244 Literary Journals. 



the minuter decencies and inferior duties; to regu- 

 late the practice of daily conversation ; to correct 

 those depravities which are rather ridiculous than 

 criminal, and remove those grievances which, if 

 they produce no lasting calamities, impress hourly- 

 vexation, was first attempted by Casa, in his book 

 of Manners, and by Castiglione, in his Courtier / 

 two books yet celebrated in Italy for purity and 

 elegance ; and which, if they are now less read, are 

 neglected, only, because they have effected that 

 reformation which their authors intended, and their 

 precepts are no longer wanted. Their usefulness 

 to the age in which they were written is suffici- 

 ently attested by the translations which almost all 

 the nations of Europe were in haste to obtain. 

 This species of instruction was continued, and, per- 

 haps, advanced by the French, among whom La 

 Bruyere's Manners of the Age, c though, as Boi- 

 leau remarked, it is written without connection, 

 certainly deserves great praise for liveliness of de- 

 scription, and justness of observation. " rf 



The first series of essays devoted to common 

 life in Great-Britain was the Tatler; the publica- 

 tion of which began in 1709, by Sir Richard 

 Steele, assisted by Addison, Tickel, and others. 

 It appeared three times a-week. To the Tatler, 

 in about three months succeeded the Spectator > 

 a series of essays of the same kind, but written 

 with less levity, upon a more regular plan, and pub- 

 lished daily. " The Tatler and Spectator," says 

 Dr. Johnson, " adjusted, like Casa, the unsettled 

 practice of daily intercourse by propriety and 

 politeness; and, like La Bruyere, exhibited the 

 characters and manners of the age.- But to say 



b Casa and Castiglicne were Italian writers, who flourished in the 

 sixteenth century. 



cLa Bruyere wrote towards the close of the seventeenth century. 

 d Johnson's Lift: of Addison. 



