Abstract
The didactic intention in The Spectator papers is the reformation of manners conveyed through satirical portraits. For Addison and Steele, London is a stage where actors strut around and waste away their time in vain pursuits. What is most striking in the essays is certainly the denunciation of artifice, but the writers do not criticize merely for the sake of criticizing. Through the negative aspects of the London scene, positive perspectives are constantly suggested. The reformation of manners goes along with the restoration of man's genuine nature in a truly refined social environment. The virtues of benevolence, mutual understanding and polite intercourse among individuals must be cultivated. Such principles inspired by Christian morality lead Addison and Steele to lay the foundations of new aesthetic standards. As representatives of the Moderns versus the Ancients, they tend to reject all forms of dogmatism and to favour the supremacy of sensibility and common sense particularly in the series of essays devoted to the pleasures of imagination. Some lyrical passages dealing with the notion of grandeur foreshadow Burke's definition of the sublime and the romantic immersion in the world of emotion. Although Addison and Steele appear as precursors of the sentimental wave, they nonetheless remain beacons of the early English Enlightenment epitomized by the new concept of sentiment which combines sensibility with common sense and moderation.
Published Version
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