’Tis incredible to conceive the effect his Writings have had on the Town; How many Thousand follies they have either quite banish’d, or given a very great check to; how much Countenance they have added to Vertue and Religion; how many People they have render’d happy, by shewing them it was their own fault if they were not so; and lastly, how intirely they have convinc’d our Fops, and Young Fellows, of the value and advantages of Learning.

He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of Pedants and Fools, and discover’d the true method of making it amiable and lovely to all mankind:  In the dress he gives it, ’tis a most welcome guest at Tea-tables and Assemblies, and is relish’d and caressed by the Merchants on the Change; accordingly, there is not a Lady at Court, nor a Banker in Lumbard-Street, who is not verily perswaded, that Captain Steele is the greatest Scholar, and best Casuist, of any Man in England.

Lastly, His Writings have set all our Wits and Men of Letters upon a new way of Thinking, of which they had little or no Notion before; and tho’ we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the Beauties of the Original, I think we may venture to affirm, that every one of them Writes and Thinks much more justly than they did some time since.

The vast variety of Subjects which he has treated of in so different manners, and yet All so perfectly well, made the World believe that ’twas impossible they should all come from the same hand.  This set every one upon guessing who was the Esquires Friend, and most people at first fancied it must be Dr. Swift; but it is now no longer a Secret, that his only great and constant assistant was Mr. Addison.

This is that excellent Friend to whom Mr. Steele ow’s so much, and who refuses to have his Name set before those Pieces, which the greatest Pens in England would be Proud to own.  Indeed, they could hardly add to this Gentleman’s Reputation, whose Works in Latin and English Poetry, long since convinc’d the World, that he was the greatest Master in Europe of those Two Languages.

I am assur’d from good hands, That all the Visions, and other Tracts in that way of Writing, with a very great number of the most exquisite Pieces of Wit and Raillery throughout the Lucubrations, are intirely of this Gentleman’s Composing; which may in some Measure account for that different Genius, which appears in the Winter Papers from those of the Summer; at which time, as the EXAMINER often hinted, this Friend of Mr. Steele’s was in Ireland.

Mr. Steele confesses in his last Volume of the TATLERS, that he is oblig’d to Dr. Swift for his “Town Shower,” and the “Description of the Morn,” with some other hints received from him in Private Conversation.

I have also heard, that several of those Letters, which came as from Unknown Hands, were writ by Mr. Henly; which is an Answer to your Query, Who those Friends are, whom Mr. Steele speaks of in his last TATLER?