rivalled until the time of Paine and
Cobbett. At any rate, it was plain that a market was now arising for
periodical literature which might give a scanty support to a class below
the seat of patrons. It was at this point that the versatile,
speculative, and impecunious Steele hit upon his famous discovery. The
aim of the _Tatler_, started in April 1709, was marked out with great
accuracy from the first. Its purpose is to contain discourses upon all
manner of topics--_quicquid agunt homines_, as his first motto put
it--which had been inadequately treated in the daily papers. It is
supposed to be written in the various coffee-houses, and it is suited to
all classes, even including women, whose taste, he observes, is to be
caught by the title. The _Tatler_, as we know, led to the _Spectator_,
and Addison's co-operation, cordially acknowledged by his friend, was a
main cause of its unprecedented success. The _Spectator_ became the
model for at least three generations of writers. The number of
imitations is countless: Fielding, Johnson, Goldsmith, and many men of
less fame tried to repeat the success; persons of quality, such as
Chesterfield and Horace Walpole, condescended to write papers for the
_World_--the 'Bow of Ulysses,' as it was called, in which they could
test their strength. Even in the nineteenth century Hazlitt and Leigh
Hunt carried on the form; as indeed, in a modified shape, many later
essayists have aimed at a substantially similar achievement. To have
contributed three or four articles was, as in the case of the excellent
Henry Grove (a name, of course, familiar to all of you), to have
graduated with honours in literature. Johnson exhorted the literary
aspirant to give his days and nights to the study of Addison; and the
_Spectator_ was the most indispensable set of volumes upon the shelves
of every library where the young ladies described by Miss Burney and
Miss Austen were permitted to indulge a growing taste for literature. I
fear that young people of the present day discover, if they try the
experiment, that their curiosity is easily satisfied. This singular
success, however, shows that the new form satisfied a real need.
Addison's genius must, of course, count for much in the immediate
result; but it was plainly a case where genius takes up the function for
which it is best suited, and in which it is most fully recognised. When
we read him now we are struck by one fact. He claims in the name of the
_Sp