good health, and was
gone out a hunting the very morning the post came away; upon which
the haberdasher stole off his hat that hung upon a wooden peg by
him, and retired to his shop with great confusion. This
intelligence put a stop to my travels, which I had prosecuted with
so much satisfaction; not being a little pleased to hear so many
different opinions upon so great an event, and to observe how
naturally, upon such a piece of news, every one is apt to consider
it to his particular interest and advantage.

Johnson wrote in his _Life of Addison_ concerning the _Tatler_ and the
_Spectator_ that they were:

Published at a time when two parties, loud, restless and violent,
each with plausible declarations, and both perhaps without any
distinct determination of its views, were agitating the nation; to
minds heated with political contest they supplied cooler and more
inoffensive reflections.... They had a perceptible influence on the
conversation of the time, and taught the frolic and the gay to
unite merriment with decency, effects which they can never wholly
lose.

Harold Routh in the Cambridge _History of Literature_, speaking of the
_Spectator_, says:

It surpassed the _Tatler_ in style and in thought. It gave
expression to the _power_ of commerce. For more than a century
traders had been characterized as dishonest and avaricious, because
playwrights and pamphleteers generally wrote for the leisure
classes, and were themselves too poor to have any but unpleasant
relations with men of business. Now merchants were becoming
ambassadors of civilization, and had developed intellect so as to
control distant and, as it seemed, mysterious sources of wealth; by
a stroke of the pen and largely through the coffee houses they had
come to know their own importance and power.

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was very fond of good eating, and almost daily
entries were made in his _Diary_ of dinner delicacies that he had
enjoyed. One dinner, that he considered a great success, was served to
eight persons, and consisted of oysters, a hash of rabbits, a lamb, a
rare chine of beef; next a great dish of roasting fowl ("cost me about
30 s.") a tart, then fruit and cheese. "My dinner was noble enough ... I
believe this day's feast will cost me near 5 pounds." But it will be
noted that coffee was not mentioned as