nature and curdles it 

 into poison. No man has ever used so effectively that gentle 

 raillery which can expose and reprove a vice or a folly, and show 

 it in its most ludicrous form, without wounding or irritating 

 those whom it seeks to instruct. 



But the genius of Addison shines at its brightest in those of 

 his writings which are purely imaginative, and in which he 



portrays human nature, and appeals to our human sympathies. 

 All the papers devoted to Sir Roger de Coverley are among the 

 most delightful in the whole series. The character of Sir Roger 

 was, in the first instance, roughly sketched out by Steele ; but 

 it at once passed into the hands of Addison, and the picture as 

 it stands is the work of his pencil. The lifelike, though very 

 brief sketches of his daily life, his conduct in church, his 

 dealings with his affectionate tenantry, his journey to London, 

 his visits to Westminster Abbey, and his impressions from the 

 various scenes and circumstances in which he is placed, are all 

 as fresh and natural as if they had been drawn but yesterday. 

 The description of the old man's death, from the pen of hi* 

 faithful servant, is one of the most touching passages in al] 

 literature. Scarcely inferior to the old country gentleman is 

 Will Honeycomb, the superannuated man about town, who, 

 after the knight, forms the most striking figure in the group 

 of the Spectator's friends. Of the imaginative papers of. 

 another class, an admirable example is the celebrated " Vision 

 of Mirza." 



In no way perhaps has Addison exercised so strong and 

 lasting an influence as by the example of his exquisite style. 

 His language and expression are not only always in harmony 

 with his subject, but they are in marvellously close accord with 

 the whole character of his mind. His style is easy, pure, 

 simple, without effort, but without monotony, admirably ex- 



! pressive of the finest shades of thought or feeling, and at the 



; same time perfectly natural. Addison has long and justly been 

 regarded as a model of good English writing, and the effect of 

 his influence upon public taste has been singularly beneficial. 



Of Sir Richard Steele we have already had occasion to speak 

 in connection with his illustrious friend and fellow-labourer 

 Addison. And, in fact, his main title to fame with posterity 

 is the fact of his having established those periodicals which 

 became the medium for Addison's genius. Steele was, however, 

 a writer of no mean power himself. He was born in Ireland in 

 1675 ; but was educated at the Charterhouse, where he was the 

 schoolfellow of Addison, and where the devoted affection and 

 almost reverential regard which he showed for Addison 

 throughout life commenced. Steele 's whole career was one of 

 extravagance, dissipation, and debt, alternating or combined 

 with at least occasional fits of strong religious enthusiasm. 



1 In addition to a very large number of papers in the Taller, 

 Spectator, and Guardian, he was the author of very numerous 



I political and party pamphlets and articles ; for, like Addison, 



\ Steele was one of the literary champions of the Whig party. 

 He also published a treatise on religion under the title of " The 

 Christian Hero." He died in great poverty in 1729. 



Sir William Temple occupied in his own day a conspicuous 

 place in the world of letters, but he owed it more to his social 

 position and political eminence than to any real genius for 

 literature. He filled distinguished public posts, both at home 

 and abroad, under the government of William III. ; was a great 

 patron of literary men ; and wrote a large number of essays, 



I much admired at the time, but of no permanent value. 



Among the minor essayists of this period, one of the most 

 brilliant was Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester. He formed one 



! of the distinguished circle of wits and men of letters of which 

 Pope and Swift formed the centre ; and he took part with them 

 in the series of papers published under the name of "Martinus 

 Scriblerus." He bore an active share, too, in the famous Boyle 

 and Bentley controversy, which Swift has immortalised in his 

 " Battle of the Books." Atterbury was a vehement Jacobite, 

 and being at last impeached for the treasonable practices in 

 which he had been concerned on behalf of the exiled Stuarts, 

 was condemned, and sentenced to banishment. He died in exile. 

 Lord Shaftesbury was grandson of the Shaftesbury who, as 

 we have seen, was the great object of Dryden : s satire. His 

 " Characteristics," which treat mainly of speculative questions 

 upon ethical and metaphysical subjects, enjoyed a high reputa- 

 tion during their author's life. They are now, however, little 

 read! 



To a very different school belongs Bernard Mar.deville, a 

 physician by profession. Mandeville was a bold and sceptical 

 thinker, whose theories, moral and social, were attacked by a 

 host of eminent writers, as subversive alike of religion and 

 morality. The most celebrated of his works is the " Fable of 

 the Bees," written to develop his theories of morals and his 

 ideas as to the basis cf the social system. 



