The Spectator. [By Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and Others] by Joseph Addison

1788 edition of the collected edition of Addison and Steele's The Spectatorĭespite a modest daily circulation of approximately 3,000 copies, The Spectator was widely read Joseph Addison estimated that each number was read by thousands of Londoners, about a tenth of the capital's population at the time. In keeping with the values of Enlightenment philosophies of their time, the authors of The Spectator promoted family, marriage, and courtesy. The Spectator sought to provide readers with topics for well-reasoned discussion, and to equip them to carry on conversations and engage in social interactions in a polite manner. 10, 'But there are none to whom this paper will be more useful than to the female world.' He recommends that readers of the paper consider it 'as a part of the tea-equipage' and set aside time to read it each morning.

Women specifically were also a target audience for The Spectator, because one of the aims of the periodical was to increase the number of women who were 'of a more elevated life and conversation.' Steele states in The Spectator, No. The journal reached an audience of thousands of people every day, because 'the Spectators was something that every middle-class household with aspirations to looking like its members took literature seriously would want to have.' He hopes it will be said he has 'brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools, and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee–houses'. Spectator states that The Spectator will aim 'to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality'. Eustace Budgell, a cousin of Addison's, and the poet John Hughes also contributed to the publication.

The paper was revived without the involvement of Steele in 1714, appearing thrice weekly for six months, and these papers when collected formed the eighth volume. Each 'paper', or 'number', was approximately 2,500 words long, and the original run consisted of 555 numbers, beginning on 1 March 1711. The Spectator was a daily publication founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England, lasting from 1711 to 1712.

The Spectator. [By Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and Others] by Joseph Addison