join the little committee of politics in the inner room, as one who
comes there to hear and improve. My face is likewise very well known
at the Grecian, the Cocoa Tree, and in the theatres both of Drury Lane
and the Haymarket. I have been taken for a merchant upon the Exchange
for above these ten years, and sometimes pass for a Jew in the
assembly of stockbrokers at Jonathan's. In short, wherever I see a
cluster of people, I always mix with them, though I never open my lips
but in my own club."

[Footnote A: Will's and Child's were popular coffee-houses, as were
also the Grecian, St. James', and the Cocoa Tree.]

[Footnote B: See footnote on page 97.]

* * * * *

It is easy to fancy Addison, shy but ever observant, mingling with the
people who thronged the coffee-houses and there settled the affairs
of the nation, discussed their neighbours, and sipped their coffee
or stronger drink, as the case might be. He must have laughed in his
sleeve many a time as he heard the know-it-alls predicting that the
British nation was on the brink of perdition or announcing, in the
most confidential of manners, the secret policies of his Christian
Majesty, Louis XIV. of France. Probably Joe agreed with Steele,
who, in speaking of a certain coffee-house, observed that in it men
differed rather in the time of day wherein they made a figure, than in
any real greatness above one another.

[Illustration: JOSEPH ADDISON By SIR GODFREY KNELLER]