those of Religion are sufficient to make a Great Man." He had then written three lively comedies, free from the immorality and profaneness which then distinguished pieces written for the stage, and with earnestness at the heart of them all. Steele had rejoined his friend Addison when Addison returned to London from his travels, and even then, as he tells us, Steele had expressed to Addison a wish that they might some time or other publish a work, written by them both, which should bear the name of "The Monument" in memory of their friendship. "The Spectator" is that Monument.

Early in 1706 Addison was made Under-Secretary of State to Sir Charles Hedges. He remained in that office, at the end of the year, under Marlborough's son-in-law, the Earl of Sunderland, who became thenceforth Addison's especial patron. Addison wrote also in that year, for the unsuccessful opera of "Rosamond," a libretto, in which he found occasion for more celebration of the glory of the Duke of Marlborough. Steele, after short union with a wife who died soon after marriage, was married in 1707 to a friend of his first wife's. Swift was, in those days, among his friends. Defoe's "Review," started on the 19th of February, 1704, was a political journal that had a supplement dealing with minor morals in a wholesome and diverting way. Steele seems to have thought this notion worth fuller development, and on the 12th of April, 1709, he began, under the name of "The Tatler," a penny paper, which appeared three times a week until its close on the 2nd of January, 1711.

The design of "The Tatler" was wholly Steele's invention. Addison was going to Ireland as chief secretary to Lord Wharton when the paper was about to appear, and only guessed its authorship from a passage in one of its earliest numbers. Addison sent a paper or two from Ireland, but complete success had been secured by Steele, and eighty numbers had appeared, when Addison returned to town, and was drawn by his friend into full collaboration in a form of writing that, for the first time, gave play to his best powers. Steele, in his generous way,

claimed as his own chief praise that, by the invention of this form of periodical essay addressed to the main body of English readers, he had given Addison to the world. But for this, Addison's sensitive reserve would have restricted him to the accepted forms of work that then allowed little room for the exquisite humour and the play of refined thought that charmed, in his talk, the private friends with whom alone he was at ease. Steele dropped "The Tatler" only for the bold purpose of reproducing it, as a daily penny paper, under the name of "The Spectator." He had been encouraged by success, and was confident in power of producing a daily essay with his friend Addison's help. "The Tatler" ended in 1711, on the 2nd of January. The first number of "The Spectator appeared on the 1st of March, the two friends being then a little under forty years of age.

When "The Tatler" began its course, Swift had just been amusing the town in the character of Bickerstaff, a genuine astrologer, with his Prediction of the Death of Partridge the Almanac Maker, and the letter in which he professed to describe to a Person of Quality the "Fulfilment of the Prediction." Steele, taking up the joke, took up with it the name of Bickerstaff, and he was then led to develop the Astrologer into the constant figure of his "Tatler" paper.

To provide a corresponding centre of life for the new series, he sketched the plan of the Spectator Club, which he and Addison, with occasional help from friends, proceeded to develop, as is here set forth,

H. M.

SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY

AND

THE SPECTATOR'S CLUB

OF CLUBS IN GENERAL

-Tigris agit rabidâ cum tigride pacem
Perpetuam, sævis inter se convenit ursis.

Juv., Sat. xv. 163.

Tiger with tiger, bear with bear you'll find
In leagues offensive and defensive joined.

TATE

MAN is said to be a sociable animal, and as an instance of it we may observe that we take all occasions and pretences of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies which are commonly known by the name of clubs. When a set of men find themselves agree in any particular, though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity, and meet once or twice a week upon the account of such a fantastic resemblance. I know a considerable markettown, in which there was a club of fat men, that

did not come together, as you may well suppose, to entertain one another with sprightliness and wit, but to keep one another in countenance. The room where the club met was something of the largest, and had two entrances; the one by a door of a moderate size, and the other by a pair of folding-doors. If a candidate for this corpulent club could make his entrance through the first, he was looked upon as unqualified; but if he stuck in the passage, and could not force his way through it, the folding-doors were immediately thrown open for his reception, and he was saluted as a brother. I have heard that this club, though it consisted but of fifteen persons, weighed above three ton.

In opposition to this society, there sprung up another composed of scarecrows and skeletons, who, being very meagre and envious, did all they could to thwart the designs of their bulky brethren, whom they represented as men of dangerous principles; till at length they worked them out of the favour of the people, and consequently out of the magistracy. These factions tore the corporation in pieces for several years, till at length they came to this accommodation: that the two bailiffs of the town should be annually chosen out of the two clubs; by which means the principal magistrates are at this day coupled like rabbits, one fat and one lean.

Every one has heard of the club, or rather the

confederacy of the Kings. This grand alliance was formed a little after the return of King Charles the Second, and admitted into it men of all qualities and professions, provided they agreed in this surname of King, which, as they imagined, sufficiently declared the owners of it to be altogether untainted with republican and anti-monarchical principles.

A Christian name has likewise been often used as a badge of distinction, and made the occasion of a club. That of the Georges, which used to meet at the sign of the George on St. George's day, and swear, “before George," is still fresh in every one's memory.

There are at present, in several parts of this city, what they call street clubs, in which the chief inhabitants of the street converse together every night. I remember, upon my inquiring after lodgings in Ormond Street, the landlord, to recommend that quarter of the town, told me there was at that time a very good club in it; he also told me, upon further discourse with him, that two or three noisy country squires, who were settled there the year before, had considerably sunk the price of house-rent; and that the club, to prevent the like inconveniences for the future, had thoughts of taking every house that became vacant into their own hands, till they had found a tenant for it of a sociable nature and good conversation.

The Hum-Drum Club, of which I was formerly an