the observance of Sunday on account of its social influences rather than
for its religious meaning; [Footnote: _Spectator_ 112.] Swift's
famous Argument against the Abolition of Christianity is only a
satirical exaggeration of this position. The virtues commended in the
_Spectator_ are those which make for the well-being of society--
good sense and dignity, moderation and a sense of fitness, kindness and
generosity. They are to be practised with an eye to their consequences;
even virtues must not be allowed to run wild. Modesty is in itself a
commendable quality, but in Captain Sentry it becomes a fault, because
it interferes with his advancement. [Footnote: _Spectator_ 2.] The
great function of goodness is to promote happiness; when it ceases to do
this it ceases to be goodness.

But the greatest hindrance that an enthusiastic temperament would have
presented to Addison's work is that it would have spoilt his method. His
aim he declared roundly to be 'the advancement of the public weal',
[Footnote: _Spectator_ 1.] but he did not prosecute it in the usual
way. 'A man,' he says, 'may be learned without talking sentences.'
[Footnote: _Spectator_ 4.] He saw much evil, and he laughed at it.
He has tried, he tells us, to 'make nothing ridiculous that is not in
some measure criminal'; [Footnote: _Spectator_ 445.] an enthusiast
could never have met crime with laughter, unless with the corrosive
laughter of a Swift. Addison's humour is perfectly frank and humane;
himself a Whig, he has given us a picture of the Tory Sir Roger which
has been compared to the portrait of our friend Mr. Pickwick. Sir Roger
put to silence and confusion by the perversity of the widow and her
confidant, [Footnote: _Spectator_ 113.] congratulating himself on
having been called 'the tamest and most humane of all the brutes in the
country', [Footnote: _Spectator_ 113.] seeking to be reassured that
no trace of his likeness showed through the whiskers of the Saracen's