The Spectator Introduces Himself

Joseph Addison

Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat.

I have observed that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural to a reader, I design this paper and my next as prefatory discourses to my following writings, and shall give some account in them of the several persons that are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling, digesting, and correcting will fall to my share, I must do myself the justice to open the work with my own history.

I was born to a small hereditary estate, which, according to the tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror’s time that it is at present,and has been delivered down from father to son whole and entire,without the loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, during the space of six hundred years. There runs a story in the family, that when my mother was gone with child of me about three months, she dreamt that she was brought to bed of a judge. Whether this might proceed from a lawsuit which was then depending in the family, or my father’s being a justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighbourhood put upon it. The gravity of my behaviour at my very first appearance in the world, and all the time that I sucked, seemed to favour my mother’s dream; for, as she had often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was two months old, and would not make use of my coral till they had taken away the bells from it.

As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I shall pass it over in silence. I find that, during my nonage, I had the reputation of a very sullen youth, but was always a favourite of my schoolmaster, who used to say that my parts were solid and would wear well. I had not been long at the university before I distinguished myself by a most profound silence; for during the space of eight years, excepting in the public exercises of the college, I scarce uttered the quantity of a hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was in this learned body, I applied myself with so much diligence to my studies that there are very few celebrated books, either in the learned or the modern tongues, which I am not acquainted with.

Upon the death of my father，I was resolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the university, with the character of an odd，unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would but show it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the countries of Europe, in which there was anything new or strange to be seen; nay, to such a degree was my curiosity raised,that having read the controversies of some great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo on purpose to take the measure of a pyramid; and as soon as I had set myself right in that particular, returned to my native country with great satisfaction.

I have passed my latter years in this city, where I am frequently seen in most public places, though there are not above half a dozen of my select friends that know me; of whom my next paper shall give a more particular account. There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my appearance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of politicians at Will’s and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child’s; and while I seem attentive to nothing but the Postman, overhear the conversation of every table in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James’s Cofee-house, and sometimes join the little committee of politics in the inner room, as one who comes there to hear and improve. My face is likewise very well known at the Grecian, the Cocoa Tree, and in the theatres both of Drury Lane and the Haymarket. I have been taken for a merchant upon the Exchange for above these ten years,and sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly of stock-jobbers at Jonathan’s. In short, wherever I see a cluster of people, I always mix with them, though I never open my lips but in my own club.

Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species; by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical part in life. I am very well versed in the theory of a husband, or a father, and can discern the errors in the economy,business, and diversion of others better than those who are engaged in them; as standers-by discover blots, which are apt to escape those who are in the game. I never espoused any party with violence, and am resolved to observe an exact neutrality between the Whigs and Tories, unless I shall be forced to declare myself by the hostilities of either side. In short, I have acted in all the parts of my life as a looker on, which is the character I intend to preserve in this paper.

I have given the reader just so much of my history and character as to let him see I am not altogether unqualified for the business I have undertaken. As for other particulars in my life and adventures,I shall insert them in following papers, as I shall see occasion. In the meantime, when I consider how much I have seen, read, and heard, I begin to blame my own taciturnity; and since I have neither time nor inclination to communicate the fullness of my heart in speech, I am resolved to do it in writing, and to print myself out, if possible, before I die. I have been often told by my friends that it is pity so many useful discoveries which I have made should be in the possession of a silent man. For this reason, therefore, I shall publish a sheetful of thoughts every morning for the benefit of my contemporaries; and if I can any way contribute to the diversion or improvement of the country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the secret satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain.

There are three very material points which I have not spoken to in this paper, and which, for several important reasons,I must keep to myself, at least for some time: I mean, an account of my name, my age, and my lodgings. I must confess I would gratify my reader in anything that is reasonable; but as for these three particulars, though I am sensible they might tend very much to the embellishment of my paper, I cannot yet come to a resolution of communicating them to the public. They would indeed draw me out of that obscurity which I have enjoyed for many years, and expose me in public places to several salutes and civilities, which have been always very disagreeable to me; for the greatest pain I can sufer is the being talked to and being stared at. It is for this reason likewise that I keep my complexion and dress as very great secrets; though it is not impossible but I may make discoveries of both in the progress of the work I have undertaken.

After having been thus particular upon myself, I shall in to morrow’s paper give an account of those gentlemen who are concerned with me in this work, for, as I have before intimated, a plan of it is laid and concerted (as all other matters of importance are) in a club. However, as my friends have engaged me to stand in the front, those who have a mind to correspond with me may direct their letters to the Spectator, at Mr. Buckley’s in Little Britain. For I must further acquaint the reader that though our club meets only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have appointed a committee to sit every night for the inspection of all such papers as may contribute to the advancement of the public weal.

Notes

This essay, being the opening paper of the Spectator (March 1, 1711), is Addison’s humourous portrait of himself.

Motto, from Horace, Ars Poetica, 143—144:

‘One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke;

Another out of smoke brings glorious light,

And (without raising expectation high)

Surprises us with dazzling miracles.’—Roscommon.

a black or a fair man, a man of dark or fair complexion.

William the Conqueror, William I, of Normandy, King of England, 1066—1087.

coral, a kind of teething ring, made of coral or similar material and fitted with bells.

controversies of some great men, an allusion to Pyramidographia, or a Discourse of the Pyramids of Egypt (1646), by the Persian scholar John Greaves (1602—1652), who visited Egypt and measured the pyramids with mathematical instruments.

Grand Cairo, the capital of modern Egypt, on the right bank of the Nile.

Will’s etc. The first coffee-house in London is said to have opened in 1652. By 1708 it is estimated in a pamphlet that the number was then 3000, each catering more or less to particular professions and classes of patrons. There were a score or more, especially well-known as rendezvous of the more influential of various classes: Will’s and Button for the literary men; Jonathan, Lloyd’s, and Garraway’s for commercial people; the Chocolate (or Cocoa Tree) and St. James for the Tories and Whigs respectively; Child’s for ecclesiastics and other professional men; the Grecian for lawyers and soldiers; and Giles’s and the Rainbow for the exiled French Protestants.

Postman, a favourite newspaper, published three times a week, it had some reputation for its foreign news and correspondence.

politics, politicians (archaic).

Drury Lane, one of the popular theatres of the day. It was established in the reign of James I, and was rebuilt several times in the 17th century.In 1715 Steele was appointed its supervisor.

Haymarket, so called from the Hay Market there. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket (called also Opera House), was the first opera house in London.

the Exchange. The Royal Exchange, London, was founded by Sir T.Gresham in 1566 and opened by Queen Elizabeth. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Its successor, the second Royal Exchange, to which Addison here referred, was likewise burnt in 1838.

Jonathan’s. The London Stock, for the sale and purchase of securities,was originally conducted at Jonathan’s Cofee-house.

I Never open my lips, a humourous exaggeration. Addison could shine in a small circle of friends, but (says Pope) ‘with any mixture of strangers,and sometimes only with one, he seemed to preserve his dignity much,with a stif sort of silence.’

blots, exposed cards in backgammon.

Whigs and Tories, two great political parties in England that became prominent after 1689. In the years of the Tatler and the Spectator, the two parties, ‘loud, restless, and violent, each with plausible declarations, and each perhaps without any distinct termination of its views, were agitating the nation.’(Johnson)

There are three very material points which I have not spoken to. In parliamentary language, one speaks to a question, resolution, or subject under discussion.

letters to the Spectator. The letters of correspondents became a feature of the Spectator. They were collected and published, together with letters which had appeared in the Tatler, in two volumes in 1725.

Mr. Buckley’s. At the end of the original sheets of the Spectator, one reads:‘London; Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin, in Little Britain.’

Little Britain, a short street in the centre of London, a favourite mart for booksellers. It was so called because it was formerly the residence of the Duke of Brittany. Washington Irving gives an interesting account of it in his Sketch Book.

【作品简介】

本文是《旁观者》的开篇首卷（1711年3月1日），是艾迪生幽默的自我写照。

篇首格言出自贺拉斯的《诗艺》，罗斯康芒伯爵将其译成英文，参见第19页注解，中文大意为：这不是从闪光中产生的烟雾，而是从烟雾中放射出来的光芒，由此便产生了耀眼的奇迹。

【作品解析】

a black or a fair man：一个肤色黝黑或白皙的人。

William the Conqueror：征服者威廉一世，诺曼王朝的英国国王（1066—1087年在位）。

coral：一种磨牙环，由珊瑚或类似材料制成，并配有铃铛。

controversies of some great men：这里是指英国波斯学者约翰·格里夫斯（1602—1652）于1646年发表的《金字塔学，埃及的金字塔论考》，他曾访问埃及并用数学仪器测量了金字塔。

Grand Cairo：现代埃及首都，坐落在尼罗河右岸。

Will’s etc.：据说伦敦第一家咖啡馆于1652年开张。据一本小册子估计，到了1708年，咖啡馆已达3000家，每个咖啡馆都有其服务范围，为某些特定的职业和特定阶层的顾客服务。其中有二三十家咖啡馆作为各个阶层中较有影响力的人士出入的聚会场所而特别出名：为文人服务的是威尔斯和巴顿咖啡馆，为商业人士服务的是乔纳森、劳埃德和嘉利伟咖啡馆，为托利党和辉格党人士服务的是巧克力（或称可可树）和圣詹姆斯咖啡馆，为教会和其他专业人士服务的是查尔德斯咖啡馆，为律师和士兵服务的是希腊人俱乐部，为流亡法国的新教徒服务的是贾尔斯和彩虹咖啡馆。

Postman：《邮差报》是一份受欢迎的报纸，每周出版三次，它在国外新闻和通讯方面享有一定的声誉。

politics：政客（古义）。

Drury Lane：德鲁里街剧院，英国伦敦皇家歌剧院，是当时最受欢迎的剧院之一。建立于詹姆士一世统治时期，17世纪几经重建。1715年，斯梯尔出任该剧院经理。

Haymarket：海马基特剧院，以那里的干草市场命名。也称女王陛下剧院，是伦敦第一家歌剧院。

the Exchange：伦敦皇家交易所由托马斯·格雷欣爵士始建于1566年，由伊丽莎白女王开办。交易所在1666年的大火中被摧毁。艾迪生在这里提到的是交易所的后继者，第二个皇家交易所，也于1838年被烧毁。

Jonathan’s：伦敦证券交易所，出售和购买证券的地方。伦敦证券交易最初是在乔纳森咖啡馆里进行的。

I Never open my lips：这是一种幽默的夸张。艾迪生可以在一小群朋友圈中大放光彩，然而诗人蒲柏则说“一旦他发现人群中有陌生人，有时哪怕只有一个，他似乎就会用一种沉默来保持他的尊严”。

blots：十五子棋中暴露的棋子。

Whigs and Tories：辉格党和托利党，英国两大政党，在1689年后迅速壮大。在《闲话报》和《旁观者》的年代里，这两党“互相争吵，没有休止，甚至动用暴力；每个政党都有自己似是而非的声明，用以鼓动这个国家，然而每个政党却都没有明确的最终目的”（约翰逊）。

There are three very material points which I have not spoken to：议会用语中，人们对提议中的疑问、解决方法和主题进行阐述。

letters to the Spectator：信件来往是《旁观者》的一大特色。这些信件后来收集整理成册，并与《闲话报》的信件一起于1725年出版，共两大卷。

Mr. Buckley’s：《旁观者》原稿结尾时写着：“伦敦，小不列颠街，海豚印刷厂山姆·巴克利先生。”

Little Britain：伦敦市中心的一条短街，是书商最喜爱的集市。之所以称为小不列颠，是因为以前是布列塔尼公爵的住所。在《素描》中，华盛顿·欧文对这条街做了有趣的叙述。