SOURCE: Introduction to Critical Essays from The Spectator by Joseph Addison with four Essays by Richard Steele, Clarendon Press, 1970, pp. ix-xxi.

In the essay that follows, Bond analyzes Addison's efforts in the Spectator to redefine the scope and methods of literary criticism.

The series of daily essays published by Addison and Steele in 1711-12, from the pen of ‘Mr. Spectator’, ranged in subject-matter from the follies of contemporary fashion to the more serious problems of ethics and religion. From the beginning an imaginary club was devised, with members of broadly varying interests, whose topics of conversation might presumably be drawn upon as material for the essays. Besides Mr. Spectator, who acted as secretary, the club included an old-fashioned country squire, a prosperous City merchant, a young lawyer of the Inner Temple (and frequenter of the play-houses) a soldier, an elderly beau, and a grave clergyman.

The omission of...