much more difficult to converse with the world in a real than in a
personated character,' he says, both because the moral theory of a man
whose identity is known is exposed to the commentary of his life, and
because 'the fictitious person ... might assume a mock authority without
being looked upon as vain and conceited'. [Footnote: _Spectator_
555.] It is to the influence of this mask that much of the self-
complacent superiority which has been attributed to Addison may be
referred; one 'having nothing to do with men's passions and interests',
[Footnote: _Spectator_ 4.] one 'set to watch the manners and
behaviour of my countrymen and contemporaries,' [Footnote:
_Spectator_ 435.] and to extirpate anything 'that shocks modesty
and good manners', [Footnote: _Spectator_ 34.] such a censor was
bound to place himself on a pinnacle above the passions and foibles
which he was to rebuke. Yet occasionally Addison does appear a trifle
self-satisfied. Pope's indictment of his character in the person of
Atticus cannot be entirely set aside. His creed, as implied in
_Spectator_ 115, esteems the welfare of man as the prime end of a
fostering Providence, and such an opinion as this, held steadily without
doubt or struggle, would tend to give a man a strong sense of his own
importance. The superiority of his attitude to women, which, however,
does not appear in the Coverley Papers, is attributable partly to his
office of censor, and partly to their position at the time. This sort of
condescension appears most distinctly in his treatment of animals. He is
far more humane in his feeling for them than are the majority of his
contemporaries, but although he likes to moralize over Sir Roger's
poultry, [Footnote: _Spectator_ 120, 121.] he really looks down on
them from the elevation which a reasonable being must possess over the
creatures of instinct. Yet how does he know so certainly that instinct
is actually inferior to reason?