The following from Spectator, No. 262, shows how steadily and successfully it was maintained: "My paper flows from no satirick vein, Contains no poison, and conveys no pain. "I think myself highly obliged to the public for their kind acceptance of a paper which visits them every morning, and has in it none of those seasonings that recommend so many of the writings which are in vogue among us. "As, on the one side, my paper has not in it a single word of news, a reflection in politics, nor a stroke of party; so, on the other, there are no fashionable touches of infidelity, no obscene ideas, no satires upon priesthood, marriage, and the like popular topics of ridicule; no private scandal, nor anything that may tend to the defamation of particular persons, families, or societies. "There is not one of those above-mentioned subjects that would not sell a very indifferent paper, could I think of gratifying the public by such mean and base methods. "When I broke loose from that great body of writers who have employed their wit and parts in propagating vice and irreligion, I did not question but I should be treated as an odd kind of fellow that had a mind to appear singular in my way of writing: but the general reception I have found convinces me that the world is not so corrupt as we are apt to imagine; and that if those men of parts who have been employed in vitiating the age had endeavoured to rectify and amend it, they needed not to have sacrificed their good sense and virtue to their fame and reputation. No man is so sunk in vice and ignorance but there are still some hidden seeds of goodness and knowledge in him; which give him a relish of such reflections and speculations as have an aptness to improve the mind and make the heart better." See also, note to p. 174, l. I ff. P. 23, 1. 2. the Roman triumvirate. Julius Cæsar, iv. i. See Shakespeare's P. 23, 1. 18 ff. "I write after such a manner that nothing may be interpreted as aimed at private persons. For this reason, when I draw any faulty character, I consider all those persons to whom the malice of the world may possibly apply it; and take care to dash it with such particular circumstances as may prevent all such ill-natured applications. If I write anything on a black man, I run over in my mind all the eminent persons in the nation who are of that complexion; when I place an imaginary name at the head of a character, I examine every syllable and letter of it, that it may not bear any resemblance to one that is real. I know very well the value every man sets upon his reputation, and how painful it is to be exposed to the mirth and derision of the public; and should therefore scorn to divert my reader at the expense of any private man. "I would not make myself merry even with a piece of pasteboard that is invested with a public character; for which reason I have never glanced upon the late designed procession of his Holiness and his attendants, notwithstanding it might have afforded matter to many ludicrous speculations. Among those advantages which the public may reap from this paper, it is not the least that it draws men's minds off from the bitterness of party, and furnishes them with subjects of discourse that may be treated without warmth or passion. This is said to have been the first design of those gentlemen who set on foot the Royal Society; and had then a very good effect, as it turned many of the greatest geniuses of that age to the disquisitions of natural knowledge, who, if they had engaged in politics with the same parts and application, might have set their country in a flame. The air-pump, the barometer, the quadrant, and the like inventions, were thrown out to those busy spirits, as tubs and barrels are to a whale, that he may let the ship sail on without disturbance, while he diverts himself with those innocent amusements." Spectator, No. 262. P. 24, 11. 6, 7. Describe the Spectator's humours, as far as known. See n. to p. 6, 1. 4. P. 25, 1. 10. a grey pad that is kept . . . with great care. Observe a kindly feeling towards animals, and a love for natural beauty, in all these papers. P. 26, 1. 26. Latin and Greek at his own table. To embellish the conversation with scraps of Latin and Greek, and quota tions from the classics, was a practice of the period among cultivated or would-be cultivated men. It was one natural result of the enormous amount of attention then paid at schools and universities to classical studies. Note that all these essays have classical mottoes. P. 27, 1. 24. Compare the amiability of Sir Roger's chaplain with the Vicar of Wakefield. P. 27, 11. 27-31. the Bishop of St. Asaph. William Fleetwood, 1656-1723. Robert South (1633–1716) had been chaplain to Charles II. John Tillotson (1630-1694) died Archbishop of Canterbury. Robert Saunderson (1587–1663) was Bishop of London. Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) was a mathematician as well as a preacher. Edmund Calamy (1600-1666) was a Presbyterian divine. P. 31, 1. 10. so good a husband. So good an economist. Cf. the verb to husband, in the sense of to manage with care and frugality, and the noun husbandry, management of a household or domestic affairs. P. 31, ll. 13, 14. he can often spare a large fine when a tenement falls. "A tenement falls or alienates. A consequence of tenure of knight service was that of fines due the lord for every alienation, whenever the tenant had occasion to make over his land to another."- - Blackstone's Commentaries. P. 34, 1. 3. Cf. Will Wimble with Burchell in the Vicar of Wakefield. P. 34, 1. 15. Eton. The most famous of the great English schools, situated on the Thames, near Windsor. See Gray's Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. P. 35, 11. 8, 9. May-fly. For fishing. P. 35, 1. 15. tulip-root. A passion for tulips, or tulipomania, as it has been called, spread through Holland in the seventeenth century, and, to some extent affected England as well. Historically, it was important enough to find a place in accounts of popular crazes; as e.g. in the recent work on The Psychology of Suggestion, by Boris Sedis. Cf. The Black Tulip of Dumas. P. 35, 1. 19. setting dog. A setter. A pipe for alluring quail into the net. P. 37, Il. 15-20. Cf. Spectator, No. 114, p. 58 ff. P. 37, ll. 30, 31. my twenty-first speculation. In the twentyfirst Spectator, Addison had discussed the three learned professions of divinity, law, and medicine, as "each of them overburdened with practitioners, and filled with multitudes of ingenious gentlemen that starve one another." P. 39, 1. 1. jetting. Jutting. P. 39, 1. 26. House. coffee house. Jenny Mann's Tiltyard Coffee P. 40, 1. 12. white-pot. A dish made of cream, sugar, rice, cinnamon, etc. P. 41, ll. 30, 31. knight of the shire. A knight chosen by the freeholders of a county to represent them in the House of Commons. P. 42, ll. 4-6. The same sentiment was afterward expressed by Addison in his Cato: "When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is the private station." P. 42, 1. 10. "Writers from their fear of contradicting the obsolete and absurd doctrines of a set of simple fellows, called, in derision, sages or philosophers, have endeavoured, as much as possible, to confound the ideas of greatness and goodness; whereas no two things can possibly be more distinct from each other: for greatness consists in bringing all manner of mischief on mankind, and goodness in removing it from them." Jonathan Wild, — FIELDING. P. 42, ll. 23, 24. battle of Worcester. Fought between the Roundheads and the Royalists, Sept. 3, 1651. Cf. note to p. 113, 1. 5. P. 44, 1. 24. Mr. Locke. An English contemplative philosopher, 1632-1704. He wrote An Essay concerning Human Understanding, to which reference is here made. P. 46, 1. 15. Lucretius. A philosophical poet who flourished about 25 B.C. A good authority according to the critical notions of Addison's age, because ancient, Roman, and classical. Cf. p. 9, 1. 17 ff., and note. P. 48, ll. 18, 19. suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself. The Spectator often alluded to careless behaviour at church: "There are several reasons which make us think that the natives of the country had formerly among them some sort of worship; for they set apart every seventh day as sacred; but upon my going into one of these holy houses on that day, I could not observe any circumstances of devotion in their behaviour. There was indeed a man in black, who was mounted above the rest, and seemed to utter something with a great deal of vehemence; but as for those underneath him, instead of paying their worship to the deity of the place, they are most of them bowing and curtsying to one another, and a considerable number of them fast asleep."— Letter from an Indian King in London, Spectator, No. 50. P. 49, 1. 27. the clerk's place. The chief duty of the clerk was to lead the responses. P. 50, 1. 9. tithe-stealers. Those who hold back their tithes or dues to the church. P. 51, 11. 18-20. carve her name. Cf. Orlando in As You Like It. Revise description of Sir Roger in No. 2. P. 52, 1. 30. assizes. Sessions held at stated intervals by one or more judges in the county towns of England, for the trial of civil and criminal cases. P. 56, 1. 11. tansy. A favourite dish of the seventeenth century, made of eggs, cream, rose water, sugar, and the juice of herbs, and baked with butter in a shallow pewter dish. P. 56, 1. 27. Martial. A noted epigrammatist of Spanish birth who flourished in Rome about 100 A.D. P. 59, 1. 1. dipped. Mortgaged. P. 61, 1. 18. Horace, Ode iii.: great vulgar. The phrase is from Cowley's 66 Hence, ye profane, I hate ye all, Both the great vulgar and the small." For Cowley and Sprat, "the elegant author," see Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Vol. I. |