It is hard to
feel very enthusiastic about a virtue whose dictates coincide so
precisely with the demands of decorum, and which leads by so easy a path
to reputation and success. Popularity is more often significant of the
tact which makes a man avoid giving offence, than of the warm impulses
of a generous nature. A good man who mixes with the world ought to be
hated, if not to hate. But whatever we may say against his excessive
goodness, Addison deserved and received universal esteem, which in some
cases became enthusiastic. Foremost amongst his admirers was the
warm-hearted, reckless, impetuous Steele, the typical Irishman; and
amongst other members of his little senate--as Pope called it--were
Ambrose Philips and Tickell, young men of letters and sound Whig
politics, and more or less competitors of Pope in literature. When Pope
was first becoming known in London the Whigs were out of power; Addison
and his friends were generally to be found at Button's Coffee-house in
the afternoon, and were represented to the society of the time by the
_Spectator_, which began in March, 1711, and appeared daily to the end
of 1712. Naturally, the young Pope would be anxious to approach this
famous clique, though his connexions lay in the first instance amongst
the Jacobite and Catholic families. Steele, too, would be glad to
welcome so promising a contributor to the _Spectator_ and its successor
the _Guardian_.
Pope, we may therefore believe, was heartily delighted when, some months
after Dennis's attack, a notice of his _Essay upon Criticism_ appeared
in the _Spectator_, December 20, 1711.
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