makers, with a definite prediction of the day and hour of his death.
This he did in a pamphlet that brought up to the war against one
stronghold of superstition an effective battery of satire. The
pamphlet itself has been given in our volume of "The Battle of the
Books, and other short pieces, by Jonathan Swift." * The joke once
set rolling was kept up in other playful little pamphlets written to
announce the fulfilment of the prophecy, and to explain to Partridge
that, whether he knew it or not, he was dead. This joke was running
through the town when Steele began his "Tatler" on the 12th of
April, 1709. Steele kept it going, and, in doing so, wrote once or
twice in the character of Bickerstaff. Then he proceeded to develop
the astrologer into a central character, who should give life and
unity to his whole series of essays.

They were published for a penny a number, at the rate of three
numbers a week. Steele, for his threepence a week, sought to give
wholesome pleasure while good-humouredly helping men to rise above
the vices and the follies of their time. Evil ways of the court of
Charles the Second still survived in empty tradition. The young man
thought it polite to set up for an atheist, said Steele, though it
could be proved on him that every night he said his prayers. It was
fashionable to speak frivolously of women, and affect contempt of
marriage, though the English were, and are, of all men the most
domestic. Steele made it a part of his duty to break this evil
custom, to uphold the true honour of womanhood, and assert the
sacredness of home. The two papers in this collection, called
"Happy Marriage" and "A Wife Dead," are beautiful examples of his
work in this direction. He attacked the false notions of honour
that kept duelling in fashion. Steele could put his heart into the
direct telling of a tale of human love or sorrow, and in that