whom Garth dedicated “The Dispensary,” and who distinguished himself by describing Swift as “a beast for ever after the order of Melchisedec").  The Tatter, which appeared three times a week from April 12th, 1709, to January 2nd, 1711, was of course mentioned, and well-deserved tributes were paid to Steele and Addison.  Of Addison he wrote with appreciation, but briefly:  “This is that excellent friend to whom Mr. Steele owes so much, and who refuses to have his pen 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 convinced the world that he was the greatest master in Europe of those two languages.”  Of Steele, Gay wrote at greater length:  “To give you my own thoughts of this gentleman’s writings, I shall, in the first place, observe that there is a noble difference between him and all the rest of our polite and gallant authors.  The latter have endeavoured to please the age by falling in with them, and encourage them in their fashionable views and false notion of things.  It would have been a jest, some time since, for a man to have asserted that anything witty could be said in praise of a married state, or that devotion and virtue were any way necessary to the character of a fine gentleman.  Bickerstaff ventured to tell the town that they were a parcel of fops, fools and coquettes; but in such a manner as even pleased them, and made them more than half-inclined to believe that he spoke truth.  Instead of complying with the false sentiments and vicious tastes of the age—­either in morality, criticism, or good breeding—­he has boldly assured them that they were altogether in the wrong; and commanded them, with an authority which perfectly well became him, to surrender themselves to his arguments for virtue and good sense.  It is incredible to conceive the effect his writings have had on the town; how many thousand follies they have either quite banished, or given a very great check to! how much countenance they have added to virtue and religion! how many people they have rendered happy, by showing them it was their own fault if they were not so! and, lastly, how entirely they have convinced our young 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 discovered the true method of making it amicable and lovely to all mankind.  In the dress he gives it, it is a welcome guest at tea-tables and assemblies, and is relished and caressed by the merchants on the ’Change.  Accordingly there is not a lady at Court, nor a banker in Lombard Street who is not verily persuaded 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 on a new way of thinking, of which they had little or no notion before:  and, although we cannot 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.”