84 Literarij Journals. [CilAP. XXt, 



rcct those depravities which are rather ridiculous 

 than criminal, and remove those grievances which, 

 if they produce no lasting calamities, impress 

 hourly vexation, was hrst attempted by Casa, in 

 his book of Manners, and by Castiglione, in his» 

 Conrfier* ; two books yet celebrated in Italy for 

 purity and elegance, and which, if they be now 

 less read, are neglected only because they have 

 effected that reformation which their authors in- 

 tended, and their precepts are no longer wanted. 

 Their usefulness to the age in which they were 

 written is sufficiently attested by the translations 

 which almost all the nations of Europe were in 

 haste to obtain. This species of instruction was 

 continued, and perhaps advanced, by the French j 

 among whom la Bruyere's Manners of the Age f , 

 though, as Boileau remarked, it is written without 

 connexion, certainly deserves great praise for 

 liveliness of description and justness of observa- 

 tion J." 



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, Tickcl, and others^ 

 It appeared tliree times a week. To the TatleVy 

 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 Tatter and Spectator,'' says. 



* Casa and Castiglione >Tere Italian writers, who flourished 

 lu the sixteenth century. 



■\ La Bruyere wrote towards the close of the seventeenth 

 century. 



t Johnsou's L/feo/ Addison. 



