THE SPECTATOR." No. 1. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1710–11. Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem HOR. Ars Poet. v. 143. One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke, The other out of smoke brings glorious light, And (without raising expectations high) Surprises us with dazzling miracles.-RoscoMMON. I HAVE observed, that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure, till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, Of the three periodical papers, in which Mr. Addison was happily induced to bear a part, the only one, which was planned by himself, was the Spectator. And, how infinitely superior is the contrivance of it, to that of the other two! The notion of a club, on which it is formed, not only gave a dramatic air to the Spectator, but a sort of unity to the conduct of it; as it tied together the several papers, into what may be called one work, by the reference they all have to the same common design. This design, too, was so well digested from the first, that nothing occurs afterwards (when the characters come out and shew themselves at full *Mr. Tickell says, it was projected in concert with Sir Richard Steele, which comes to the same thing.-FI. with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural to a reader, I design this paper and my next as prefatory discourses to my following writings, and shall give some account in them of the several persons that are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling, digesting, and correcting, will fall to my share, I must do myself the justice to open the work with my own history. I was born to a small hereditary estate, which, according to the tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at present, and has been delivered down from father to son whole and entire, without the loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, during the space of six hundred years. There runs a story in the family, that when my mother was gone with child of me about three months, she dreamt that she was brought to bed of a judge whether this might proceed from a law-suit which was then depending in the family, or my father's being a justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to 1 It was strange, said Charles II., on hearing a similar declaration, that there was not in all that time a wise man or a fool in the family.-C. length, in the course of the work) for which we are not prepared, by the general outline of them, as presented to us in the introductory papers; so that, if we did not know the contrary, we might suspect that these papers, like the preface to a book, had been written after the whole was printed off, and not before a syllable of it was composed. Such was the effect of the original plan, and the care of its author, "Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum!" As for his coadjutor, Sir Richard Steele, he knew the world, or rather what is called the town, well, and had a considerable fund of wit and humour; but his wit was often forced, and his humour ungraceful; not but his style would give this appearance to each, being at once incorrect and heavy. His graver papers are universally hard and labored, though, at the same time, superficial. Some better writers contributed, occasionally, to carry on this work; but its success was, properly, owing to the matchless pen of Mr. Addison.-H. think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighbourhood put upon it. The gravity of my behaviour at my very first appearance in the world, and all the time that I sucked, seemed to favour my mother's dream; for, as she has often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was two months old, and would not make use of my coral till they had taken away the bells from it. As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I shall pass it over in silence. I find, that during my non-age, I had the reputation of a very sullen youth, but was always a favourite of my schoolmaster, who used to say, that my parts were solid, and would wear well. I had not been long at the university, before I distinguished myself by a most profound silence for during the space of eight years, excepting in the public exercises of the college, I scarce uttered the quantity of an hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was in this learned body, I applied myself with so much diligence to my studies, that there are very few celebrated books, either in the learned or modern tongues, which I am not acquainted with. Upon the death of my father, I was resolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the university with the character of an odd unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would but shew it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the countries of Europe in which there was any thing new or strange to be seen: nay, to such a degree was my curiosity raised, that having read the controversies of some great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the measure of a pyramid; and as soon as I had set myself right in that particular, returned to my native country with great faction.1 I have passed my latter years in this city, where I a quently seen in most public places, though there are not half a dozen of my select friends that know me; of who next paper shall give a more particular account. There place of general resort, wherein I do not often make my a ance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a rou politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention t narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. 2 1 A half century's contention respecting the exact admeasu of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh was a fair subject for ridicule, i of Dr. Percy's stigma, that the satire was "reprehensible." Mr. Greaves originated the argument so long before the publication harmless raillery as 1646, in his work entitled "Pyramidologia; " seems to have been carried on with burning zeal and wonderful le to the days of the "Spectator," although death had removed G from the discussion in 1652. In No. 7. the "Spectator" says, "I des visit the next masquerade in the same habit I wore at Grand Cairo." 2 THE COFFEE-HOUSES. The chief places of resort were coffed chocolate houses, in which some men almost lived; insomuch that ever wished to find a gentleman commonly asked, not where he re but which coffee-house he frequented? No decently attired idler w cluded, provided he laid down his penny at the bar; but this he seldom do without struggling through the crowd of beaux who flut round the lovely bar-maid. Here the proud nobleman or country s was not to be distinguished from the genteel thief and daring highway 'Pray, sir," says Aimwell to Gibbet, in Farquhar's "Beaux Stratag "ha'n't I seen your face at Will's coffee-house?" The robber's reply "Yes, sir; and at White's too." Coffee-houses, from the time of their commencement in 1652, se instead of newspapers: they were arence for political discussion. Jou ism was, in 1710, in its infancy: the first daily newspaper ("The 1 Courant,") was scarcely two years old, and was too small to contain news; as were the other journals then extant. Hence the fiercely tested polemics of the period were either waged in single pamphlets, periodicals started to advocate or to oppose some particular question, laid down when that was settled. The peaceful leading article and letter “to the Editor" had not come into vogue as safety-valves for times I smoke a pipe at Child's, and whilst I seem attentive to nothing but the postman, overhear the conversation of every table in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James's Coffee-house, and sometimes join the little committee of politics in the inner room, as one who comes there to hear and improve. escape of overboiling party zeal; and the hot blood, roused in public rooms to quarrelling pitch, was too often cooled by the rapier's point. Each coffee-house had its political or literary speciality; and of those enumerated in the present paper, WILL'S was the rendezvous for the wits and poets. It was named after William Urwin, its proprietor, and was situated at No. 1, Bow-street, at the corner of Great Russell-street, Covent Garden; the coffee-room was on the first floor, the lower part having been occupied as a retail shop. Dryden's patronage and frequent appearance made the reputation of the house; which was afterwards maintained by other celebrated characters. De Foe wrote-about the year 1720—that "after the play, the best company go to Tom's or Will's Coffee-house near adjoining; where there is playing picquet and the best conversation till midnight. Here you will see blue and green ribbons and stars familiarly, and talking with the same freedom, as if they had left their quality and degrees of distance at home." The turn of conversation is happily hit off in the "Spectator" for June 12th, 1712, when a false report of the death of Louis XIV. had reached England :-"Upon my going into Will's I found their discourse was gone off from the death of the French king to that of Monsieur Boileau, Racine, Corneille, and several other poets; whom they regretted on this occasion, as persons who would have obliged the world with very noble elegies on the death of so great a prince, and so eminent a patron of learning." It was from Will's coffee-house that the "Tatler" dated his poetry. CHILD's was in St. Paul's Churchyard. Its vicinity to the cathedral and Doctors' Commons made it the resort of the clergy and other ecclesiastical loungers. In one respect Child's was superseded by the Chapter in Paternoster Row. THE ST. JAMES'S was the "Spectator's" head-quarters. It stood at the end of Pall Mall-of which it commanded a perspective view-near to, if not upon, the site of what is now No. 87 St. James's-street, and close to Ozinda's chocolate house. These were the great party rallying places; "a whig," says De Foe, "would no more go to the Cocoa Tree or Ozinda's than a tory would be seen at St. James's." Swift, however, frequented the latter during his sojourn in London, 710-13; till, fighting in the van of the tory ranks, he could no longer show his face there, and was obliged to relinquish the society of those literary friends whom, though whigs, he |