The Coverley Papers | Page 6

abrupt and a little
toneless. But now and again we find the 'unexpected splendour' in
which Addison is wanting, in phrases like 'a covered indigence, a
magnificent poverty', [Footnote: Spectator 114.] or in the sparkling
antitheses of Sir Roger's description of his ancestors. [Footnote:
Spectator 109.] Yet Steele's claim on our admiration rests not on the
quality of his style, but, as Mr. John Forster has said, on 'the soul of a
sincere man shining through it all'.
The influence of the Spectator was incalculable. Addison succeeded in
his principal object. 'I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I
have brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and
colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in
coffee-houses,' and that I have produced 'such writings as tend to the
wearing out of ignorance, passion, and prejudice'. [Footnote: Spectator
10.] A glance at the social and literary history of the next thirty or forty
years will reveal how fully this wish was accomplished. It is true that
folly and vice have not yet been wiped off the face of the earth, but the
Spectator turned the tide of public opinion against them. The
fashionable ideal was reversed; virtue became admirable, and though
vice could not be destroyed, it was no longer suffered to plume itself in
the eyes of the world. The Spectator had delivered virtue from its
position of contempt, and 'set up the immoral man as the object of
derision'. [Footnote: Spectator 445.]
The Spectator has also acquired an incidental value from the passage of
time. Addison hints at this in his citations from an imaginary history of

Queen Anne's reign, supposed to be written three hundred years later.
In 'those little diurnal essays which are still extant'--two-thirds of the
time has elapsed, and at present the Spectator is certainly extant--we
are enabled 'to see the diversions and characters of the English nation in
his time.' [Footnote: Spectator 101.] It is in the literature of a nation
that we find the history of its life and the motives of its deeds.
Finally, the Spectator has a permanent value as a human document.
'Odd and uncommon characters are the game that I look for and most
delight in,' [Footnote: Spectator 103. ] he tells us, but, with the
exception of the sketch of Tom Touchy [Footnote: Spectator 122.],
none of his persons are lifeless embodiments of a single trait, like the
'humours' of the early part of the preceding century. Sir Roger, who
'calls the servants by their names, and talks all the way upstairs to a
visit', [Footnote: Spectator 2.] who is too delicate to mention that the
'very worthy gentleman to whom he was highly obliged' was once his
footman, [Footnote: Spectator 107.] who dwells upon the beauty of his
lady's hand [Footnote: Spectator 113.] and can be jealous of Sir David
Dundrum [Footnote: Spectator 359.] after thirty odd years of courtship,
who hardly likes to contemplate being of service to his lady, because of
'giving her the pain of being obliged', [Footnote: Spectator 118.] who
addresses the court and remarks on the weather to the judge in order to
impress the Spectator and the country, [Footnote: Spectator 122.] who
will not own to a mere citizen among his ancestors, [Footnote:
Spectator 109.] and 'very frequently' [Footnote: Spectator 125.] repeats
his old stories--Sir Andrew, with his joke about the sea and the British
common, [Footnote: Spectator 2.] and his tenderness for his old friend
and opponent [Footnote: Spectator 517.]--the volatile Will Honeycomb,
whose gallantry and care of his person [Footnote: Spectator 2, 359.]
remind us of his successor, Major Pendennis--these are all in their
degree intimate friends or acquaintances, as living in our imagination
and in the actual world now as they were two hundred years ago, and
immortal as everything must be which has once been inspired with the
authentic breath of life.

[Illustration: Reduced facsimile of the original single-page issue.]

ADDISON: COVERLEY PAPERS

No. 1. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1710-11.
_Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem Cogitat, ut speciosa
dehinc miracula promat._ HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 143.
One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke; The other out of smoke
brings glorious light, And (without raising expectation high) Surprises
us with dazzling miracles. ROSCOMMON.
I have observed, that a Reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure,
until he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a
mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other
particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right
understanding of an author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural
to a reader, I design this paper and my next as prefatory discourses to
my following writings, and shall