Captain Steele is the greatest scholar and best casuist of any man in
England.

"Lastly, his writings have set all our wits and men of letters upon a
new way of thinking, of which they had little or no notion before; and
though we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the beauties
of the original, I think we may venture to affirm that every one of them
writes and thinks much more justly than they did some time since."

Gay's opinion has been confirmed by the best judges of nearly two
centuries, and there is no need to labour the question of the wit and
wisdom of the _Tatler_. But some examples may be cited in illustration
of the topics on which Steele and his friends wrote, and the manner in
which they dealt with them. The very first numbers contained
illustrations of most of what were to be the characteristics of the
paper. There is the account of the very pretty gentleman at White's
Chocolate-house thrown into a sad condition by a passing vision of a
young lady; the notice of Betterton's benefit performance; the comments
on the war; the campaign against Partridge, with the declaration that
all who were good for nothing would be included among the deceased; the
discussion on the morality of the stage, with praise of Mrs. Bicknell
and reproaches upon a young nobleman who came drunk to the play; the
comparison of the rival beauties, Chloe and Clarissa; the satire on the
Italian opera, and on Pinkethman's company of strollers; and the
allegorical paper on Fælicia, or Britain. All these and other matters
are dealt with in the four numbers which were distributed gratuitously;
as the work progressed the principal change, besides the disappearance
of the paragraphs of news, was the development of the sustained essay on
morals or manners, and the less frequent indulgence in satire upon
individual offenders, and in personal allusions in general. This change