had it, unless it be directed to some useful end, is but a wanton, frivolous quality; all that one should value himself upon in this kind is, that he had some honourable intention in it. . . . . . As for this point, never hero in romance was carried away with a more furious ambition to conquer giants and tyrants than I have been in extirpating gamesters and duellists! . . . . I shall be so arrogant as to say of myself, that, in spite of all the force of fashion and prejudice, in the face of all the world, I alone bewailed the condition of an English gentleman, whose fortune and life are at this day precarious, while his estate is liable to the demands of gamesters through a false sense of justice, and his life to the demands of duellists through a false sense of honour.” 66 Innumerable were the minor follies and absurdities, besides, which he sought to uproot, in dress and equipage, in false notions, and in the general intercourse of life; grievances" as Johnson has well expressed it, "which, if they produce no lasting calamities, impress hourly vexation;" and where he plucked up a weed, he sought to plant a fruit or flower. He inculcated a general simplicity of taste, in opposition to the prevailing extravagance and ostentation-the rational employment of time, in place of the existing frivolity; and that they who were drifting through life without seeking to pursue any rational aim in it, were dead while they lived, and suggested to the company of upholders to have an eye to them. Such a writer, even considered merely as a contributor to innocent enjoyment, is not to be lightly esteemed. He is no small benefactor to his species who affords them a source of innocent and elevating enjoyment. It has been said, "Make men virtuous, and you make them happy;" but the converse of the proposition is perhaps as true, and certainly more practical,-make men happy, and you make them virtuous. The subject of popular entertainments and amusements is not the least in practical importance among questions of social science, and seems to have been so regarded by the ancient legislators, who made the amusements and recreations of the people a part of the national policy and institutions of the state. The craving for excitement is a demand made equally by the mind and the body. The soil will not lie fallow; if it do not produce fruits and flowers, it will throw up a crop of weeds. It is so from the palace to the cottage, but in a greater degree in proportion to the leisure enjoyed. We see this exemplified in the imperial premium offered on one occasion for a new pleasure. The diminution of the taste for theatrical exhibitions would seem to imply that this excitement was less necessary now than formerly. But a little reflection will shew that it is merely the mode that is changed, and not the reality. The number of other claims. upon the attention has increased immensely, hence the theatre has been in a great measure superseded. Crystal palaces, exhibitions of works of art, public lectures and other entertainments, and the daily press, did not formerly exist. But there is one modern "institution" which, perhaps more than any other, may be regarded as the legitimate successor of the theatre-that of novel-reading. The stock of surplus sympathy in human nature, over and above what the dull routine of our daily experience makes a demand upon us, and for which the theatre formerly afforded, and still does, in a less degree, an outlet, now expends itself upon novels and works of fiction, which, in one form or other, supply this universal craving from the castle to the cottage fire-side. How important, then, that the supply of a want so inherent in human nature should be not only innocent but healthful and invigorating. However grave the objections that may be urged against excess in this latter taste, the real question is, can any one supply a more harmless substitute? A child can raise objections, but a sage cannot always solve them. It is certain that we cannot force the taste for solid reading. The essayists hold a middle place between works of fiction and heavy treatises, and resemble the most instructive and agreeable conversation. But mere entertainment, as previously stated, was not the primary aim of the author, though it was what appeared The reader was most prominently upon the surface. humour. In adopting such a course, we cannot but admire the wisdom, amiability, and goodness of the author, who thus secured the attention of the reader who came only for entertainment, and, having done so, endeavoured to send him away wiser and better than he came. He followed in some degree, with reverence be it spoken, the example of the Great Teacher, who aimed to win acceptance for his precepts, to attract, not to repel; who, instead of couching them in subtle and obscure theories, accommodated them to the understanding of all, by adopting simple narratives, and examples and illustrations taken from the most familiar subjects and whose sole deviations from that spirit of charity and benevolence with which all his words and acts were so deeply imbued, by any harshness and severity, were not addressed to the weak, the erring, or even the vicious, but in denouncing those in high places, the powerful and the wealthy; but, above all, those who looking down with complacency and self-satisfied superciliousness from their fancied moral elevation, on the ground of their punctilious observance of the dead letter in the vital spirit of which they were wanting,-telling them that the refuse and outcasts of society were accepted before them. The authors complain, however, notwithstanding the abundant proofs of the popularity of their productions, of the comparative failure of their efforts for good, and that their readers had been but too ready to rest satisfied with the agreeable means, and to overlook the end of their labours. "This (the small number of their converts, says the writer) must certainly proceed from a false opinion, * 66 Tatler," No. 22. that what I write is designed rather to amuse and entertain, than to convince and instruct."* If we consider that the greater bulk of the unhappiness and inquietude of life does not result so much from great and overwhelming calamities, which are not merely of rare occurrence, but when they do happen, stun the mind and render it in a great degree insensible-but from small and ever-recurring grievances, for the most part not necessary or unavoidable, but resulting from the prejudices, passions, follies, ignorances, or vices of ourselves or others; surely he who sets himself to the task of aiding to free us from these monsters, giants, and tyrants of our peace, or of mitigating the malignity of their sway, and who heightens the boon by appearing only in the character of an agreeable friend and companion, is entitled to be regarded as an eminent benefactor of his species. The object of the present work, as previously stated, is to apply to the "Tatler" the plan already so happily carried out with reference to the subsequent work of the same writer-the "Spectator," by extracting and embodying in a distinct form, the framework or narrative portion of its contents. Though the "Tatler" has not enjoyed the same popular estimation as its celebrated successor above-named, yet critics agree that it possesses even greater freshness, vivacity, and wit. The more motley nature of its contents, however, which originally embraced comments on public affairs, which have unaccountably continued to be embodied in it, has operated to its disadvantage, by including a considerable portion of wholly obsolete matter. The character of Bickerstaff, so humourously conceived and well sustained, forms a sort of pervading spirit throughout the "Tatler," though not perhaps wrought into so perfect a narrative form as the immortal Coverley series in the "Spectator." It has, however, certainly more salient points, with some papers incomparably more striking and impressive; and with the two collateral series, which form Tatler," No. 96. * 66 episodes in the main story, is quite sufficiently dramatic to warrant its being embodied in a detached and consecutive form. With regard to the other dramatis persone, Mrs. Jenny Distaff, Bickerstaff's half-sister, is introduced as the representative and exponent of the views and interests of the fair sex; his three nephews are brought forward for the purpose of introducing his views on education and the training of youth; and Pacolet, the guardian spirit or familiar, is made the vehicle of communicating a variety of highly important and interesting matter, some of it beyond human ken or experience. This creation of a guardian spirit belongs as exclusively to the author of the "Tatler," as that of Ariel to Shakspeare, the Sylph to Pope, or the Peri to Moore. One writer has indeed condemned it as a blemish, solely on the ground that it draws too largely on our credulity; but such an objection obviously applies with equal force to any of the others above referred to, where, in fact, credulity is not really drawn upon at all, because no one believes in them. The only real objection, in the case of such fictitious or poetic illusions, would be in any want of keeping in the imaginary character. With regard to the assumed character of Isaac Bickerstaff and his astrological pretensions, they were borrowed from a pamphlet by Dean Swift (who was one of the earliest contributors to the "Tatler"), which was published only about a year previous to the appearance of the periodical lucubrations of the later Bickerstaff. In this pamphlet, which excited extraordinary attention, Swift displayed his unrivalled powers of grave ridicule and irony, and satirised the absurd credulity of the times, and those who traded upon it. One of the most noted of these was John Partridge, a quack professor of medicine, who published an almanack, the principal one of its day, in which he professed to predict the events of the coming year by means of astrology. The title of Swift's pamphlet was, "Predictions for the year 1708: wherein the month, and the day of the month, are set down, the persons named, |