The periodical essay had its birth and death in the eighteenth century. It was born with The Tatler in the beginning of the century (1709)and breathed its last ( about 1800 ) after remaining in the throes of death in the years following the French Revolution (1789). The reason for its popularity in the eighteenth century is to be sought in the rapport which it had with the genius of the century.

The eighteenth century, especially it s earlier phase, its kmown in the social history of England for the rise of the middle classes. Consequently the writers of the age like Swift, Defoe, Addison, Pope, and Steele-addressed themselves not to a particular group of readers, but all society in general. The periodical essay was particularly suited to the genius of these new patrons of literature. It was the literature of the bourgeoisie. It gave them what they wanted. It gave them pleasure as well as instruction, the age of parliamentary democracy had then recently dawned and the novel and the periodical essay became the literary embodiments of its spirit.

The periodical essay was a delicate and sensitive synthesis of literature and journalism. It was neither too “literary” to be comprehended and appreciated by the common people nor too jornalistic to meet the fate of ephemeral writings. It could be read, appreciated, and discussed at the tea-table or in the coffee-house. Its lightness and brevity were its two major popularising features. A periodical essay, normally, covered not more than the two sides of a folio half-sheet; quite often it was even shorter.

The main reason lies in the fact that its suited their moral temper. The periodical essayists, particularly Steele and Addison struck a delicate and rational balance between the strait-jacketed morality of the Puritan and the reckless Bohemiamism of the Cavalier. The man in the street in the early eighteenth century spumed both the unthinking epicurism of the Cavalier and the rigid asseticism of the Puritan. Some via media, after the demand of common sense and reason, was being sought after. It was for the periodical essayist, particularly Addison and Steele, to effect a synthesis between these two mutually militating views of life

The doses of morality, philosophy, and religion administered by the religion administered by the periodical essayists to their readers were fairly dilute, in keeping with their constitution. They instinctively felt that women could do a lot in setting the tone of society. Most periodical essayist followed the lead of Addison and Steele in writing many of their essays about and for women. “It became,” says Mrs. Jane H. Jack, “an important part of the Tatler and Spectator ‘platform’ to stress that the authors were writing for women as well as men and to emphasize that women must play a large part in the civilizing which they were striving to promote

One of the reasons for the general popularity of the periodical essays was that they (with the exception of party organs), shunned religious and political controversies and kept their attention focused only on topics of general interest. Steele and Addison were the writers who with their pose or poise of neutrality set an example for their successors. The eighteenth century was a period of fierce party strife between the Whigs and Tories, and though Steele and Addison were both uncompromising Whigs, yet in their periodical essays at least they maintained a neutral attitude.

We have already referred to the phenomenol rise of the trading community in early eighteenth-century England. One reason why the periodical essay (particularly The Spectator and The Taller) made a special appeal to this community was that it showed a healthy interest in trade. Most of the traders were Whigs and most of the landed gentry and nobality, Tories. The clash between the two parties was not only political but social too. In numerous Spectators Addison ladled gowing praise to the trading community much to their gratification.