colate-house, from Will's Coffee-house, from the Grecian, and from
the St. James's. It is probable that the column in Defoe's _Review_,
containing _Advice from the Scandal Club_, suggested his 'Lucubrations'
to Steele. If so, it does not detract from his originality of treatment,
for Defoe's town gossip is poor stuff. Addison, who knew nothing of the
project beforehand, came, ere long, to his friend's assistance; but it
was not until about eighty numbers had appeared, that he became a
frequent contributor, and before that time Steele had made his mark.
When the essays were afterwards reprinted in four volumes, Steele, who
was never wanting in gratitude, generously acknowledged the help he had
received. 'I fared,' he says, 'like a distressed prince who calls in a
powerful neighbour to his aid. I was undone by my auxiliary. When I had
once called him in, I could not subsist without dependence on him.' The
_Tatler_ still supplies delightful entertainment, and in the almost
total absence of amusing and wholesome reading in Steele's time, must
have proved a welcome companion. Readers who are inundated by what is
called 'light literature' can with difficulty imagine the dearth
suffered in Pope's day, when the interminable romances of Calprenede, of
Mdlle. de Scuderi and her brother, and of Madame la Fayette, were the
liveliest books considered fit for a modest woman to read. A novel,
however, in ten volumes, like the _Grand Cyrus_ or _Clelie_, had one
advantage over the cheap fictions of our time, its interest was not soon
exhausted.

The _Tatler_ has claims upon the student's attention, apart from the
entertainment it affords. Steele, who lived from hand to mouth, and
wrote, as he lived, on the impulse of the moment, had unwittingly begun
a work destined to form an epoch in English literature. The _Essay_, as
we now understand the word, dates from the _Lucubrations of Isaac
Bickerstaff_, and Steele and Addison, who may boast a numerous progeny,
have in Charles Lamb the noblest of their sons.

On the 2nd January, 1711, Steele wrote the final number of the _Tatler_,
partly on the plea that the essays would suffice to make four volumes,
and partly because he was known to be the author, and could not, as Mr.
Steele, attack vices with the freedom of Mr. Bickerstaff. Addison, who
had done so much to assist Steele in his first venture, was as ignorant
of his intention to close the work as he was of its initiation. Two
months later