95 Sobriety conformable to the Rules of the most virtuous 'civil Life, is a Merit too great to deserve the Treatment 'it usually meets with among the other part of the World. 'But I assure you, Sir, were there not very many who 'have this Worth, we could never have seen the glorious 100 Events which we have in our Days. I need not say more 'to illustrate the Character of a Soldier, than to tell you he is the very contrary to him you observe loud, sawcy, 'and over-bearing in a red Coat about Town. But I was 'going to tell you, that in Honour of the Profession of 105 Arms, I have set apart a certain Sum of Money for a 'Table for such Gentlemen as have served their Country in the Army, and will please from Time to Time to 'sojourn all, or any Part of the Year, at Coverley. Such of 'them as will do me that Honour, shall find Horses, Ser110vants, and all things necessary for their Accommodation and Enjoyment of all the Conveniences of Life in 'a pleasant various Country. If Colonel Camperfelt be in Town, and his Abilities are not employ'd another way in the Service, there is no Man would be more wel115 come here. That Gentleman's thorough Knowledge in 'his Profession, together with the Simplicity of his Man'ners, and Goodness of his Heart, would induce others like him to honour my Abode; and I should be glad 'my Acquaintance would take themselves to be invited or 120not, as their Characters have an Affinity to his.

6

'I would have all my Friends know, that they need not 'fear (though I am become a Country Gentleman) I will 'trespass against their Temperance and Sobriety. No, 'Sir, I shall retain so much of the good Sentiments for 125 the Conduct of Life, which we cultivated in each other 'at our Club, as to contemn all inordinate Pleasures: But 'particularly remember, with our beloved Tully, that the Delight in Food consists in Desire, not Satiety. They 'who most passionately pursue Pleasure, seldomest arrive

130 at it. Now I am writing to a Philosopher, I cannot for'bear mentioning the Satisfaction I took in the Passage I 'read Yesterday in the same Tully. A Nobleman of 'Athens made a Compliment to Plato the Morning after 'he had supped at his House, Your Entertainments do not 135 only please when you give them, but also the Day after. I am, My worthy Friend,

Your most obedient humble Servant,

WILLIAM SENTRY.

NOTES

12 50

SPECTATOR, No. 1

Motto. See Appendix I.

own history. Compare the description in Spectator, No. 101. foreign countries. Travel on the Continent had for several centuries been considered essential to the education of a gentleman. For Steele's estimate of its value, see No. 364. 56 controversies. This is supposed to refer to the Pyramidographia of John Greaves, a Persian scholar, professor of geometry at Gresham College, London, and afterwards professor of astronomy at Oxford. The work had been published in 1646, but in 1706 there appeared a pamphlet ascribed to him, and entitled The Origine and Antiquity of our English Weights and Measures discovered by their near Agreement with such Standards that are now found in one of the Egyptian Pyramids.

68 Will's coffee-house, on Russell Street, Covent Garden, was the favorite of Dryden, and remained after his death the chief resort of wits and poets. In the days of The Spectator its credit was declining, and Addison withdrew, in 1712, to Button's, a new house near by. Child's, in St. Paul's Churchyard, was, from its nearness to Doctors' Commons, the Royal Society, and the College of Physicians, the resort of clergymen, physicians, and members of the Royal Society. St. James's coffee-house, in St. James's Street, Pall Mall, was frequented by Whig statesmen and members of Parliament. The Grecian, named from the fact that it was originally kept by a Greek, was in the Strand, close to the Temple, and was the resort chiefly of lawyers and of scholars, who went there to discuss questions of philosophy and learning. See

Spectator, No. 49. The Cocoa-Tree, a chocolate-house, in St. James's Street, was frequented by the Tories. Jonathan's, in Change Alley, was the resort of merchants and stock-jobbers.

For a description of the coffee-houses of the day, see Spectator, No. 49; for Addison's account of a visit to some of the most important of them, Spectator, No. 403; for the relation of the coffee-houses to the literature of the time, Green's History of the English People, bk. viii., ch. iv. Compare with Addison's description, Tatler, No. 1.

72 The Postman, a penny paper, said, by Dunton the bookseller, to be "the best for every thing" of the papers of the day. See Tatler, Nos. 178 and 232.

78 The Drury Lane and the Hay-Market were the only two important theatres of Addison's time. The Hay-Market was used for the then popular Italian opera.

117 lived in vain. For the moral purpose of The Spectator, compare Nos. 34 and 262.

143 letters. A large number of letters was sent to The Spectator. See Nos. 16, 46, 271, 428, 442. "Two volumes of Original and Genuine Letters sent to the Tatler and Spectator, were published in 1725 by Lillie, the perfumer, with Steele's name on the title-page." — G. GREGORY SMITH.

143 Little Britain, a short street near Bartholomew's Hospital, was "as great a centre for booksellers in the reigns of the Stuarts as Paternoster Row is now."-HARE: Walks in London. See IRVING: The Sketch-Book, Little Britain. The Spectator, in its first daily issue, was "Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little Britain; and sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick Lane." - Daily Courant, March 11, 1711.

Addison signed his papers, C., L., I., or O.; Steele, R. or T. For Addison's answer to "inquisitive gentlemen," on the subject of the signature, see Spectator, No. 221.

SPECTATOR, No. 2

1 society. The Spectator is full of references to the clubs which were so marked a feature of the time. See especially Nos. 9 and 72.

2 Sir Roger de Coverley. The character is said to have been