Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer

Of the relations between Steele and Addison, and the origin of Steele's “Tatler, ” which was developed afterwards into the “Spectator, ” account has already been given in the introduction to a volume of this Library, * containing essays from the “Spectator”— “Sir Roger de Coverley and the Spectator Club. ” There had been a centre of life in the “Tatler, ” designed, as Sir Roger and his friends were designed, to carry the human interest of a distinct personality through the whole series of papers. The “Tatler's” personality was Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer; as to years, just over the grand climacteric, sixty-three, mystical multiple of nine and seven; dispensing counsel from his lodgings at Shire Lane, and seeking occasional rest in the vacuity of thought proper to his club at the “Trumpet.