Lives of the Poets | Page 5

and
Addison could not easily be brought together. Wharton was impious,
profligate, and shameless; without regard, or appearance of regard, to
right and wrong. Whatever is contrary to this may be said of Addison;
but as agents of a party they were connected, and how they adjusted
their other sentiments we cannot know.
Addison must, however, not be too hastily condemned. It is not
necessary to refuse benefits from a bad man when the acceptance
implies no approbation of his crimes; nor has the subordinate officer
any obligation to examine the opinions or conduct of those under
whom he acts, except that he may not be made the instrument of
wickedness. It is reasonable to suppose that Addison counteracted, as
far as he was able, the malignant and blasting influence of the
Lieutenant; and that at least by his intervention some good was done,
and some mischief prevented. When he was in office he made a law to
himself, as Swift has recorded, never to remit his regular fees in civility
to his friends: "for," said he, "I may have a hundred friends; and if my
fee be two guineas, I shall, by
relinquishing my right, lose two
hundred guineas, and no friend gain more than two; there is therefore
no proportion between the good imparted and the evil suffered." He
was in Ireland when Steele, without any communication of his design,
began the publication of the Tatler; but he was not long concealed; by
inserting a remark on Virgil which Addison had given him he
discovered himself. It is, indeed, not easy for any man to write upon
literature or common life so as not to make himself known to those
with whom he familiarly converses, and who are acquainted with his
track of study, his favourite topic, his peculiar notions, and his habitual
phrases.
If Steele desired to write in secret, he was not lucky; a single month
detected him. His first Tatler was published April 22 (1709); and
Addison's contribution appeared May 26. Tickell observes that the

Tatler began and was concluded without his concurrence. This is
doubtless literally true; but the work did not suffer much by his
unconsciousness of its commencement, or his absence at its
cessation;
for he continued his assistance to December 23, and the paper stopped
on January 2. He did not distinguish his pieces by any signature; and I
know not whether his name was not kept secret till the papers were
collected into volumes.
To the Tatler, in about two months, succeeded the Spectator: a series of
essays of the same kind, but written with less levity, upon a more
regular plan, and published daily. Such an undertaking showed the
writers not to distrust their own copiousness of materials or facility of
composition, and their performance justified their confidence. They
found, however, in their progress many auxiliaries. To attempt a single
paper was no terrifying labour; many pieces were offered, and many
were received.
Addison had enough of the zeal of party; but Steele had at that time
almost nothing else. The Spectator, in one of the first papers, showed
the political tenets of its authors; but a resolution was soon taken of
courting general approbation by general topics, and subjects on which
faction had produced no diversity of sentiments-- such as literature,
morality, and familiar life. To this practice they adhered with few
deviations. The ardour of Steele once broke out in praise of
Marlborough; and when Dr. Fleetwood prefixed to some sermons a
preface overflowing with Whiggish opinions, that it might be read by
the Queen, it was reprinted in the Spectator.
To teach the minuter decencies and inferior duties, to regulate 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 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 now 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; among whom La Bruyere's "Manners of the Age" (though,
as Boileau remarked, it is written without connection) certainly
deserves praise for liveliness of description and justness of observation.
Before the Tatler and Spectator, if the writers for the theatre are
excepted, England had no masters of common life. No writers had yet
undertaken to reform either the savageness of neglect, or the
impertinence of civility; to show when