ibuted several papers to the "Tatler," but he found the
"Spectator" too soft and feminine for his fancy. Probably Steele and
Addison were afraid of the doughty Dean's style; there was too much
vitriol in it for popularity--and they kept the Irish parson at a
distance, as certain letters to "Stella" seem to indicate. The
"Spectator" was a notable success from the start and soon put Steele and
Addison in comfortable financial shape.

After the first year the daily issue amounted to fourteen thousand copies.
Addison introduced the "Answers to Correspondents" scheme.

He has had many imitators along this line, some of whom yet endure, but
they are not Addisons.

An imitation of the "Spectator" was started as a daily in New York in
Eighteen Hundred Ninety-eight. In one week it ran short on phosphorus and
was obliged to quit. It took two years for Steele and Addison to write
themselves out, and rather than let the quality of the periodical decline
they discontinued its publication, quitting like the wise men they were at
the height of their success.

* * * * *

When Addison's tragedy of "Cato" was produced in Seventeen Hundred
Thirteen, he occupied the first place in English letters. The play was a
dazzling success; and it is a great play yet. It lives as literature among
the best things men have ever done--a masterpiece!

Addison still continued in the service of the State, and wrote more or
less in a political way. The strain of carrying on the "Spectator" and the
stress of political affairs had tired the man. The spring had gone out of
his intellect, and he began to talk of some quiet retreat in the country.
In Seventeen Hundred Sixteen, in his forty-fourth year, he married the
Countess of Warwick, a widow of fifteen years' standing. We have reason to
believe that the worthy widow did the courting and literally took our good
man captive. He was depressed and worn, and longed for rest and gentle,
sympathetic companionship. She promised all these--the buxom creature--and
married him, taking him to her home at Holland House. Yes, it would be
unjust to blame her; doubtless she wished to do for the man what was best;
and so report has it that she exercised a discipline over his hours of
work and recreation and curtailed a little there and issued orders here,
until the poor patient rebelled and fled to the coffeehouses. There he
found the rollicking society that he so despised--and loved, for