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of wit and humor" in that periodical, and in the last number of the Spectator not only acknowledges that Addison contributed many applauded strokes' to the Tender Husband, but also expressed the hope that "we [may] some time or other publish a work, written by us both, which [shall] bear the name of the Monument, in memory of our friendship." To words of such unstinted praise Addison had at no time replied in kind. We may, however, be permitted to conjecture that he may have secretly cherished kindlier feelings towards Steele than his habitual reticence would allow him to express. Such, at any rate, is the inference we may draw from the noble words with which he closes a memorable paper upon Westminster Abbey. "When," he writes, "I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men who divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind."

II

THE TATLER AND THE SPECTATOR

The age in which Steele and Addison lived differed very much from that in which we live to-day. Though proud of its reputation for politeness, it was, for the most part, an age of looseness in public and private life, of insincerity and superficiality, of worldliness and lack of spirituality. A pleasure-loving public devoted a large part of its time to an endless round of unprofitable gaieties. The theater, the gaming-table, and the fashions preoccupied

the attention of society to the exclusion of the more serious concerns of religion and morality. A minute acquaintance with the sprightly and none too respectable plays of the day, at which ladies not infrequently found it desirable to appear in masks, the ability to win or lose heavily at cards without betraying emotion and to discharge promptly a debt of honor, the exhibition of nice discrimination in the choice of snuff-box or gold-headed cane or in the regulation of such important particulars as the height of a head-dress, the swell of the petticoat, or the proper distribution of patches to rescue a grace or hide a blemish-such were a few of the polite accomplishments of the day. The fine gentleman took a morning stroll in the Mall, breakfasted at a coffee-house, gossiped at the club until early afternoon, dined at a tavern, gossiped again at the club or coffee-house, and spent the evening at the play or gaming-table, with supper afterwards. The lady of fashion stayed in bed until noon, devoted the greater portion of the afternoon to dress, took a drive in the park, and then spent her evening at cards, the theater, or the masquerade ball. To check the spread of these fashionable excesses, Steele established the Tatler. In it he undertook to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behavior."

The Tatler was not, as is sometimes supposed, the first English newspaper. That distinction belongs to the Weekly News from Italy and Germanie, which was established in 1622. It was not until the English newspaper had come to include domestic as well as foreign intelligence, to appear daily as well as weekly, and to be repre

sented not by one single publication but by many, that Steele began the Tatler. The fame of that periodical is due, therefore, not to its priority as a news sheet, but to the special function which it undertook to discharge in the service of morality. Hitherto the English journal had been devoted almost exclusively to news pure and simple. One writer only had attempted to broaden its scope by introducing moral comment and social satire. as well. That writer was the novelist, Daniel Defoe, who, in a monthly supplement to his Review, entitled the Scandal Club," had undertaken to express his views on questions of conduct and behavior. But by using too harsh methods of satire, Defoe failed to gain the goodwill of the public, and the Review ended without accomplishing the reforms aimed at by the author. Steele, on the contrary, employed a milder method of procedure, and thus succeeded in accomplishing the task which his able but less tactful predecessor had been obliged to relinquish.

The first number of the Tatler-named by Steele "in honor of the fair sex "-appeared on April 12, 1709, and henceforth the new journal was issued three times a week. With the exception of the first four numbers, which were distributed gratis, the price of the Tatler was one penny. The paper consisted of a single sheet, printed in double columns, the last column being left blank for the insertion of the latest news in manuscript. The paper and the presswork of the Tatler would not be tolerated to-day and even at that time evoked the complaint of "tobacco paper" and "scurvy-letter" from an injured correspondent. The majority of the first eighty papers bear the following motto:

"Whate'er men do, or say, or think, or dream,
Our motley paper seizes for its theme."

POPE.

Later this motto was either changed to another or else the motto was omitted altogether.

In order to escape personal responsibility for the opinions he expressed as social censor, Steele represented the Tatler as the work of an imaginary character known as Isaac Bickerstaff. This name he borrowed from his friend Swift, who had used it as nom de plume in three humorous pamphlets written to demolish the astronomical pretensions of a certain quack almanac-maker named Partridge. In the first of these pamphlets Swift predicted the exact hour of Partridge's death, and in the second and third boldly proclaimed the fulfilment of his prophecy, much to the dismay of the discomfited almanacmaker, who stoutly maintained that he was still alive. By providing that all contributions to the Tatler should be written under a name "rendered famous through all parts of Europe" by the success which at once attended the publication of this clever hoax, Steele succeeded not only in availing himself of the popular interest already aroused by the publication of Swift's pamphlets, but also in imparting to the Tatler a comic tone well suited to effect the moral reforms which he sought to accomplish. Moreover, the adoption of Isaac Bickerstaff as the central figure in the Tatler served to bind all the papers in that periodical into a unified and harmonious whole. Furthermore, in order to prevent Mr. Bickerstaff's observations

from growing monotonous, Steele represents that gentleman as writing his papers from a variety of different coffee-houses and as varying the topic of his discourse to suit the character of the conversation heard at each. Thus Mr. Bickerstaff writes all accounts of gallantry from White's, of poetry from Will's, of learning from the Grecian, and of news from St. James's. What else," he adds, "I have to offer on any subject shall be written from my own apartment."

Although Steele invented the design of the Tatler, assumed entire editorial responsibility for its conduct, and wrote with his own hand the larger part of its contents, he nevertheless received, as time went on, very material assistance from Addison. Steele had begun the Tatler without the knowledge of his friend, but in an early number Addison recognized Steele's hand in a Virgilian quotation he had once given him, and it was not long before he, too, became a regular contributor. Under Addison's influence, the somewhat tedious items of news, which had previously constituted about one-third of each Tatler, were now gradually abandoned and each paper came to be devoted exclusively to moral comment and social satire. Addison also wrote for the Tatler a number of papers distinguished by a delicacy of humor and a breadth of observation beyond the reach of Steele, who afterwards said of the assistance his friend had given him: “I fared like a distressed prince who calls in a powerful neighbor to his aid; I was undone by my auxiliary; when I had once called him in, I could not subsist without dependence on him."

Having run to the number of two hundred and seventyone papers, the Tatler came to an abrupt conclusion on